Trip to Madison

Myself and two other adults took 6 of our "youth group teens" to visit our former pastor. I managed to meet the pastoral associate from St. Vincent as Fr. George had her come on our Women's Cornerstone retreat. With her help we were able to keep it a complete surprise and he had no clue to expect us. Samantha, one of the adults, and I were planning our own trip down to see him, and said to him in our recent e-mails hope to see you soon.

As Sam and I walked in first he wasn't too surprised, but one the 7 others came in the smile that came across his face was similar to one he has on in the above picture. I don't remember the last time I saw him smile like that, about a month after our Jubilee Mass for our 100th anniversary at which the above picture was taken, Fr. George was told he was being moved, so November, December, and January were not happy times in the parish. By a complete twist of God's insane humor Fr. George was actually coming to say the 12pm Mass at St. Anthony's, the Mass that Jerry, the other adult, and I are normally at. Fr. George laughed when I said, did you see that I took myself off the EM list for today.

To see his face go from, the classic emotion less face to a smile that couldn't be wiped off as well worth the trip down even if we knew he was coming up to us. He told us where he distributes Communion and that the 1st 4 rows for for the Communion kids, so we sat in the row right behind the Communion kids. Fr. George went to put his alb on and then came back to us. I think we honestly left him speechless and I'm pretty sure with tears in his eyes. He welcomed us as he does all who visit his parish, but we got the special greeting of "a delegation of youth from St. Anthony's." Despite focusing much of his attention on the teens and typical of myself I do the work and get no credit, it was well worth it. Fr. George is missed and most certainly will be for a while. We all commented on how strange it was to not have a deacon at Mass, our parish has 4, Fr. George's has none, and it was also strange to have a priest who chants. Fr. Martin and Fr. Brian both do not sing so in the idea of rather have it spoken than sung badly, they speak the normally chanted parts of the Eucharistic prayer.

Samantha and I happened to be walking around St. Anthony's after we got back, and happened to see our new pastor twice and he said hi girls, and Deacon Dick asked, what are you doing, as he had seen us in the Jubilee Garden and then again as we walked back. We said we were down in Madison this morning visiting the man saying Mass right now. Fr. Martin our pastor laughed and I was glad to see a smile on his face, it hasn't been an easy month for him. My goal now is to bring a smile to Fr. Martin's face. I want to finally have my "we need to talk" meeting with the pastor. With Fr. George leaving I didn't want to bother him with petty issues in the parish he was leaving, and Fr. Brian was just temporary administrator, so I waited to see the new pastor. Now I'm planning on asking/telling I'll take over running the Confirmation program and take young adult ministry from our youth minister, who just had her first child, and I'll take pro=life ministry over too, I just need a pay check. I'll gladly take a part time position so I can go to school courtesy of the Diocese of Paterson. We shall see what will happen and if I have the nerve to say anything.

I forgot to add that at the end of Mass someone turned to us and said "thanks for your pastor." We joked about it and said, yeah yeah it's not like we gave him up or wanted him to leave, you guys stole him from us, we did keep our comments to just our group. But it was nice to hear someone say thank you, I think I shall do the same for St. Ann's.

Good Friday 2009

Fr. Martin gave our temporary vicar Fr. Marek the Good Friday service. Fr. Marek gave a very nice homily, but I don't remember it. All that means is that it didn't touch me the way other homilies have and part of that is the Polish accent Fr. Marek has. In the 2 months that Fr. Marek has been at the parish we have been truly blessed to have him and Good Friday reminded me of this.

Fr. Marek is ordained at most 5 years, he was born and raised in Poland so the traditional Catholic shows. He says Mass with the utmost reverence and care. I happened to find out that he could chant when he chanted some of the prayers on Palm Sunday. In my mind since he can chant it made him the logical choice for Good Friday. Hearing Fr. Marek chant the general intercessions brought me back to the days when my family would go to the Liturgy of the Lord's Passion at our parish in the Bronx. Fr. Dervin would always do the chanting at our parish in the Bronx so it brought back some good memories.

It was nice to have the Good Friday service done simply with no extras attached to it, it helped one to focus on what really happened on Good Friday. Fr. Marek's chanting is what touched me that day, because it has been nearly 16 years since I've heard it done correctly if at all. By extras I mean our former pastor, Fr. George, and our cantor Cindy singing the intersessions or whatever they used to do. It was nice to have the simple traditional old school style service.

Our parish has been blessed to have Fr. Marek for these past few weeks, and I understand it is up to Fr. Martin whether or not Fr. Marek stays. If he stays he stays, if he goes he goes, but I'm glad I was able to meet him and get to know him. It's nice to see a young priest who is so traditional.

Holy Thursday 2009

My former pastor, Fr. George, and my current pastor, Fr. Martin, seem to be similarly minded when it comes to the Triduum. They each hand different parts of it to the vicars at the parish, both gave Fr. Brian the Mass of the Lord's Supper, Fr. George last year, and Fr. Martin this year. Much like last year Fr. Brian did not disappoint.

I have always liked Fr. Brian, and he just keeps getting better and better, I said many times I love him, and I truly do. Fr. Brian aka FB is one of the "later vocations" as in he was ordained at age 40 vs. age 25. He speaks simply and sincerely and doesn't hold back, he tells you to get your ass to Mass, not in those words but that's what he means,and he will say point blank this is what it's about, Mass is important.

It's been a few days since the homily so here's hoping the homily pointers I left myself will jog my memory. Fr. Brian started his homily by reminding us that Holy Week calls us to be holy, and that it allows us to ask what makes us holy, how can I be holy, why am I Catholic, what makes me Catholic, and how can I be Catholic. Each question can be easily answered by the Eucharist, and that's what Fr. Brian told us. He mentioned how do I stay Catholic, considering that we became Catholic at our Baptism, and I all I could think of was my Top Ten Reasons to STAY Roman Catholic t-shirt. I kept thinking is he going to mention my shirt, but he didn't he just answered all the questions with The Eucharist is what makes us Catholic and we need to live the Eucharist.

How does one live the Eucharist he asked or how does one be Catholic; by doing more than just showing up. Fr. Brian came right out and said how about you send a letter over to Fr. Jenkins at Notre Dame and tell him it's wrong to have a person speak at a Catholic college who think abortion is right. It goes against what we stand for. Fr. Brian put it much better, but the smile that came on my face as soon as he said send a letter to Fr. Jenkins had to be seen by him. If it would have been appropriate to stand up and cheer for a homily I think I would have. But Fr. Brian didn't just stop there he went on to tell us to defend marriage, true marriage between a man and a woman, and to defend traditional family life.

