What Paddy Shot At

I just finished the 8:00am Mass. I told them this feast was important to me because I learned a good lesson from it.
I explained how on Dec 14th of 1972, – it was my first year as a priest – that although we had snow and wind, I went over to the church for the 6:30am Mass.There were two women there. One was the housekeeper from the rectory, Mrs. Dolan and the other was the mother of 11 who had trudged through the snow to come to Mass.
After Mass, I congratulated her for making the effort as the housekeeper and I, who lived next door, weren’t that interested in coming out into the cold. She said, “Oh, I just love St. John of the Cross. I was hoping to hear some words of encouragement about him. Oh! your homily was nice and I’m sure I got something out of it. ”

Since I had preached on the readings for the third Tuesday of Advent, I felt very badly. I have never allowed a Dec 14th to go by without choosing the reading of St. John and preaching on him. See you all help to make us better priests.

I also prayed at Mass for Catherine Doherty, who founded Friendship House and Madonna House. It is the 26th anniversary of her death. I remembered all the members of the apostolate who are scattered all around the world. There is a house here in DC that has been a great source of support for me over the years. I haven’t seen them lately, so I will call them later today.

Today, the lady who cleans the church saw me before Mass and said how messy the church was because she couldn’t clean it yesterday because of the children’s confessions and a funeral, did I think we could move the 8:00am Mass to the chapel. I said, Oh sure. So we did! When Mass was through, Joan, who is our receptionist, said, “Who moved the Mass to the chapel?” It seems that a group of women were scheduled to meet and pray there.
And that is why I don’t want to be a pastor and make decisions. I have been very careful till now, as a “senior priest” to avoid all decision making. And I won’t make that mistake again!

I think I shall spend the rest of the day, like St. John of the Cross, locked away in meditation.

I presided at the 8:00am Mass and there was a good crowd there.  The first reading was about Balaam, who was an unwilling prophet of the old Testament. I remember – but did not share in my homily, that one of the professors in the seminary when you gave a correct answer would say, “Even Balaam’s ass could give praise to God”.  We all looked at him and finally someone had the courage to ask what that meant. He told us that God called Balaam to be his prophet and go and speak to the Israelites but Balaam didn’t want to speak to them, so he headed out of town on his donkey. At one point in the road, the donkey stopped and would not go forward. Balaam got off and tried to pull him and even beat with a stick. Finally the donkey spoke. He said, “Don’t you see that angel of the Lord standing in front of us with that sword. He doesn’t want to let us pass.” Then Balaam understood and turned around and went to preach. The professor’s point was that God can use anything – even a donkey – to teach us a truth, just as one of us had just made a statement that was profound and even God inspired and that just shows that God can us anything even us jackasses. I love that story and think of it so often when I am preparing a homily and it gives me confidence in The Spirit that it can use anything even me.

Heard confessions for the 8th, 7th, 6th, and 5th graders today. It was so much fun and a number of my students from last year came to me and it was great to see them.

This evening I went to the MacLennan family for dinner. I had Kate come to me last year for First Penance and I had gone to their back yard last May for her First Communion party.  We’d been trying to have dinner together for s few months and we finally found a night convenient for everyone. The Mom and Dad, (Jen & Darren) and the children, Lindsay, who is in 5th grade, Kate, who is in 3rd grade, and Collin, who is in Kindergarten were just so delightful. We sat and talked and I got Kate to play piano for me and the others told me about all the activities they are into. They entertained me by having Elvis, whom I had met as a puppy, danced for us. It was quite a sight. I don’t know if good families realize what a gift they are to their priest and how much seeing the faith and love that exist there brings us joy. Blessed Sacrament is filled with such loving and involved families in the school and church. May God keep them all safe.

 Had to work on my homily as tomorrow is the feast of St. John of the Cross.

I have the 8:00am Mass tomorrow and so I am off to bed.

Yes, I wore Rose today but I stressed it wasn’t pink, although I am secure enough in my masculinity to wear pink but this is Rose.

