Finished the book, St. Patrick’s Day with a couple of tears in my eyes. Am going to meet the author for coffee on Saturday, the 11th.
Today I had the 8:00am Mass and the intention was for Dr. Carl McCartee. A lot of his family was there and after Mass, I stopped to speak with them to see if it was the anniversary of his death. His son, Bill said, “No, it’s my birthday and a family that is close to us, had it offered for Dad”. Then I met some of his family and his two sons, who are students in our school. They were allowed to go late to school to attend the Mass. It reminded me of the wonderful days when our family would go to Mass on the anniversary of one of my grandparents death and afterwards we went to breakfast. Some of the rituals of my youth are still good!
I gave a reflection on Advent and Our Lady to the Sodality at the end of their Christmas luncheon. Just before the luncheon, the kindgarten students came over and sang for us. Bill’s son, Stephen was one of the students and he was so happy that I remembered him and was able to tell the ladies I had just met Stephen this morning. Ah, the joys of a senior priest!
I’m just returning now from a talk by Fr. Jim Greenfield, the provincial of the Oblates of St. Francis de Sales. As part of our year long celebration of the 100th anniversary of the parish, a group of parishioners has scheduled 6 gatherings that are similar to the “Theology on Tap” program, which are a series that are usually held at bars in the Washington area and invite young adults to come and hear someone speak about a particular spiritual topic. We are going to hold ours in our auditorium, which they set up with a bar, a buffet, short tables and bar high tables and chairs. There were about 70 people there – babysitting was in a room nearby. Jim was excellent and his talk was about “Why be a Catholic?”. I loved it and got a lot to reflect on for Advent and my spiritual state. He is coming again in Lent to give, with a confrere, our parish mission. I am looking forward to that.
Off to bed early although I have the 5;30pm Mass tomorrow. Maybe I’ll try to clean my desk
You do know that Theology on Tap is now RENEW’s Theology on Tap, right? Small world!!! Was this gathering for young adults or for everyone? Parish based – nice twist!