As I said last year the passion with which he speaks is amazing, and it's heartfelt. Fr. Brian went on the give examples of the priesthood and how our former pastor Fr. George gave of himself in many ways, most notably by giving a kidney to his sister Jeanine (who was at Mass that night with us vs. being at her brother's new parish, and by saying yes to the bishop. "It broke his heart to have to leave this parish, but he said yes like he has done throughout his priesthood." Without missing a beat Fr. Brian pointed out that Fr. Martin did the same thing by saying yes to the bishop and accepting the position at St. Anthony's. After 27 years Fr. Martin left his parish family and came to us, Fr. Brian of course added his humor into it by saying, he does have to live me with now and that's not easy.

Typical of Fr. Brian he does what the rubrics calls for, he preached on the Eucharist and the priesthood. He pointed out that each of the deacons have taken their own ministries up, be it baptismal prep, feeding the hungry, visiting the sick or welcoming people into Church and how they too are living their vocations.

Mass continued as normal for Holy Thursday. Fr. Brian likes things simple as he has pointed out to us, so that is how the washing of the feet happened. 12 people came forward after the 12 chairs were placed for them, Fr. Brian took of his chasuble and stole got down on his knees and washed feet. I don't remember if it was during his homily or if I read it somewhere, but I think it was during Fr. Brian's homily, where we were reminded that the King of Kings, the 2nd Person of the Holy Trinity got down on His knees and washed dirty smelly feet and we are called to Christ to others, we may not have to wash feet, but we need to be Christ to others. It was during Fr. Brian's homily that I heard it because I can hear him saying it.

It was a beautiful start to the Triduum, and I am truly blessed and quite happy to have such wonderful priests at my parish and in my life.

An Interesting Conversation

As I type the title of this blog I have the voice of the "polish priest" from my parish in my head. Fr. Marek came as a temporary vicar while we awaited the arrival of our new pastor. Msgr. Martin McDonnell came to be our pastor this past Thursday, the feast of St. Joseph. Fr. Martin, is off the boat Irish as in was born and raised in Ireland, in the county next to the one my mom is from, which means dad's county isn't too far away either. Oh the "million dollar" question is how long will Fr. Marek be with us. So far he's still here, and it's honestly strange to have 3 priests in the parish again. There were originally 3 priests at the parish when my parents and I moved in and shortly after that just two which is what we have had for a while now. Fr. Martin said the 12:05pm Mass on Monday and Tuesday, and I was beginning to wondering of Fr. Marek was still around, well he is, he said the 12:05pm Mass on Wednesday. He was greatly amused that Mary, myself, was reading on the feast of Mary. He gave a very short homily, with his accent and sitting in the first pew of the church, it was hard to understand it fully. For some reason our microphone system causes hearing issues, well more being able to understand the speaker fully issues, in the first 5 pews.

Anyway, I was walking out after Mass and Fr. Marek stopped to say hi and then asked about the retreat (our Women's Cornerstone retreat was over the weekend) how it went, how team is picked. Then he asked what I studied, and I said I was a religious studies major at Seton Hall and that I was thinking of going back either for theology, nursing, or taking a campus ministry position. Somehow the topic of me taking over youth ministry at the parish came up, I pointed out that our youth minister, Jen, is quite capable and does a good job. The topic of young adult ministry came up as well and I said Fr. George, our former pastor knew that was my soap box issues, I said I'd talk to the new pastor once he got settled instead of bombarding him with the issue right now. We continued on with how I was a part of the youth ministry program under Fr. Geno who is now in charge of Evangelization for the Diocese. The main point of that conversation was that Fr. Geno might know his stuff, which he does, but how with the letters STD (from Rome) after his name his statements hold more clout. I mentioned that I run into that all the time by not having my Masters degree. I was told to go study and get the letters after my name and that I should get young adult ministry started at my parish.

The rest of the conversation involved Fr. Marek asking me "who's the young strapping man that sits next to you at Mass?" I said oh that's Jerry, we do youth ministry together. Fr. Marek responded with, "oh just youth ministry, nothing more." I said no, Jerry's a junior at Seton Hall and has a girlfriend. Fr. Marek very quickly offered a "we'll have to get rid of her." I said no, I like her, she can stay. I nearly added that there is a young man closer to my age that I like, but I didn't. I went out to my car and texted Jerry because that story was just too funny.

However Fr. Marek's comments got me thinking, and my drive out to Harrisburg almost 2 weeks ago, a nearly 6 hour drive total will get you thinking, especially when you usually take that drive with your friend and discuss your life with her. It got me thinking of do I ask Fr. Martin to create a position for Confirmation and Young Adult Ministry or do I just let Confirmation fall under religious education. Our youth minister is currently the confirmation director as well, but she's a week away from having her first child, so I'm pretty sure she's only coming back for youth ministry next year. If I could somehow manage a way to get the Confirmation director position, added in with young adult ministry and well pro-life ministry, it could warrant a "full-time" salary with benefits, and maybe the diocese could pay for my Masters degree. My only issue is how do I ask my parish to pay me.

I always come up with great scenarios and then just let it bypass me or settle or something else. The more I try to get away from ministry the more I get pulled into it. After the retreat, and then having 8th graders ask me questions about the Passion of the Christ (Mel Gibson's version) and being able to answer then without missing a beat and just having the other "teachers" stare at me reminded that I do know what I'm doing. I just hate having to use a damn textbook to teach it. I don't want to settle for a DRE position, I'd kill the majority of the parents out there for not giving a damn about being Catholic. I don't blame the kids, it's hard to when Mom and Dad don't do crap to show them how to be Catholic. I have 8th graders who hardly know the traditional prayers of the Our Father, Hail Mary and Glory Be.

I hate when I get into this mood and don't know what to do with it. I'm reminded of how I wish to take the vocations stories of the priests that affected my life and put it into a book similar to Called by Name: The Inspiring Stories of 12 Men Who Became Catholic Priests by Dr. Christine Anne Mugridge, Jerry Usher.

I've been told I have a gift of writing. Fr. Brian heard my talk on the retreat and the first thing he said to me was "Catechism and personal stories, wow!" I've been giving retreat talks since I was in college, well high school, so it's almost second nature for me. I know it's a gift, I just wish I could use it more than I am.

Oh well I'm off to bed as I am going to visit my friend and her family in Albany today, about time my goddaughter got a visit from me.

Inauguration 2009

What I wouldn't give to be down in DC with a huge sign that says "you can't be CATHOLIC and PRO-ABORTION" Since I can't afford to be down there, I'll do the next best thing and post it on my blog.




I had hoped that the Bishops would have used this as a teaching opportunity, and I know that some of them did. My parish preached on FOCA this past weekend and Deacon George's homily was awesome. He started his homily by pointing out that he and his would be celebrating their anniversary on the 20th and how he unlike most men does not forget his anniversary. Deacon George said that this coming Tuesday there will be an historic Inauguration as the first African American will be sworn in as President. Deacon George pointed out that he is praying for President-elect Obama and that he hopes and prays that Obama does not start his presidency off on the wrong foot by passing FOCA. I had a feeling the good deacon was going down this road when he mentioned the 20th, and I've know Deacon George for about 15 year as his son and I were in our parish youth group together, I knew I wouldn't mind where he was going with his homily. I actually thanked him after Mass.