In my homily at the 10:30am Mass in church and the 5:30pm tonight, I talked about Joy. It seems to be a quality of life that a lot of people are missing. I don’t imagine that John the Baaptist was full of joy in that prison from which he sent word to ask Jesus if he was the Messiah who would overthrow the Romans and restore the Kingdom of David. Jesus gave such a clear answer, “Tell John, what you see. The blind have sight, the deaf can hear, and the poor have the Good News preached to them” He was saying I am the Messiah, but I am the “suffering servant” of Isaiah. So, John had to rethink his notion of Messiah. Sometimes we have to do that. If Jesus has inaugerated a Kingdom of peace and joy, then we must live in such a manner of joy that people will come to know that the Kingdom has come and all its members live like Jesus – out of the abundance of love.
We didn’t have anything special for Our Lady except for his picture and lots of flowers and candles. After Communion, I stood before her imagine and asked her to bless all the peoples of the Americas.

After Mass, some people asked for confession and I was able to do that, which is almost my favorite sacrament. Tomorrow, we will hear confessions for Blessed Sacrament School.

Beside the Masses, I went on Amazon and wrote two reviews of books, Swampoodle and Mightly and Sweetly, a biography of Mother Josephine, who began the Sisters of St. Joseph of Hartford.

I also stopped over and saw Jim & Sandy Vidas, Deacon John & Marge Locke, and Jane and Robert Jackson, all of whom were in a Teams of Our Lady group that I was chaplain for when I was last assigned uptown. We had a great visit and a chance to “catch up”.

Fr. Jim and I just switched Masses for tomorrow. He has a funeral at 11, so I will take the 8:00am, so I am off to bed early as I will rise early.

I just learned an important lesson, you MUST save anything you write before you go away to see if you can edit things. I had written a bit and then I wanted to see how I could put something in Italics, so I went away and when I came back, my message was gone. Best way to learn!!

So I repeat:
I was scheduled for the 11am Mass today but Fr. Jim was asked to do a memorial Mass for a lady from Bolivia and so I didn’t have Mass today.
Instead I went to the American Diner a few blocks away and met with Paul Belford, who is the author of two great novels I read recently (under the nom de plume of PD St. Claire). They are Swampoodle and St. Patrick’s Day (notice they are not in Italics!!). They are set in an area of Washington, where many of the poor Irish settled when they came to DC. The parishes are St. Dominic and St. Aloysius, where my grandparents grew up. The second is set here in Blessed Sacrament, where I am living now. It starts in Baltimore in St. Peter’s parish, Hollins Ave, where Fr. Mike Roach was pastor and where Jean Pizza, the mother in law of my nephew Rick Walburn, grew up. Small world!

I had enjoyed and cried a bit as I read the books and I was looking forward to meeting Paul. We had a great time and a fascinating conversation. He is not from DC but is from an Irish Catholic clan in the New York City area. I had found so much of my own experience of my older relatives in the books and our visit answered some of the questions I had. He did extensive interviews with Washingtonians and has a real feel for their family and community experiences. He told me about another book that will complete the trilogy and I know I shall enjoy it. I hope to meet him again and he gave me another book, that I know I shall enjoy because in the beginning he explains how his son attended a Jesuit High School and that they had a “junior retreat” program that was very similar to the one we had at Good Counsel. He wrote that he was asked to write his son a letter and say the things parents often neglect to tell their teenagers because they are busy trying to make them grow up. Because he is a good writer, Paul describes well how difficult but important it is for parents to tell their children how much they love them. It reminded me of so many times during the retreats at GC, when those letters have such a profound influence on the students. I’ve only read part of chapter one, but got teary and put it down for later.

I am reminded of one of the best courses I took at St. Vincent’s College, taught by the president. It was a Shakespeare course and Fr. Maynard introduced us to the concept of “economy of language”. That is when a real good author can say in a sentence, what most of us would take a paragraph to convey. I love that and always enjoy reading something that an author has demonstrated that quality. Never having mastered that myself; as I usually take ten minutes to tell something that should take two minutes, I do so admire that in another.

I came back to my office and “straightened up” and then I have spent the rest of today, here in my rooms at the rectory. I went through my closet and put into a suitcase a lot of clothes I will never use or fit into again and will take them out tomorrow to a box near Gate of Heaven cemetery that collects clothes and shoes for those in need. I sat on the floor and folded things as I put them in. I have two suitcases and will get some help getting them downstairs and into the car. I really am in a Christmas mood.

Then I worked on my homily for tomorrow’s Masses. I have the 10:30 in the church and the 5:30pm. I don’t remember if we have rose vestments for Joy Sunday but I will be able to encourage people to get ready for Christmas by celebrating the sacrament of reconciliation sometime soon. Also I think on Monday, we will do that for the school children, which is always a joy.
As I write this, I have just finished evening prayer, so I wish you a joyful Vigil of Gaudete Sunday.

