New Year's Eve around 8 pm and my wife and I are cozy and comfortable and celebrating the 31st day of December just the way we like to; quietly. If only I could get some of the firework crazy neighbors to adopt the concept of quiet!
I want to look back and reflect but quite a bit differently than years past. I do not feel the need to recap big stories and top stories from this years blogging effort but to simply reflect and share about the year that quickly is coming to a close.
I mentioned in the title that there was both setbacks and great joy. This is profoundly truthful. We started the year very status quo and had no idea the sheer number of things that would be different by January 1, 2016. Let me start with the year that my dear wife Wendy had. To say her year was a tough year would be a tremendous understatement. Wendy suffered 3 medical setbacks in 2015, all cardio-vascular related. Early in the year she was diagnosed with iliac artery blockages and had a procedure that called for the insertion of two stents. Procedure successful but Wendy never felt relief as she though relief should feel like. I'll fast forward to November when we would revisit this whole scene again. The stents themselves blocked and she had two more inserted. This time she is doing much better. In the summer time we had a scare when Wendy experienced intense chest pain. Thinking she may be suffering a heart attack, she was rushed to the hospital and thankfully diagnosed with severe angina; no heart attack; great news. I sometimes wonder if an incredible professional setback contributed to some of her medical problems. Let me explain. In 2014 Wendy left a CPA firm she worked at for years to follow a "professional" friend to a private industry job. All Wendy did was convert their entire accounting systems, upgrade software and worked about 55 hours a week, week after week for this "friend". Then once Wendy fully trained the friend on the new systems, Wendy was summarily dismissed, no explanation, no severance, no nothing. Devastating to my wife as she has worked every day of her post-college life, all in accounting. This happened in May, Wendy remained unemployed to just a few days ago. Unemployment is always devastating but for this to happen the way it did, and yes, coming at Wendy's age, she suffered much indignation on the job hunt trail. Never did Wendy lose hope, her dignity and most importantly, her faith. She refused to bad-mouth the "friend" which I found amazing and noble.
But 2016 was full of great, dare I say profound joy. In February, when everybody else was Mardi Gras mad, Wendy and I rendezvoused with our son and daughter-in-law in the mountains of western North Carolina for a ski vacation. The great joy was simply the fact that we had a week in a winter wonderland with our #1 grandson Calvin!! That would be our only visit with our beautiful grandson until a truly joyous event took place in July: the birth of our #1 granddaughter Katelyn. It would take Wendy and I about 3 weeks after her birth before we got to see her, hold her and just marvel that we were grandparents for the second time. How awesome was this! And this visit gave us much time to keep Calvin busy while mom and baby were taking care of business. There would be two more glorious visits to North Carolina; September for Calvin's 3rd birthday; yes I said 3rd! We went back in early December for our Christmas visit. These are nothing short of great memories and profound joy! I also remain amazed and grateful that our family makes sure we Skype with the grandkids almost every single weekend!
More profound joy in 2015 when it became very apparent to Wendy and I that our daughter Elizabeth was getting incredibly serious with her boyfriend Mark. In early May the plan was hatched, Mark would be proposing to our daughter at the top of the Abita Springs gazebo. A ring and a date and now the happy couple is counting down the days until April 30 2016; wedding day! There will be plenty of parties and preparation between now and then. Congratulations to Elizabeth & Mark.
I had an unexpected change in my ministry this past year when word came down that the Archbishop would be transferring me from my almost 5 years at Most Holy Trinity back to my home parish of St. Jane de Chantal in Abita Springs. From the time it was announced until it became time to leave was very emotional. The folks at MHT were so genuine in expressing how they wished I was staying while old and new friends alike at St. Jane's were excited about my return home. Actually leaving MHT was so difficult and they sent me off with a grand farewell. To this day, now some almost 6 months later I do miss them. But my arrival at St. Jane's was equally glorious. I am so back in the saddle and enjoying the role I play at St. Jane's. A source of profound joy for me was helping to organize a big adult faith Bible Study that still has over 70 participants 4 months in.
Always a source of great joy as a Permanent Deacon is my prison ministry at Rayburn Correctional which this year saw a couple of exciting weekend retreats for the men. I also count every Baptism, every wedding as another source of profound joy. And the little bit of help I was able to offer the 2015 candidates in formation, especially in homiletics, is too joyful. These men were ordained in June here in the Archdiocese of New Orleans but sadly, and very disappointingly, I missed this ordination. Sometimes you just can't be two places at one time.
As a blogger how exciting was it to document the trip to America of Pope Francis and to report on the Jubilee Year of Mercy. Blogging disappoint both in the spring and a couple of weeks ago have cause me some angst; even contemplating moving this blog to another host. Simply, just stand by.
So as I sit here at home on this New Year's Eve that's my look back on 2015. I profoundly thank God for all His many blessings and even the challenges that help us grow in holiness.
Here is to 2016. My prayer is for all of us to experience greater growth in holiness, a closer relationship with God, and blessings for us all. And my personal prayer intention is for a year of great blessings and profound joy and happiness for my wife Wendy; she deserves it!!!
See you all in 2016!
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