Deacon George took a page out of Fr. George book and did the whole "well George, why are you going down this slippery slope" question followed by his answer. His answer had tears of joy in my eyes. I was so happy to hear someone from the pulpit say defeat FOCA, and his reason just added to it. Deacon George pointed out that this so called "freedom of choice" act has no choice in it. He pointed out that Catholic hospitals, doctors and nurses would be forced to go against their morals to perform abortions. He pointed out that our tax dollars would be used to pay for abortions. He pointed that we as Catholics (he's learned from Fr. Brian to just say Catholics vs. Catholic Christians) have to listen to Jesus' call in the Gospel to stand up and defend what is right and moral, and that means life from conception to death. Deacon George is also the director of the local funeral home, he is very good at both jobs, deacon and funeral director. I don't remember the fully, but I can probably get a copy from him. He did mention the March and the parish prayed for those of us who will be attending the March and we prayed for President-Elect Obama and the other officials in this country to have a respect of life from natural conception to natural death. There is more to the pro-life movement than defending the unborn, and I am fully aware of it. It just pains me that we have elected 2 men who think "terminating" a baby is a woman's choice.

I have watched my friend Bridget's current pregnancy (mainly because we have a standing dinner/tv date) and it is amazing to watch her little girl kick the remote that sits atop her mom's belly. Interestingly enough when we talk about Obama, the little girl inside her mother's uterus kicks and kicks alot, we say oh there she goes, she doesn't like him, well he does think it's ok to kill someone in her position so I'd be kicking to say "hey I'm here don't forget about me." That little girl has nothing to worry about her parents have been married 4.5 years and the oldest in the family is 3.5 years old and baby #4 is growing nicely inside her mom.

Mr. Biden, I ask as a Catholic citizen in the US, that you re-think your stance on abortion and that one day you will return into full Communion with the Church. For now I will stand in prayer with the protesters who will be at the Inauguration and pray for the safety of this country most especially the unborn.

Christmas and the Feast of the Holy Family

A few weeks back my parish was greeted with the news that our pastor is being transferred to another parish as of Feb. 2nd. Considering that when the 6 year mark came up and Fr. George heard nothing we all assumed, including Fr. George, that we would have him for another 6 years. Alas the good Bishop said move and Fr. George as he has throughout his priesthood said, yes. We're losing a great pastor and priest, but as he says one never truly leaves as we'll be in his prayers and he hopes we continue to pray for him.

Anyway, this news added a certain twist to Christmas this year. For me Christmas just didn't seem like Christmas, I wasn't into it as I normally would. Granted getting sick with a stomach bug on the 23rd didn't help matters. As a result my mom didn't have her actual presents just some silly gifts as I call them, usable gifts, but not her actual gifts. I don't know it just didn't seem like Christmas.

Typical of myself I sign up to serve at Extraordinary Minister at the 4:15pm Mass, our overflow Mass for the 4pm in the actual Church and as EM at the 10:30 for the Choir. Fr. Brian likes to call the 4:15 the "no room at the inn Mass." I had a feeling that since this would be the last time Fr. George would be able to say the "gym Mass" that he would have be saying it. I got to hear his homily twice as my family goes to our "Midnight Mass" at 10:30pm, and as pastor, Fr. George had main celebrant rights. One of these days I'll get back to an actual Midnight Mass at midnight.

Fr. George's homily had a visual aid this year, a signing statue of the Grinch from Dr. Suess' How the Grinch stole Christmas. The homily started out with Fr. George telling us about his 7th grade CCD class and him trying to think of a way to do something special for Christmas, so they watched How the Grinch Stole Christmas, his favorite Movie and out came the Grinch who is a special one, he happens to dance to "You're a mean one Mr. Grinch." Now that Fr. George had everyone's attention he got into the meat and potatoes of his homily. He spoke of the different "grinches" we have in life, with the 3 main ones being greed, violence, and secularism. Each grinch had a person in the Nativity scene to look up to and try to change, as we're called to bring the Grinch to Christ. The first was to bring the Grinch of greed to Mary, as our Blessed Mother gave all that she could, especially with her yes to be God's mother. The next was the Grinch of Violence was to look to St. Joseph has he wanted no violence against Mary when she was found with child. The Grinch of Secularism was to be shown the shepherds and 3 Kings as these men gave what they could to God and brought Him to others.

Fr. George spoke about having sorrows in our lives and that they might not make Christmas happy, but that Christ is the light in the darkness. Overall it was a good homily and he spoke slightly longer at the "Midnight" Mass than at the 4:15 but over all the basic idea was that we are to bring the Grinch and others to Christ. That the Christ-child came for us and that we are to bring Him to others with our actions and lives.

So that was Christmas, the Feast of the Holy Family was an exciting day at the parish. As I was getting ready to go to Mass my mom calmly mentions that "Mass is in the gym." WHAT WHY? was my reaction, seeing as I only do "gym Masses" for the High Holy days of Christmas and Easter, I don't like not being in the actual Church. I got the short version of the story from my mom...

"Fr. Brian heard a pop while saying the Gospel" and then someone said fire, so Masses were moved to the gym. You'll probably get the story over there." I said ok, I'll probably will. So the story as told by Fr. George during his homily that Sunday was this...

As is Fr. George's custom he was in the church to greet the people going to the 7am Mass, he and Fr. Brian noticed that the bells weren't working so Fr. George said, I know how to fix this, I'll just reboot the system. Fr. George rebooted the system and said, oh good no more problems today. 10 minutes later as he was sitting in his office in the rectory he hears and sees Fr. Brian running through the rectory saying, I think he might have been shouting, "George there's a fire in the church." Now, the image of Fr. Brian in full vestments sprinting into the rectory is amusing and a few of smiled, but Fr. George added to it by saying that one of the parishioners swears they saw Fr. Brian hop the altar. So now I have an image of Fr. Brian in essence high jumping the altar in full vestments, I must say I did a good job of controlling my laughter, as it was a serious situation that we were talking about. What is believed to have happened is that while Fr. Brian was holding the Book of the Gospels he hear a pop from behind him and a few seconds later someone said "fire." We believe the pop was either the light on top of the manger exploding or something going wrong with the electrical wires on the Christmas trees.

Thankfully no one was hurt, Fr. Brian and a few of the parishioners (who happen to be firefighters) got the fire under control and some of the people at Mass thought to take the hand crafted Italian (read expensive) statues that make up the Nativity scene with them as they left. There was a fair bit of smoke damage done to the Church, she needs a paint job, but amazingly so that's all that got damaged, well and a Christmas tree, and the lamb statues each lost an ear but they were fixed and are now back in the Church.

