...joining the Church this Easter
We will have adult five baptisms, and one being recieved into the Church. Eight others will complete their initiation with First Communion and Confirmation.
Another large group of adults, 14, will be confirmed when the Bishop comes in May.
Well, the blog is up an running after the server went down for a while. I have been depressed all week, sleepless nights even after an exhausting weekend. My Province has put me in a huge quandary. Losing all health benefits and retirement, all going to lawyers and lawsuits.
Still others have greater troubles. There was a murder of a teenager this week in the city and the police and the press showed up tonight at the parish as many of his friends sought to hold a candlelight vigil. It was all a surprise to us. I was walking around the property with the facilities manager when we noticed the press in our front parking lot. One of the videos on the KTVU site even shows the reporter in front of the church.
Tomorrow is an all day meeting with the Bishop on the GIRM for all the priests of the Diocese, and then I pick up Fr. Nordenbrock from the airport for the beginning of the lenten mission.
I will be at The Retrouvaille weekend in Oakland, CA. We have 32 couples coming. I am sure they would appreciate your prayers.
It has been a few sad days in the midst of very busy lenten activities. I heard the news originally from Amy Welborn's judgemental blog and with all her quick to judge commenters. Someone in the midst of it all would actually have a better take on things and even with his past infractions I knew Fr. Mike to be a good and effective priest. I found the best expression of all this from one of the students in the thick of things. I had watched Patrick's blog every day to see what he said, and he said it better than I expected. Indeed, I expected him to be kind and generous and he outdid himself.
I worked with Fr. Mike for two years as I directed the Gregorian Chant Choir at Calvert House. Regardless of what he did 15 years ago, I believe in forgiveness and redemption. I still have the greatest respect for Fr. Mike and for all he accomplished at Calvert House.
From my experience and conversations with Fr. MIke, I found the reports difficult to believe and fathom. He has admitted the infraction and it is a serious one. Perhaps he should never been assigned to Calvert House. Perhaps it is through the providence of God that he was assigned, and like Peter who expressed three times, "Lord, you know that I love you, " Fr. Mike deserves more credit today for the outstanding good he did at Calvert rather than blame for something that was dealt with 15 years ago.
For daily Lenten Reflections click here. It is in pdf format and you need a free Adobe Reader.
What a wonderful day, full of reverence and devotion!
The crowds were enormous, but wonderful. My feet are killing me.
We had Mass at 6:45am, 9:00am, 10:30am, and the Deacons presided at Liturgies of the Word at Noon and 4:00pm. Then there were two evening masses at 6:30pm and 8:30pm. At the 6:30pm Mass the Plaza and the Driveway were filled with people who could not get into Church, so another lay minister and I stood outside in the plaza distributing ashes from the beginning of Mass to well after it ended. The people were mostly hispanic but there were a few asians and others who did not speak spanish, and I fumbled around, forgetting how to say it in English. That was a first for me.
I am tired, but will be up for the 6:45am tomorrow on my day off. Pray I get a Spanish homily done for Saturday.
Today is the Solemnity of St. Maria de Mattias, Foundress of the Adorers of the Blood of Christ.
Today is her 200th birthday.
Go to my post on my old blog on this day for more information about her..