The dinner last night was very enjoyable. I think all the people who came – many with spouses – were pleasantly surprised by how “normal” we four priests were. Fr. Tesfaye, who is our resident from Ethiopia and a student at Catholic University, was also there. Fr. John gave a short welcome and then we sat down to a delicious meal that Humberto prepared for us. I sat nixt to a semi-retired doctor, who like me grew up in the pre-Vatican II church and had lots of questions. I think we are going to get together again and talk some more. It was interesting to hear people’s journey and a bit embarassing to hear about how some priests treated them. So often, it just seemed to be miscommunication rather than hostility but it still hurts. Landings has been going on for about 10 years and has healed a lot of people. Keep its team in your prayers.

Fr. Jerrry Trancone and I are going out to lunch with Glenn Rosenberger for Christmas. The Rosenbergers lived two houses down from me on 62nd Ave. and have I have been an “add on” family member for years. Mrs, whom we all called “Mother” and whom we miss terribly, died early this year. We, (Jerry and I) use to visit and so we want to continue the custom.

I just got off the phone from ordering some Christmas ornaments from the White House Historical Society. For the last few years, I gave them out as Christmas gifts to my family and some friends. They are always beautiful and this year is no exception. I guess I am getting into a little bit of the Christmas spirit. I have so enjoyed the “quietness” of Advent.

I began this early in the morning and kept it as a draft but it is now 4:30pm and I have returned to the office.

Before I headed out to lunch, I found out that the first grade puts on a oratorio called, “The Grumpy Sheepherd” with 60 first graders. It was delightful and the kids are real troopers. They sing out and do all the gestures (almost together). It is a tradition here but I must have missed it last year, so I’m glad I got over to the hall this morning.

Jerry and I drove out to pick up Father R at his house. I got lost because I tried a different way. I called my friend, Jeff at OnStar and he got us there. We went to Olive Garden and had a lovely meal. We caught up on all the news and then Mary, the youngest of the children, stopped by to join us for desert. It was good to see her and be updated on her family. I told her she was too young to be a grandmother but she is! Father R will be 89 in January and he looks so fit. He’s lost some weight since Mother R died but he says he eats well. I know we all did today!  Also saw Fr. Mike Wilson, pator of St. Mary’s in Laurel and we had a few laughs together.

I called Jerry Hudder, a friend from my days in Bogata, Columbia who lives out in Arkansas. He’s had some health problems but tells me he is doing well. I also heard from Patricia Sinclair Langlois that her husband Jean is home from the hospital and rehab where he has been since the Spring. Such good news. They live in Oklahoma and Pat and I went to St. Bernard’s together.

While I was out today, I decided to go to confession. I miss Father Peter especially at this time of the year because he would always call and remind with a serious deep voice message on my answering machine, “Haven’t heard from you lately!!!” and I would call and make an appointment. I have been preaching about the sacrament at lot lately, so I thought I’d take my own advice. It was great and now I know I am really entering into Advent.

When I got home, I found a nice email from John and Louise Lynch, who are old friends from GC and St. Catherine Laboure. They live now in Leisure World and I had written to ask them about some geanological information. I have been playing with my family tree for years and now that I am on Ancestry.com I am really getting into it and even scanning old picture. It makes the time go by!

And so now I’m off to supper and early to bed as I am meeting an author for coffee (hot chocolate) at nine am.

I had the 11am Mass today and in the gospel it said, “while John the Baptist was the greatet man born of woman, the least in the Kingdom is greater than he.” or something like that. I spoke about Juan Diego, the simplest man (in the best sense of the word”) in the New World. A convert whose faith was not intellectual but human and his love for the Mother of God so great that he would find the courage to approach a bishop and bring her message to him. Wouldn’t we all like to have such simple and deep faith? I know I would and I pray daily to only seek God’s will and plan. Our altar has a lovely picture of Our Lady that was placed there for yesterday’s Mass and each day, more flowers or candles show up as we approach the feast of Guadeloupe.

I did spend most of the day trying to make choices and clean up this desk. It looks a little better. I also phoned my sister, Maureen and had a good talk with her and Rick.