Back about 12 years ago the church building was restored, well renovated and I remember Fr. Geno telling us that if "God forbid the church was to catch on fire it would be gone in a few minutes." I believe that was because of the "paint" that was used, as there was paper or something in it, anyway it's truly amazing that the church building only sustained smoke damage, it just looks dirty.

As was pointed out during Fr. George's homily the parish family came together quickly to help out and to adjust to what was happening that weekend. If the fire happened at any other time who knows what would have happened. The other Masses are usually packed, the 7am is our "no smells no bells" Mass, meaning it's the Mass without music on the weekend, so you never know what would have happened. As Fr. George said thank God it happened while someone was in the Church and thank God no one got hurt and that we have very little damage done to the Church.

Fr. George in his homily on the Feast of the Holy Family spoke of how we are family in many way, we have the human family that comes together when it needs to, with such examples of Sept. 11th and Hurricane Katrina and other such natural disasters, a parish family that came together in many ways this past year with our Jubilee celebration and with the fire, and of course we have our immediate families. In the shortest homily I have ever heard or seen Fr. George give, he got the message of yes we have our own families to care for, but there is much more to a family than that, we are a family as Children of God and we are called to care for each other.

Fr. George ended his homily by returning to his seat and telling us to mark our calendars as this was his shortest homily given.

This link shows the Beacon's story on us, the color pictures are better than the black and white ones. I didn't take any pictures of the Christmas altar this year, I will take some on Sunday when I am there and post them, but I think I might have one from last year if not I know I have the manger scene.

strangely amused

Thanks to Fr. Z's blog on All Souls Day I was able to showcase my stellar skills at reading blogs tonight at my parish's liturgy committee meeting. In discussing All Souls Day, the liturgical colors for the altar were being discussed, and someone realized All Souls Day fell on a Sunday this year and I said to our pastor (whom I sit next too, no one else seems to like to do that) I think All Souls Day trumps Sunday this year, I read it somewhere. He looked at me and said "I don't know about that" Of course that began the search for what does happen, and lo and behold Fr. Z was right. ;) Our sourcebook said it, our lector book said it, and the most important one the Ordo said it. I think I impressed my pastor in my knowledge of random Church stuff. Thanks Fr. Z for giving me an amusing story of knowing more about liturgy than either of the priests or two of the deacons at my parish.

Get Behind me Satan! *updated*

So the title of this comes from the Gospel from Sunday Aug. 31st, it was the continuation of the Gospel from the week before. The idea of St. Peter being so good one day and so bad the next as always amused me, as well it really does sum up how must of us are. I was once told to read the Passion, and watch Jesus of Nazareth (the movie) during Holy Week to "make up" for what I thought was a "bad Lent" and to see whom I was most like. Sometimes I say Mary because of my name, but almost always when I think about it, I'm Peter. We all are, one day I can say OK JESUS, and the next day unfortunately deny Jesus, but when it comes down to it and it matters I say THAT'S RIGHT I'M WITH JESUS.

Interestingly the word deny comes up in the Gospel. "Deny one's self, take up your cross and follow me" are the words of Jesus we hear. Recently I've been leaning towards wishing to hear Fr. Brian's homilies, but Fr. George did a good job with this one. I laughed when the homily started because Fr. George did his typical joke to get everyone to pay attention and because I said to myself "I didn't read Fr. Jim's homily before Mass this week, must mean this one will be decent." It's usually true that if I read Fr. Jim's homily via his blog before I go to Mass that the one at St. A's is lacking. Fr. George's was decent, it didn't blow me out of the water, but honestly most don't.

Fr. George focused on the aspect of deny one's self which leads many times to taking up a cross that was expected yet unexpected and finally it all leads to following Jesus. I remember Fr. George saying that deny one's self meant we didn't need all the material possessions that we so often want and "need." He spoke about how when we deny ourselves something that we can gain from in. In denying one's self one is to cling to Jesus, hence why this line usually get quoted by people. Fr. George mentioned at one point and I remember this because I'm usually surprised when he touches upon the topic of "pro-life" activities from the pulpit. He spoke about how taking up one's cross means going against the tide in some cases and while those are not his exact words, it did make me think of the election and the "pro-life" movement. It was a basic stand up for what you believe in type homily, which I guess I need reminding of everyone once in a while.

The week before I happened to have Fr. Brian at Mass, and it tells you something that nearly 2 weeks later I still remember the homily. I happened to be sitting in the first pew, which I haven't done since my days at Seton Hall. I felt a little too close to the presider's chair, but alas that wasn't too big of a deal. The week before August 24th was the Gospel where Jesus commends Peter for knowing who He is and getting it right. Jesus does add in, this was revealed to you, which it is. Fr. Brian tied this into the apostolic succession and the succession of St. Peter to the current Pope. I remember Fr. Brian speaking about Humane Vitae and how we should read what the popes have written especially the current Holy Father and the last one. I laughed as Fr. Brian said that because I have read the writings of JP2 and I am currently reading Jesus of Nazareth by PB16 (as Fr. Brian calls him)and was reading Humane Vitae. Fr. Brian spoke of how Paul VI's document was prophetic in essence and he went on to point out 3 passages about how if artifical contraception was allowed that the country would do down hill, well as Fr. Brian put it, "I think he (Pope Pius VI) hit that one on the head.

What makes Fr. Brian's homily so interesting is that later on that night while a good friend and I were watching TV our other good friend called us to complain about the homily she got. (Side note the 3 of us earned the nickname unholy- holy trinity, as the 3 of us were RCIA sponsors and well for the most part inseparable in college) Any way my friend's homily was about how there were three major mistakes in the Church: Galileo, the Crusades, and Humane Vitae. I turned to my friend who was watching tv with me when I head her repeat what she heard and I said, oh no way, let me tell you about my homily.

At one church you have a good holy priest speaking about how Humane Vitae was a great document and that we need to read what the Popes have written and to listen to what they say, while at another you have a deacon who speaks of how the same document was a giant mistake in the Church.

This is why people don't know what to do, or what to believe. It amuses me that on on the same day these homilies were given that Nancy Pelosi was stepping in the largest pile of crap she could find. Props to the bishops who have used this as a teaching moment and those that continue to do so. It saddens me when people don't know or fully understand the Church that they were raised in, let alone ordained to a ministry in. People are confused because they can hear two different things and nothing is said as to whom is right. Thankfully the bishops came out and defended the Church and Her teachings.

May St. Peter continue to pray for us as we need it.

