I woke up in the middle of the night, at 1:24am and wondered where my miter for St. Nicholas was. I looked around and found it in my closet with my red stole. Now I was ready so I went back to bed.
This morning, I got up early around 6:30am and trimmed by beard and showered and came over to the office to get the coins ready. Then I went to the gym for morning prayer with the school children. It was nice and I dressed like St. Nicholas and told them about the coins and doing good deeds. I led them in a prayer for children. I had over 500 coins, so I gave them to the teachers to distribute at a time that was good for them and the children.
Then I came back to the office to prepare for the senior citizens (that’s when I found that I was a day late!!). I called Fr. Damian Shadwell at Holy Family parish in Hillcrest Heights and asked how many students he had. He has 280, so I drove over and gave him 300 coins. It was great to see him. We had some great times in St. Mary’s county.
One thing I did not consider was that it might take me a long time to get back around the beltway. I had to call and Joan arranged for Fr. Percy to take my 11:00am Mass since I couldn’t get back in time. I offered to take his 5:30pm but he has people coming so I am doing his exposition at 3pm.
I had lunch with the other priests and then I went to the church for the 5th grade’s presentation of songs and lessons. It was the presentation for the school community and it was very uplifting to hear the children tell the story of the Jesse family tree in song, readings, and with instruments. There were about 60 performing. I sat with the kindergarden and we loved it – especiially our last song, Felice Navidad!!
I just finished with exposition and now we are getting ready for confessions for the 4th thru 8th in CCD in the church. I will leave a basket with coins near the sanctuary and tell them to take one as they leave as a reminder of the Sacrament and the feast of St. Nicholas.
Then I’ll have supper with the priest, see Andrea about RCIA and then go up to the library for the play reading group. We are beginning to read the Last days of Judas Iscariot. It should be very interesting. I’m sure I’ll be ready for bed when I get there.
Sounds like St. Nicholas Day was better than St. Sabas Day….except for the traffic.