Tonight we are having a special dinner at the rectory. It is for a group called “Landings”, they are people who have felt alienated from the church and accepted an invitation to meet witha wonderful couple, the Vittone’s (whose sons were at GC, when I was there) and seek some reconcilation and peace. I hear their discussions are great and tonight they will join us for dinner to see if there are willing to give Blessed Sacrament parish a chance. Please keep them (about 10) and us in your prayers.

I slept in today as I have the evening Mass. It is very cold and I just didn’t want to get out of my nice warm bed. I didn’t go over to the office till around 10.

I tried to clean my desk but am over whelmed and just don’t know where to start, so I spent much of today playing spider solitaire.  I did have to go up at 3pm and expose the Blessed Sacrament for adoration and at 5pm I went up again, did benediction, and reposed the Blessed Sacrament. I also presided at the 5:30pm Mass. It was a special Mass in that it is called the Raposa Mass. It was a custom in Germany and many of the Eastern European countries that on certain days of the week during Advent, a Mass would be offered before Dawn by candlelight in honor our Lady who was to bring forth to our dark world, the Light of Christ.  So our sanctuary was lit only by candles all around the place. I think there were some light in the body of the church, so people wouldn’t trip but it was very peaceful and reflective. Many of the choir members came and sang the Goria in Latin, which many of us could join in. I think it was the one we use to sing in the seminary. There must have been about 250 there and there was a picture of Our Lady of Guadeloupe surrounded by candles that we incensed during the offertory as the Ave Maria was sung. I think it was a warm and prayerful experience before we had to return to the darkness, the wind, and the cold outside.  I really enjoyed it. Salve, Salve Regina.

This is kind of a p.s. to yesterday’s message. Just before I went on the altar for the 5:30pm Mass, Fr. Jim said there were two ladies who were in the second pew and asked if he or I could give one of them the Sacrament of the Sick. They were planning to come to Mass, so he suggested to them that I could do it after Mass. The reading at Mass were about making the road straight and how the tops of mountains would be chopped off and used to fill in the valleys. In my homily, I talked about my first trip to the Holy Land and how it took us 2 and a half hours to drive from Jerusalem to Jericho. After a whole day of the Dead Sea, Cumram, Massada, and the Jordan River we returned to Jericho for dinner. It was just getting dark, when our tour guide said it was time to head back to Jerusalem. I remember dreading the long ride and was really just getting settled into the bus to try to take a nap, when he announced we were home. And there before us was the city of Jerusalem. He said to us, “We took the old road that ran between Jerusalem and Jericho in the time of Jesus this morning but tonight we took the new super highway that was built a few years ago. I thought it would be an audio visual for you of the words of Isaiah about the valleys being filled and the mountains laid low”. Well I was I never hear that reading that I don’t remember how happy I was that the Lord’s Highway was there. After Mass I went and anointed the one lady, whose name was Mary and spoke afterwards with she and her sister. It turned out that Mary is undergoing treatment for cancer and had an appointment on Wednesday of this week. She felt that the Sacrament gave her peace and I said “Yes, it does that”. Then she told how much she enjoyed my homily because she just completed twenty years of working in the Holy Land and it reminded her of her own experiences of the Scriptures coming to life in her travels. Holy Good is the Good God!

As I write this it is Tuesday evening. I have had another wonderful day.

I went to StoneRidge School to preach and to hear confessions for the middle school students. My friend, Pat is campus minister and invited me. Who do I meet at the front door but Sally Foley, an old friend of mine and the housemate of Pat Davis, who was the art teacher at Good Counsel. I didn’t know that both of them were teachers there. I couldn’t visit today but I hope to see them again soon. We had a very nice penance service and then myself and two other priest from the neighborhood were available for individual confessions for about two hours.

I arrived home and was able to go to the 5th graders’ “Lessons & Song” concert in the church. They were great and used the theme of the Jesse Tree to sing and play instruments for us. It really put me in an Advent mood. Then I took a nap.

At 4:10 myself and five other priests were in the church to celebrate reconciliation with the students of the School of Religion. Again, it was such a pleasant experience to talk with these young people about their deepening relationship with God and how it effects their relationships with others.