Latin Mass

My parish had a Latin Mass last Saturday in honor of our 100 years of being in existence. It as a wonderful experience to have old school meet new school. Thanks to Pope Benedict we're allowed to have Latin Masses said in a non Latin Mass church. I attempted to take pictures, but I felt strange as no one else expect the "official" photographer for our Jubilee was taking pictures. I did find the comments from the people afterwards quite amusing. Most of then expected to remember more of the Latin and I would turn and say oh I was surprised at how much I knew. The looks of why does a 28 year old know Latin would ensue and I would explain that studied Latin in college and that this wasn't my first Latin Mass.

I loved it, and despite the many "I don't want to go back to this" comments I heard, I wouldn't mind bringing back parts of the Mass, like how Communion was received, it was so much easier to receive on one's tongue while kneeling vs. standing. I was quite impressed that I could follow along with the Latin side of the program they gave us. Maybe it's my weekly Extraordinary Minister of the Eucharist duties that are finally getting to me, but it was nice to just sit and enjoy Mass vs. having to jump over people to get out to distribute Communion.

Even though we are a Novus Ordo church the women coming to the Mass were asked to wear something on their head. I wore my big purple shawl that also covered the top part of me. I wasn't wearing it on my head when I walked into the Church and some guy in attendance gave me a look, I placed it on my head once I got settled. I might have also gotten the look because I was one of very few "young people" at the Mass. Considering it was a Saturday afternoon Mass I was impressed with how well dressed the majority of people in attendance were. I think I saw two women wearing jeans, everyone else was in skirts, or dress pants and nice tops, most of the men were in pants, shirts, and jackets. I wonder what happens when these same people go to Mass on Sunday.


As you will see in this picture our church still has it's "back altar" in place, and when the comment "I wonder if they will want the back altar" was made to our liturgy committee last Monday I responded with "knowing the fraternity they will want the back altar." I nearly said, what else would they use, but I know better than to be sarcastic with my pastor in those cases. I do find it amusing that the conversation was pretty much ended once I added my comment in.
The altar was very nicely decorated, well undecorated as we had to take the flowers down and honestly the altar is gorgeous on it's own. The tabernacle which is covered by a white cloth, I apologize for not knowing the technical name, and don't feel like looking it up at the moment, is the tabernacle that we use on a daily basics, so it was nice to see it used like this too. As you can see we are still decorated for the Easter season, and normally the back altar has flowers on the top part of it. The altar we normally use is the one in the front. Fr. Brian, our parochial vicar made a comment when we were discussing that the back altar would probably be used and it amused me, while it annoyed others. The comment was "the altar is not a flower holder." I love my vicar and would have loved to see him partake in this Mass, but the Holy Father trumped and he was in attendance with a few teens from the parish at the Papal Youth Rally. I don't think the comment was directed at how our church is normally decorated, I think he was simply stating what the priest from the Fraternity of St. Peter would say and honestly it's true and people need to stop getting their panties in a bunch. I also find it strangely amusing that I was the only one from the committee at the Mass, and that is simply because I got tickets to the Papal Mass on Sunday.


Fr. Joesph Howard FFSP, from the Priestly Fraternity of St. Peter was the main celebrant of the Mass, considering this is the Mass he says on a regular basis. Our pastor, Fr. George is on the side and I was excited to see him in full cassock and to have his biretta with him. While I have no idea what Fr. Howard was saying or doing at this point, I was able to follow the Schola Cantorum while they chanted. It was a high Mass which was great and I found the way Fr. Howard incensed the altar interesting, ovbiously he couldn't walk around the whole altar like the Novus Ordo Mass allows, but he stopped at the ends and incensed it there. I don't know why I found it so interesting, but I did.

I enjoyed watching Msgr., hence the red on the cassock and biretta, aka Fr. George partake in the Mass because he had to take the biretta on and off and carry it in. Again the simpliest things amuse me and keep me entertained. The young man, the altar boy, next to him was telling us when to sit and stand, that really amused me because at most "big" Masses it's Fr. George doing that. I must add that while I don't have a picture of him, there was one young altar boy who my mom and I both commented on how well he knew what he was doing. I also noticed how reverent this young man was especially when incensing the priest, servers and the rest of the people. I hope that he has a vocation, because that is what I thought when I saw him. I also found it interesting that Fr. George put his stole on for the Eucharistic prayer and took it off if I remember correctly before he went to receive Communion. Fr. George was the second person to receive Communion, the first being Fr. Howard, and Fr. George had to kneel directly in front of Fr. Howard who was directly in front of the tabernacle. Quite an impressive and humbling site.

Fr. Howard during the homily re-read the readings in English and spoke on the traditions of why the reading were picked and explained how we would receive Communion at the rail in front of the Blessed Mother statue, on our knees and on our tongues. I did find it amusing that the picture of Benedict 16th was also placed on that side and if it wasn't for him, the Latin Mass would not have been at our parish as Fr. Howard pointed out. It's also appropriate that it was the Fraternity that said the Mass as they began at the request of then Cardinal Ratzinger.

In this last picture Fr. Howard could be reading the Last Gospel, I'm not a hundred percent sure. Either way it's a great picture of how awesome his vestments are.


Over all the Mass was a great experience, and the only thing that was missing was the people's responses being in our booklet. While those like my parents would remember them, those like me who very rarely have been to a Latin Mass didn't know them. I told Fr. Howard that I know his chapel well because I know a family that goes there and we had a small discussion on how I know them. I dare say some Sundays I may find myself up at Our Lady of Fatima for Mass. There was food afterwards and there was also older vestments on display. The vestments compared to today's are impressive, there was so much detail put into them and it's no wonder that Papa B16 is leading us back to them. To have a Latin Mass one day and then a Papal Mass with the creed in Latin the next day made for an awesome and unforgettable weekend.

Oh my Sweet Jesus, how wonderful You are.

*update* Like I said nothing was/is official, the lady who was getting the ticket told them no, that she didn't need the ticket, so now it's all up in the air, but if God wants me there He'll get me there. *update*

I can't even put into words what just happened. My parish had it's liturgy committee meeting tonight and at the end we sit and have cake and talk about life. Fr. George, our pastor, went upstairs to check his messages before retiring the for evening. I'm standing downstairs where the meeting was and I hear Fr. George saying "blah blah, Mary Woolley... Mary you still here?" Yes I am was my response. The following "conversation: takes place on"I have a woman on the phone who has a ticket for Mass on Sunday, you'd have to make your own way into the city, are you interested." Well my response was YES!

As Fr. George put it, "I guess the Good Lord wanted you there." I said I guess so. I was joking around in my twisted little head yesterday about being on 5th Avenue and having Cardinal Egan stop the motorcade so he could get out and hand pick me to go to Dunwoodie for the Youth Rally, and I'd get to meet the Pope. Nothing more than a nice little day dream that I had well thought out, little did I expect this.

