I had a wonderful time on Sunday night. In addition to my cousins, Rick and Peg Jensen; they brought their son Christopher. It was a very nice surprise but also he is so computer savy that we adults look like aliens! The three of them taught me a lot and I tried out some of it. I had almost child-like questions but they answered them all. Then we went to dinner at Clyde’s and continued a very nice get together. I went right to bed when they dropped me off.
On Monday, a very nice lady came to see me. She had been working with Fr. Jim before he left and I am going to help her with an annulment. Then I had the 11:00am Mass and joined the other priests for lunch and then took a nap. I also had the 5:30pm Mass. As I was going out of the room, the phone rang and I answered it. It was Judy and Jennifer, Gerry Hudder’s daughters. They wanted to tell me that he had died very peacefully with them on either side of him, holding his hands at 10am that morning. I prayed for them and him at the Mass. They will call me and let me know the details. I would love to go out but I can’t. He was a very good friend.
And then I drove out to RIP’S in Bowie to meet Rusty and Krista. Rusty is Jean Pizza’s grandson and he came into the church last year. He is an Anne Arundel police office and he and Krista will be married at St. Mary’s in Annapolis in August so we met to get some paperwork done.
On the way home, I called Mark Gribbin. I just got his email and phone number recently. He is living outside of Seattle and we had about a 45 talk. He was one of my officers in the Teen Club at St. Camillus. It was just so great to talk with him and “catch up”.
Maggie’s son, Mike had a procedure done yesterday up at Adventist Hospital in DC. It was suppose to be at 8 in the morning so they were there at 6am. It kept getting delayed and didn’t occur till about 5pm and then he had to stay still for 6 hours. They left the hospital around 11 and got home to Calvert County about 1am. Everything seemed to go well, so that’s what’s important. A priest’s day can be full of so much.
Tuesday: Today I came over to the office around 9am and then headed over to the Pastoral center to have a paper signed.
Then I came back to the office and got a lot of work done. I am trying to get my taxes done before I head out on the cruise. Also I had a number of phone calls to make. I had exposition at 3pm and then worked again at this desk. Had the 5:30pm Mass. There were 100 people there. It is so impressive.
I just finished meeting with Andrea, my RCIA person for our last session. I have really enjoyed meeting with her. She is the person who couldn’t come to the regular classes on Monday because of work and she came to me to make up the material. I am sorry to be missing her coming into the church at Easter. And so now I am heading to the rectory and a quiet night and early to bed.
So what is Mark Gribbin doing in Seattle??? He was such a good kid!