At 5:15, I had benediction in the chapel to repose the Blessed Sacrament, which had been exposed in our chapel today from 3pm. I thought we might have Mass in the chapel because all day long both in my prayers in my brevary and in preparation of my homily I was thinking of St. Ambrose, the tremendously important bishop of Milan who converted Augustine. Just as I was suggesting that we have 5:30 Mass in the chapel, the organist came in to the sacristy and reminded me that our Mass was to be the Vigil of the Feast of the Immaculate Conception. We would music, the Gloria, and the Creed and different readings. Fortunatly, I had just been to the students concert on the Jesse tree and so I was able to change my homily to how that promise was fulfilled by the Virgin Mary’s “Yes”. I think it worked

So, not only do I wish a happy feast day to Fr. Kevin Kennedy and all the parishioners of St. Ambrose parish in Cheverly but also I wish you a happy Vigil of the Immaculate Conception, the patronal feast of our country.

A few weeks ago, a kind lady spoke to me after Mass to tell me how much she was distracted by my looks at Mass because she kept thinking of Santa. So I told her to think of me as St. Nicholas, as in my previous parishes, I use to dress up like him and give out chocolate coins covered in gold and ask them to do a good deed.

Last week, that lady whose name is Grace, brought me four bags of coins and said she hoped I would do that at our school.  I had decided I would try it but I wasn’t sure I’d have the energy to walk throughout the school. Last Thursday, Fr. John asked if I could come to the gym around 8:30am on Monday and be St. Nicholas.

After Mass yesterday, I went and bought some red conscrution paper  and made a miter. I just returned from my visit to the school assembled in the gym. St. Nicholas was greeted with thunderous applause and after a special prayer to God that St. Nicholas be the instrument of protecting all the children of the world from bullying, from lack of food and shelter, and from anything that could harm them. St. Nick gave coins to each teacher for their children (It just made more sense to do that). The older students went off to their classes but I put my miter on Fr. John and delegated him to take coins around the school to the older students. He just returned with enough coins left for an appearance of St. Nicholas at our senior citizen’s meeting this afternoon.

I think I’ll save this as a draft and finish it this evening.

1PM. I just returned from our senior citizen’s group that meets every Monday at our center. St. Nicholas made an appearance and told the story of the coins for the young girls and gave out to each person some chocolate gold covered coins and after a prayer for children asked them to do a good deed and/or pass the some of the coins on to grandchildren. We had the most delicious bread pudding and now before my Mass at 5:30pm, I think I’ll take a nap.

These evening Fr. John will have a special Mass for our Mothers group and Fr. Jim and I will be available for confession. I can’t think of a nicer way to end a very happy St. Nicholas Day.

I went to sleep around 11pm on Saturday and was very pleased that the way Kerri showed me (to use my cell phone as an alarm clock) worked well. I got up at 5 and drove up to DC. I was surprised by how many other people were up at that hour but the drive up was easy and I used RT 4, which becomes Pennsylvania Ave all the way to Connecticut Ave and was home in just over an hour.

I drove around the capital building, which I haven’t done for quite a while and was sorry to see that there are all kinds of roads that use to be open that are now blocked and with little gate houses. I am afraid that the terrorist have affected a change in what use to be a very nice and close car ride past our government building, lit up so majestically.

I presided at the 7:30am Mass and my homily was about the Sacrament of Reconciliation. I hope that many of our people will take advantage of that healing experience during Advent. At the close of Mass as the other ministers recessed, I stayed in the front and welcome up the children to receive a special prayer for the Feast of St. Nicholas and a small candy as a remembrance of his  feast day. About 30 children were there and each said “Thank you” as I said “Happy St. Nicholas Day” – no, I didn’t take one for myself.

Then we four priest went to the school building and celebrated the Sacrament with the students in our school of religion – grades 3 to 5. It is one of my favorite things to do and I was glad to be able to remember some of the students who had come to confession last Spring.

Then I presided at the 12:30pm Mass. Again I spoke about John the Baptist calling us to prepare for the Lord. At Offertory time, a soloist sang part of the Messiah about preparing by making the crooked road straight. It was long and after washing my hands there was still a long period where the deacon and I stood at the altar during the song. It was beautiful and the last time I remember hearing it was at the Kennedy Center and this young man was definitely as good. I said to the people, “That audio visual was to augment my homily” and we applauded him.

Again at the close of Mass, the children came up and got a blessing and some candy. At first the children were hesitant so I said, “No age limit” and as a grandfather came up for candy for his 4 grandchildren, the children came up. This was the first year we did this but I liked it.

This afternoon I went shopping for red construction paper and then I took a nap to make up for the short night I had.

Now I have just finished evening prayer and I think I’ll watch TV and then go to bed. Remember to wish all the Nicholass you know a happy Feast Day tomorrow.