The sheer happiness that is running through my body now is indescribable. I liken it to the time when we came out of the Scavi tour at St. Peter's in Rome and not one of us (college students) could figure out a way to thank the priest who ran the class, because we know that many English speaking tours were hard to come by. The more I think about the idea of being at Mass with the Pope, the bigger my smile is, the tears come to mind. Even Fr. George sounded excited for me, which is awesome, because I was beginning to think he and I were not on the same page on things.

It won't be official until I actually get my ticket, but the woman didn't want to let the opportunity pass by, so I have to call her in the morning to finalize everything. What I can make if it, is that her daughter who happens to be in the NYPD must have had the ticket or gotten the ticket and I think may have to work now, or she works around Yankee Stadium. They will need my drivers license and social security number to do my background check. Thank God I'm clean. ;)

Fr. Brian told us yesterday at Mass about how he felt like Charlie from Willie Wonka when he got his golden ticket to say Mass with the Pope. I had an ear to ear grin on my face because he "was like a little kid" when he opened the letter and literally saw a gold ticket for Mass with the Pope and he showed it. The joy on his face was enough to light up the whole Church let alone a room, I dare say my story will trump his.

So by the grace of God and the wonderfulness of the Holy Spirit I will be at Mass with the Holy Father on Sunday. He is the only person I would set foot inside Yankee Stadium for.

Cornerstone retreat

So this past Friday night and all day and night Saturday was my parish's women's cornerstone retreat. I don't know what to think of it. It was a retreat and a decent one at that, I just hear the words "you're beyond it" played over and over in my head. See last year MaryKay, my parish's pastoral associate told be point blank to not go on the retreat because "you're beyond it" so that made the tugging on my heart take a backseat until it rolled around this year and I said at the last possible minute I'm gonna go. After all it's a retreat, even it's one of the worst retreats I've been on, at least I can help them market it to my age group, bottom line a retreat is a retreat, you almost always get something out of it.

Not knowing what to expect except a lot of familiar faces from the "older" members of the church, I was honestly quite nervous about going. Interestingly enough all the candidates had a similar feeling. It being a women's retreat and with all the hormones in the room, it made for a weepy weekend. It was a roller coaster of emotions with all the witness talks, the Sacrament of Confession, and having one of the candidates mother die while we were on retreat. (Her mom was sick and in the process of dying and would have been 90 in September, so it was expected, but still caused a bunch of emotions in everyone else who didn't know about it.)

Typical of the "whoo-hoo Jesus loves me" retreats there was plenty of reassuring that Faith and God will help you through your life and what not. Also typical of these retreats are letters from home or in our case the parish, and knickknacks to remind you of the talks. I've never really been a big fan of these types of retreats and it was honestly hard for me to be in candidate mode vs. team member. Fr. Brian, who is quickly becoming one of my favorite priests, even told me to not use that as an excuse. Fr. Brian plays a big part in the weekend for me, but more on him later. Cornerstone follows the traditional route of a SEARCH retreat or at least that it reminded me of. So my thoughts were going to be loving yet critical, yet critical isn't the right word, because it has such a negative stereotype around it.

My thoughts are going to seem scattered and that's because they are, but I might as well start from the beginning. Cornerstone is marketed to the women of the parish, via announcements at Mass, and by some members of team giving a 2 minute talk on it at the Masses about a month before the actual retreat. Needless to say it wasn't the marketing strategy that won me over to go on the retreat, the constant reminder of it might have helped. As it was I waited until the last possible moment to hand my form it. Actually my dad handed it in to the rectory and somehow it was placed in the wrong box and by chance they, the team, found it the Thursday before the retreat. I don't ask, I just chalk that one up to a bit of some spiritual warfare, and I'll leave it at that, with God winning as usual.

So the time came to go on the actual retreat which takes place at the parish, well in the school. Thankfully we have a youth ministry room which is across the hall from the cafeteria, and a gym. The youth room offered itself as the actual retreat room where all the talks, small group sharing and large group discussion took place. In my humble opinion it was too much time spent in such a small room, well it's not small, but it's not as massive as a gym either. I didn't understand why they had the sound system set up for the talks, I have yet to use a microphone in that room, and everyone seemed to hear me just fine. So I think we could do without the microphone, it would also allow for more animation from the speaker. Seeing as they were constantly adjusting it, I don't see a need for it, but that's just me.

In doing as many retreats as I have for as long as I have, my brain went right to how can I make this better. Yes as Fr. Brian and I discussed I am a perfectionist, and I have to be right all the time, it's a fault and well I'm working on it. The witness talks, while good seemed to have two personalities, those that practiced and those that didn't. For someone who is as well versed in public speaking as I am, I tend to notice things like transitions, speed of speech, and well other little things like that. This is something I can help out with should I "discern" to be on team. Each witness talk picks a song, and they were all classic cheesey songs, even the theme song was cheesey. I know I've been graced with an array of Christian music artists, but I also know how to take a secular song by a band like U2 and give it a Christian meaning, actually I would just take most of Matt Maher's works and use them. He is wickedly talented, and Catholic! I walked in to hear a song we used when I was in high school a good 11 years ago, and that amused me and I pointed out that the last time I heard it in that particular room was when I was in high school, that comment wasn't appreciated by some, but oh well.

The food was AMAZING, it was all home cooked meals, so suffice to say that I've never had food like that on a retreat before, that is reason enough to come back. Cornerstone is one of those retreats you only go on once, so if you're coming back it's on team, and Lord knows they make up enough positions to accommodate everyone. The retreat itself was pretty decent, it was just the little things that got to me, and those are things that if fixed will only make the retreat better. Like I said it's a typical "Jesus loves me" retreat, and while I would have loved to have more Scripture quoted and Catechism quotes in the witness talks, they are what they were, and so be it. I would have loved to have seen time for one to reflect on the talk before moving into "table share" aka small group discussion, but that is something easily fixed, same with the Scripture quotes.

My next biggest issues comes from the closing Mass and the Mass of Thanksgiving. The sharing experiences from the retreat was expected, though not overly enjoyed. The only thing that got to me was Fr. George, our pastor, asking the women who were on the retreat to come and join him in the Sanctuary for the entire Eucharistic prayer. The traditionalist in me had a heart attack about 10 times over and the perfectionist in me said ok offer it up, it is a retreat Mass after all. I would have been fine had he don't done it for the Mass of Thanksgiving too. It's not allowed, and I don't like when you mess with the rubrics, so let's just say Fr. George and I are seeing eye to eye currently. It's nice to have Fr. Brian on board because based on Fr. George has said, Fr. Brian doesn't veer from the Rubrics and that I love, hence why Fr. Brian is quickly becoming of of my favorite priests.

