Taking the advice of Eileen Lee; I am typing this up on Word and when I finish, I will transfer it over to Paddy. I know this will be long, so I don’t want to lose it like I have before.
I just finished presiding at the 5:30pm Mass. I think I actually didn’t make any mistakes – which hasn’t been true this last week. The Little Sisters of the Poor are here this weekend. They are such a special group of women who do such tremendous work with the elderly. They had two of their six postulants with them. I am so happy to know that young women are still hearing the call to religious life.
Earlier today I got an email from a lady in Virginia who wanted to know what I thought about the refusal of many pastors in Arlington diocese to allow girls to serve at the altar. There was a demonstration today in front of the Bishop’s residence. He allows girl servers in the diocese; but he also allows pastors to decide in their parishes. It seems a new pastor was named and he decided not to follow the previous pastor’s policy and has not allow any new girl altar servers (those already serving are “grand-mothered” but they wear different robes than the boys). Heavenly Father, forgive us!!!!
Anyway my Mass was lovely and I told them in my homily about the time I went to Israel and the tour guide took us out to Jericho in a hot bus, through the desert and up and down hills and valleys. We spent the day at the Dead Sea and Masada and then had a wonderful dinner at Jericho. Then we got back on the bus and I was dreading the trip back. It was pitch black outside but suddenly we were back in Jerusalem. The guide told us that we went out by the old road from the time of Isaiah (and Jesus) but that we returned by the new highway that was built a year or so before. He said, “You will never hear the Advent reading again that you don’t remember this ride!” He was so right. The mountains were chopped off and the valleys filled in for the Highway of the Lord.
Today was a very busy day. At 8:15am, I drove over to St. Anselm’s Abbey to do a “teaching Mass” for the RCIA retreat. I enjoyed it but I had come over to the office at 6:30 to cut and paste the new Mass so that I didn’t have to try to find things in the new Missal. I hadn’t had much luck at Masses this week. It is the feast of St. Francis Xavier, the patron of the Xaverian brothers, who ran Good Counsel and I always think of them and pray for them on their feast day. It is also the birthday of Betty Neary, whom I remembered at Mass and tried to call on the phone but missed her.
I then had the 11:00am Funeral Mass for McCauley Howard, a parishioners who lived at Knollwood, the military retirement complex where we sometimes have Mass. He also came to daily Mass here and I had anointed him last week. It was a very large funeral with five priests and great pictures of him and his family. He was retired Navy and we closed with the Navy Hymn.Fr. Jim came back and he and I had a nice visit in my office and caught up.
Then I took a little nap before the evening Mass
That covers today
Now this is why I didn’t get a chance to write Thursday or Friday.
On Thursday, I had the 8:00am Mass, which I offered for Gail’s daughter, Linda on the anniversary of her death. Gail was ill – and actually at the emergency room – so she couldn’t come.
I also met with Beth, another RCIA person who can’t make the Monday night meetings. Then I concelebrated the 11:00am, which was for Katherine Mulally O’Boyle. She and her husband, Jim, whose anniversary was just last week, use to have we priests down for breakfast on Christmas morning and both families are great parishioners. I taught one of her grandsons. After, I headed to Maggie’s. Then, she, JoAnn, Gail (one of JoAnn’s clients) and I drove to St. Michael’s to attend the annual Senior Citizens’ Christmas dinner. It was, of course, great food but I just loved seeing and hugging so many great friends, whom I miss daily. We laughed and talked and were entertained by the choir, a home schoolers’ Nativity and Elvis (Msgr. Karl Chimiak). Then I tried to stop at a wake in Leonardtown but I was too late. Got home around 11pm and went right to bed.
On Friday, I had the 8:00am Mass and the 11:00am Mass and then I headed over to Millersville and picked up Pat Watters. She has gotten good news and is heading back to Newfoundland on Monday; so we decided to have a mini movie marathon. When I was at St. Bernard’s and she was working as a social worker, we would take a day off and go and see 4 to 6 movies with lunch and dinner breaks. We loved it!!! This time we only took two movies but still had a lunch and supper break. We saw “The Descendants”, which is about Hawaii and was beautiful! And we saw “Tower Heist”, which was clever and fun, fun, fun. I got home around 9 and was ready for bed!!
So now, you’re up to date and since I have the 12:30pm Mass tomorrow, I am not setting the alarm.
No wonder you didn’t have to time to write for a few days!!!!
Retreats are going well here in Amarillo. Last night I took my 2 co-workers to Bishop Zurek’s house to see his nativity collection. He is an artist at heart and a wonderful host!