I, like many of you, have been somewhat distracted as I watch the updates from Haiti. It is certainly a very dramatic and heart-wrenching event. I have blogged about it twice already and am uplifted by the response of my Catholic Church across the world and here locally in New Orleans. I'm also thrilled to see that my employer, Capital One Bank, has also launched an effort for all associates to contribute to the relief efforts. I just watched a beautiful news account about two churches, one evangelical; the other Baptist, right here in my Northshore community that has mobilized efforts to assist the people of Haiti. I thank God for all these proper, Christ-like responses.
But as the title of this post indicates, life goes on. For me, I have been immersed in a hectic schedule as the new year equals new opportunities at work and my ministry as a Deacon continues to grow. I have been involved again in the wonderful work of prison ministry and have rejoined the spring Kairos team that should result in a life-changing, God awakening weekend for 40 or so inmates that currently have little or no relationship with Christ. I'm very much looking forward to my MLK day off this Monday when I will give back several hours of that day to the men at Rayburn prison. And Wednesday night, it appears we will have our recently retired Archbishop with us to visit and pray with the men.
We again start the diaconate formation season for both our 2010 and 2012 classes. Our brothers of the 2010 group have begun the 11 month countdown to ordination. Classes in canon law and homiletics, among many others, will help prepare them for that special moment when God's grace marks them with that indelible mark. Of course all of this according to God's will and not that of our own. Our 2012 brothers began the first full year of candidacy and take yet another step down the long road to continuing formation. As mentioned before, one of my great joys is the blessed opportunity to mentor three of our candidates. I ask all of you to join me in praying for the continuing formation of our 10 acolytes and 20 candidates and their wives, family and friends.
I am also very happy to assist a brother Deacon from my neighboring parish as I assist at and preach at two masses this weekend. I pray that God use me as an instrument of His Word as we hear the powerful Gospel of the wedding feast in Cana.
Along the way we try to return to normal family life. We are so proud of our daughter as she returns to LSU and her goal to pursue her degree and advance her studies in history. Ever since the incident of her armed robbery ordeal, she has handled the stress and difficulty of such a situation far better than I or her mother has. And we continue to prepare for the wedding of our son which will happen before you know it this May.
Finally, we are happy to experience a little warm up as tonight brings a low of only 33 degrees or so. As mentioned in a previous post, we have endured a long extended period of very cold weather; something like 9 consecutive days with lows in the 25 and below range. This is very unusual for us deep Southerners.
Yes, I remember the Saints are playing the divisional playoff game Saturday but more on that later.
For now, I continue to pray for Haiti and go about my everyday business that demands life goes on. With the grace of God, we all will persevere.
This is why my favorite Scripture verse is from Hebrews 13:8; "Jesus Christ, the same yesterday, today and forever."
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