Looking at the retreat this way I thought I was going to be more critical, but alas I really wasn't and everything that I had issues with is easily fixed. I did have a wonderful time on the retreat, and do expect I'll be on team. At one point someone said to me, that I didn't seem affected by the retreat, I said I was, I just sort of knew what to expect with all the retreats I've been on.

So back to Fr. Brian, the first night, we went around the room introducing who the candidates were, and Fr. Brian came to me later and said, "I'm surprised this is your first one, when you introduced yourself I turned to Fr. George and said, I'm surprised this is her first Cornerstone." I told him about MaryKay telling me it was beyond me and he just shook his head and that conversation had to end because the break was over. Later that night the Sacrament of Confession was offered, typically of myself I wondered do I go to Fr. George or Fr. Brian, I actually thought about it and finally caved to the ultimate tugging on the soul to go to Fr. Brian. Let's just say I was never happier to go to Confession, and to be clean afterwards. Thank God for such a wonderful sacrament, as Fr. Brian said we need to use it more. During confession we talked about perfection and I was told to leave some of that behind as I left. And for the first time in my life was given a classic as a penance, 5 Hail Marys. I smiled and laughed to myself as I went to say them, and said, what I don't think I've ever gotten that as a penance. Also typical of myself I was one of the last people to go to Confession, that was not the plan but Fr. Brian's line kept growing, and I just said, fine I'll wait. I think I've found my confessor. ;)

During the retreat we are given letters from home and the parish, the typical palanca (I probably spelled it incorrectly) letters and most of them did make me cry, which is what they do. However I got from from MaryKay which just annoyed me. I sat there appreciating the thought, but thinking how do you tell me one year, that I'm beyond the retreat, and the next year say I'm so glad you went on the retreat. In her letter she says "When you are young it's difficult to watch other people move ahead on their journey while it seems that you haven't moved very much." While I appreciate the thought, it's like she was telling me I was moving backwards. I was so annoyed with what I read that I had to take her letter shove it in it's envelope and reread the letters the deacons in the parish sent me. Yes I totally understand that my friends are in a different place than me, but I have never felt like I wasn't moving. I can look at my life and equate it to the poem Footprints, and "it was then that you carried me Jesus." Yes my friends have what I want, but God's plan works in different ways with each person He's created. Rereading her letter it doesn't seem as bad as I first thought it was, but it still annoyed me. Don't come preaching to me about my life that you know nothing about and don't assume we're alike just because I'm a woman in ministry. I'd gladly take your job, and I know a few others who would love for me to take it. I'm content with what I have right now. It's not what I wanted, but it's working, and I'm slowing regaining my trust in my gut which has been pretty spot on, thanks to being guided by the Holy Spirit.
Overall the retreat was a good experience for me, and I'm glad I went on it. I'll do whatever is asked of me for team, and no MaryKay I'm not writing my witness talk, which you told me to do as you left the coffee and desserts after Mass. If I'm called to do a talk I'll do it, if not so be it.

Divine Mercy Sunday

So today is Divine Mercy Sunday and my Confirmation class's(I'm the teacher not a student) service project weekend. We had a diaper drive for a local pregnancy recourse center at our parish. I spent most of my day at church and managed to get two homilies today, Fr. Brian and Fr. George. Both homilies have combined into one in my head as they had similar themes.

Fr. Brian started his homily by mentioning the decree that made the 2nd Sunday of Easter, Divine Mercy Sunday, continuing with love and mercy as his topics of choice. Father spoke about his own life, about how he felt as if he was/is always behind everyone else in many aspects of life. Some of the things he mentioned were repeating first grade, starting college a year later than his friends because he took a year off after high school, and how he was ordained at ago 40 and now 5 years later looks at the other guys his age and sees that they have been ordained for 15 years. I'm sure many of us can tell a similar story, and I know I saw much of my life in Fr. Brian's life, I kept thinking about how most of my friends are married and have kids, and of course I thought about my graduation from SHU. Talk about not being with everyone, long story short I didn't graduate on time, see my faith journey part 3 section for the full story.

Fr. Brian spoke of how Thomas must have felt left out, and that he gets a bad rap. Fr. George had a similar theme. Both priests spoke about how Thomas was out doing stuff whereas the disciples were hiding in the upper room. They both spoke about how we are each like Thomas in our lives. Fr. George spoke about the loss of someone, and how it's often the tragic losses or the losses that we think come to early that make us doubt our faith. I thought at this point of Fiona and Bernadette, my little saints, but their deaths didn't make me doubt my faith, they actually helped me realize that Heaven is our ultimate goal no matter what our age is.

Both Fr. George and Fr. Brian mentioned that Thomas was the only one to leave the room, Fr. Brian told us that he's wants to know what Thomas was doing. Fr. George said Thomas was courageous for actually leaving the room and doing the normal everyday things like taking care of having food. He also mentioned that we are called to do the same, that when things happen in life that we should turn to God's love and mercy and get back out and do the everyday things, and that we should bring peace to one another. Fr. George managed a way to tie all the readings, Divine Mercy Sunday and baptism (there was one at our Mass) into his homily. In his section on the second reading he spoke about gold being tested in the fire, and about how gold has a very specific point of purification. Gold that is taken out a few second too early still have some impurities and gold that is left in the fire one second too long is destroyed. The goldsmith needs to know exactly when to take the gold out, Fr. George of course tied this into God in our lives and mentioned how God knows exactly how much to give us and when to take us out of the fire.

Fr. Brian mentioned "suffering being a whole other ball of wax" I don't remember what was mentioned before it, it might have been about life not going the way we want it too. All I heard was suffering and thought, that's my topic Father. I just finished reading Amazing Grace: Stories of Suffering by Jeff Cavins and Matthew Pinto and in it are 10 stories of different forms of suffering, most of them being the classic losing a child or other family member or both a child and significant other, and being physically disabled, but some were not the normal ones you hear, one was about a man who was falsely accused of something, a person who had terrible migraines. Besides suffering there was a common theme of each person being chosen to more closely be like Jesus. I took a graduate course in suffering and literally suffered through it, I remember picking quietly suffering for my topic and having my professor (a doctor) tell me that no one suffers quietly. The topic of a dark night of the soul was mentioned, but I honestly think that no one in that class knew what a dark night feels like. I can't even say I have, but I can't think of anything else to describe what I feel like, nor can I explain what a dark night entails.

I look to St. Therese, Cardinal Cooke, Cardinal O'Connor and I see examples of quietly suffering, and also in Fr. Eugene Hamilton, whose story of being ordained literally minutes before he died of cancer in his early 20s brings tears to my eyes every time I read it. I look back to this class and on my life and on society in general and notice that there is not a whole lot out there on suffering and that suffering is barely mentioned or looked at in a way where one would want to suffer. I remember a homily given a few years ago on the Feast of Christ the King where the priest said, "without the Cross there is no Glory, there is no King." It's true without the suffering of Good Friday, Easter Sunday never happens. We speak so much on the Risen Christ and on Easter, but we over look Good Friday and the gruesome death of Jesus. Suffering can be beautiful, look at what God did with it. He took tremendous suffering and turned it into the greatest gift ever, Eternal Life.

