What Paddy Shot At

On Saturday, the 31st, almost immediately after I wrote, I recieved a phone call that a young boy (17 years of age) who has been bedridden most of his life had had a heart attack and was in Childrens’ hospital. His name is Nicholas Gallagher. Please keep him and his parents in your prayers.

Then I went to the Dominican Retreat House in Virginia. We had dinner and there were about 35 people there. I gave a conference (on the theme Be Calm, Be Still, Wait, and Trust). I think it went well. I was available for three hours for confession or to talk. At 11pm, a holy hour started (I joined in late) and I closed it with Benediction at Midnight. Then we had some refreshments. I met lots of people who knew people I knew and we had lots of laughs and stories. I went to bed around 1am.

We had Mass at 8:00am and then breakfast. I came home and had the 12:30pm Mass here at Blessed Sacrament. Peg and Rick surprised me and were at Mass and they took me to lunch. I came home around 3:30 planning to have the 5:30pm Mass. But as I wrote very quickly on Sunday, Fr. Percy offered to take that Mass and so I headed out to New Jersey and got there around 8pm rather than at midnight. I had a reservation at a Clarion Hotel and was asleep by 11pm.

On Monday, January 2nd, I got up, had breakfast and headed over to Fr. Carmen Carlone’s house. He is retired (well not really – three days a week he is at a hospital in Trenton and is the chaplain there). We have known each other since 1963 and have remained great friends since. He was to have open heart surgery on Wednesday, January 4th. As he was preparing by decorating the chapel the week before Christmas, he had a spell and they decided that he needed this surgery. It couldn’t be done robotically. They will need to break her sternum and replace a major valve. The recovery may take awhile. I just decided that I needed to drive up and see him. We visited for about three hours and recounted some of the funnier moments of our priesthood. We prayed and I left. I didn’t want to tire him out. He was going to the hospital on Tuesday and so I ask that you remember him and the medical team in your prayers on Wednesday.

I was home by dark and tried again to straighten up my rooms. I also talked by phone to Gail Douglas. Her mom, Mary died that morning. Please keep Gail and her family in your prayers as well.

This morning, January 3rd, I came and cleaned up my desk. I am going to leave in the morning and I wanted to leave my office looking presentable.
I had the 11:00am Mass. Went and got my suit from the cleaners and started packing. This evening I had dinner with Frs. Duffy and Beattie and then returned to join the play reading group. They had started last month to read the play, “The Last Days of Judas Iscariot”. It was very unusual but we had a great discussion afterwards.

And that brings us up to date.

Tomorrow I will have the 6:30am and the 8:00am Masses and then head out to Philly. I will meet John, Joe, and Terry for dinner and then go out to a hotel near Malvern. On Thursday, I will “teach” five sections of high school religion who have been using Joe and my Religion text book. One of the students is Courtney Clarke, the daughter of Michelle and Wayne Clarke and the grand daughter of Joan Clarke, Maggie’s matron of honor and a good friend. I am nervous but looking forward to it.
Then I will drive out to Pittsburgh and spend the night in a hotel. The family has arranged for me to stay Thursday, Friday, and Saturday night at the hotel and I am taking all my Christmas cards and letters to read them as I relax. Friday is the rehearsal for Kathleen Morris and Dave Havern’s wedding. Kathleen is my God child and the youngest of the four daughters of Keith and Sheila Morris, great friends for many years.

Saturday is the wedding at Sacred Heart church and the reception. Sunday, I will head back because I have the 5:30pm Mass at Blessed Sacrament and at 7:30pm I am going to the Pre-Cana class. And then I will go to bed.

I will write again on Monday to let you know how everything went.

This entry was posted on Tuesday, January 3rd, 2012 at 11:48 pm and is filed under Uncategorized. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.