Have had a wonderful day. Had the 7:30am Mass and I preached about the “last Gospel” from the pre-Vatican II Mass and why it was so great and what it said to us. It is the prologue to today’s Gospel, where we hear John the Baptist preaching in fullfillment of Isaiah’s prophecy about the voice of one crying in the wilderness. The Beginning of John’s gospel was read just before we left Mass to share with us the totality of who Jesus is. He is the Word that was there at the beginning. He came to bring the light. I told them we heard just before Mass ended so we could go out to share that light. That command hasn’t changed even though we don’t say “Ite, Missa est”!
Then my wonderful cousins, Rick and Peg Jensen, who had come to the Mass and I headed to the local diner and had breakfast. Then we headed out to Gate of Heaven and visited Ann O’Connell Treadway and Dwayne Treadway. Then her brother Ed O’Connell, who was also my Godfather.
Peg and Rick had brought wreaths to place on certain graves. We also said, an Our Father, a Hail Mary, and the blessing “Eternal rest grant to them, O Lord and let perpetual light shine on them. May they and all the faithful departed through the mercy of God, rest in peace”.
Next we went to Mt. Olivet, where many of our older ancestor are buried. We went to see Rick’s maternal grandparents – Josie and Will O’Connell, his uncle, Bill and some “unknown” Hazel relatives. We went by Nellie O’Brien, her parents and her brother, Joe. Then we went to see my paternal grandparents, Maurice and Ella O’Connell. We also went to see the Lohmeyers – Peggy was Rick’s Godmother. We stopped to pray for Aunt Mamie and the Dennys. I mentioned that Nana (Ellen Lynch – our mutual great, great grandmother) is buried there also but I need to find the plot for our next visit.
Then we went to Arlington. It was so impressive. Over the last few days, volunteers have put wreaths on almost all the graves (I looked it up when I got home and that is over 90,000 graves.) We went to visit Rick’s parents, Ray and Catherine O’Connell Jensen. And Peg’s sister in Law, Hildreth, who is in the columbarium. That visit was very interesting and the symbols on the graves covered all and no religious affiliations. Then we went to Peggy’s parents, Col Frank and Katherine Brophy. They were a lovely couple and I was privledge to officiate at their funerals. It was another privledge to pray at their grave today.
In a conversation, I mentioned that I had officiated at a very sad burial at Arlington in 2008. Ryan Patrick Baumann, at whose wedding I was to officiate in January 2009 was killed by an IUD in Afaganistan in August 2008. I didn’t remember where his grave was but Peggy went on her something berry and found where his grave was. We went to visit. It was one of 90,000 that had recieved a wreath but we said our prayers and it was so good to be with Ryan again.
Then we headed over to Clyde’s and had a little lunch and just talked. They dropped me off at Blessed Sacrament and I had the 5:30pm Mass. It was very nice and packed! I think the homily still worked. Joan, our office manager was at the Mass and so I asked her to ride with me down to the Kennedy Center and she picked up the tickets I had ordered for Pat Berry (who is coming at Christmas to visit), his brother Bill and his wife, Kate (all part of the cruise group), Joan Beall and Betty Neary – and as of today, Rick and Peg and me. We are all going to the center on December 28th at see “Anne”. It is a one woman show about Anne Richardson (I think). She was governor of Texas and very colorful. The lady portraying her is Something Taylor, who plays the mother in Two and a Half Men. I saw her last night on Arch Campbell and she was delightful. I’m sure we’ll all love the show.
Before we could leave for the center, some strange lady came to the office window and knocked. It was Maggie and JoAnn. They were returning from a party and were dropping off some ornaments for me. We had a nice visit but I threw them out so Joan and I could head out to the JFK center.
We got the tickets and then I dropped Joan at her house and headed home. And now I am heading to bed. I think we have school confessions in the morning. I think I have the 11:00am Mass so I am turning in