Maybe it's time for me to actually write my book, Quietly Suffering and use my life as an example. No I have not suffered physically, or through the lose of a child, but I have been trough enough to know that life is not easy, and that you are allowed to question God's actions, you have to accept them, but you can question Him, as Fr. George said, God knows when to take us out of the fire, He only gives us what we need to be purified so we can be with Him.

He is Risen... Indeed He is Risen.

I find it strange that Fr. George's homily that I heard twice has yet to really sit with me compared to Fr. Brian's from Holy Thursday or Bishop Rodimer's from Good Friday. I remember thinking, please let me take one thing from this homily, and I remember "be the light" meaning we are called to be the Light of Christ to others. I also remember Fr. George talking about not being afraid. He spoke of the women in the Gospel being "half joyful and half fearful" and that, that is how most of us go through life. I heard the homily twice and the same points came to mind both times looking back on it.

Fr. George being pastor has full reign of being main celebrant at the Triduum services, he usually splits it with the vicar, currently Fr. Brian. Since Fr. Brian had Holy Thursday and Bishop had Good Friday, Fr. George had Holy Saturday, he also by chance took the "gym Mass" which threw me because I am used to the vicar having that Mass, so I was disappointed to not hear Fr. Brian's homily, but apparently I needed to hear Fr. George's twice. Maybe it needed to sink in so I could take something away from it. The first time I listened to it, it didn't seem to stay with me. The second time however, and me thinking I should try to remember one thing from the homily, might have helped for it to stick a bit more.

Anyway, back to the Easter Vigil. It has been a few years since I have been excited to attend a vigil. I love the Vigil simply for the RCIA sacraments. I love watching people come into the Church. Having been a sponsor in the RCIA process at Seton Hall, it brings back great memories for the most part. Let's just say that last year with RCIA was where my defense of the Catholic faith started to appear. I just couldn't stand up there with my candidate and say she was ready when I didn't think she was. Thankfully, Fr. Bill was there to assure me I was doing the right thing. Oh well back to the Vigil. The Easter Vigil is one of the most beautiful services because so much actually happens at it.

Watching the church go from complete darkness to being full of the Light of Christ is awesome, and Fr. George could have used that in his homily, seeing as the Christ candle is what lights the rest of the candles in the church, the servers light their candles and then pass the Light of Christ along. It's quite awesome considering what's happening, Christ is going to every single person in the Church and setting them on fire, or lighting a fire under their ass. There's lots of signing and music and all that jazz. Surprisingly there were not too many issues with the Mass for me. I would rather have all the readings read, and not have the Genesis reading have signing in the middle of it, and have the congregation realize that Fr. George intones the Gloria and the Alleluia before we join in. It would have been nice to actually get more than the words "Praise to you" out of my mouth before the organ was playing the double Alleluia, and I understand that it was done quickly so that people didn't sit down, but if people actually followed along or paid attention from year to year we always do the double Alleluia at the Vigil.

The Vigil was truly a wonderful celebration, the Sacraments were awesome. I did find it amusing that a piece of the Paschal candle fell into the font and Fr. Brian had to fix it, I think very few people actually noticed it, but I always notice the silly stuff, like people not standing when Fr. George was blessing the fire outside and lighting the Paschal candle. Deacon Jerry nailed the chanting he had to do that night, the Christ be our light and the Mass has ended Alleluia Alleluia were done the best I've heard in the past few years.

I think part of me didn't take Fr. George's homily in because I wanted to get to the sacraments and have the new Catholics officially in the Church. I remember thinking to myself during the homily, ok you can end it, I want the Sacraments now. The homily after hearing it twice did have an impact on me, but no different than any other Sunday. I thought during the homily that he did have a great point in telling us that we need to bring the Light of Christ to others. Both times I heard the homily the idea of be not afraid sat with me. Fr. George spoke about being have afraid and have joyful with our lives and that is quite true. I know that I am afraid of hearing no to most of my ideas for the Church and other things so I stay quiet. I'm afraid of what might happen if I say yes to what God places on my heart, though I am joyful and excited to follow God and do what He wants. So I am totally one of the women walking to the tomb. I've bowed before Jesus in the Most Blessed Sacrament, I've been excited to follow Him, I'm still excited to follow Him, but I'm scared and worried about what it might bring.

I have for a while wanted to create a business card marketing myself as a Catholic speaker, I've had a desire to write, but I've never been good at writing papers, though I would assume a book is totally different. I've been told I'm good at giving talks and whatnot, so I'd love to do something with that. Maybe that's why Fr. George's homily didn't sit with me right away, I didn't want to apply it to my life. I could be called to write a Catechism/Bible Study on Mary called "Who's Your Mommy?" or editing a book telling the stories of the local guys who became priests, or who knows what I'm called to do.

Oh well, with the joy of Easter in my heart, maybe I won't be as afraid to do what God wants.

Conversations from the Sacristy

I must start off with my comments on the use of incense. "Damn Brian... Holy incense" I was walking into the church with the vessels from the Gym Mass. Fr. Brian used incense at the beginning of the 12pm Mass and it was close to 1:15/1:20 when I walked in, and for the incense to be strong enough for me to notice it, it must have been strong.

Yesterday I was privileged to have the "chore" of cleaning the "dishes" aka the holy vessels from Mass, and because I was doing this by myself I was in the sacristy for awhile and got to hear some funny conversations.

The first one being Deacon George walking in and saying "I hate when my wife is right" however all I heard was "I HATE MY WIFE" I turned to him and said all I heard was I hate my wife, and the 3 of us in the sacristy, including Deacon George just burst out laughing. I know George and his wife quite well, as their son and I were in youth group together.

The next conversation I was part of involved Fr. George, myself, Fr. Brian, Deacon George, and Rich. I guess Fr. George just needed to talk/vent about the Mass in the gym. This conversation is definitely funnier if you were there and know the kids from the gym Mass, but I wanted to write it down for my own enjoyment.

Fr. George: "I had two noisy kids in front of me"
Me:"Fr. Brian it was the same one from Christmas, that kept trying to bum rush Baby Jesus"
Fr. George goes on the explain that there are times when he thinks I gave up being a father and there are times when God reminds you why you are what you are
Me:"I like the fact that you picked up the toy for them during your homily"
Fr. George:"Yeah, that was good, all in one fell swoop, picking up the toy that was thrown at me (Fr. quickly added that it wasn't actually thrown at him)"
Yeah I don't like his homily- Me and Fr. George