Good Lord what the heck happened to October 2016. After waiting patiently for the first full month of fall to get here, there she goes. In a little over 30 hours October goes away and we will arrive at November. And then there is the problem with the weather. Yes October finally gave us our first cold front and we did have almost one week of high 40/low 50 mornings and 75 to 80 afternoons. But that was almost one week only. Before that and since then it's been way too hot and humid. Today feels like 90. And while October is traditionally dry, we have had no rain in a month; maybe one brief shower that was more like a spit.
October did provide us with all the usual fall stuff, football was hot and heavy and our local teams are not doing so well. LSU transitions to life after Les Miles and has looked much better since the change. Still, LSU is only ranked 15th as Alabama comes to town. It will be an exciting week and a more exciting day next Saturday in Baton Rouge. Tulane is the same mess they always are, now sitting at 3-5 with more losses to come. The Saints salvaged October today with a very exciting victory over Seattle but still stand at 3-4. I believe the jury is still out and I do now believe they can do better than the 6-10 record I predicted. But I'm skeptical because I need to see so much more from this organization as the losing seasons pile up. Today though was an exciting win for the Saints.
October was super busy for ministry and all things "deacon". October brought the first ever Deacon Convocation for the Archdiocese of New Orleans as Archbishop Aymond spent an entire day with all the Permanent Deacons and those wives who were able to attend. This is a great milestone for us and we all appreciated the time with the Archbishop and the knowledge we gained to be able to better serve the church. In addition to the convocation October brought two full weekends of preaching, several special visits with the men at Rayburn Prison, the continuing weekly Bible studies and a nice opportunity to interview some young people preparing for confirmation.
November will bring a very busy month from All Saints Day to First Friday and a big retreat at Rayburn this Saturday. I will be worn out by the end of the first weekend in November. I also am looking forward to a special prayer service I'm participating in at my former assigned parish, Most Holy Trinity then of course our Thanksgiving liturgy. Of special note, the end of the Jubilee of Mercy will soon be upon us and just like that we begin Advent.
November of course will bring to an end this nasty ugly election year. Sadly, I do not believe the election will end the divisiveness and the nasty. I hope I'm wrong. But in any event, at least the election will be done in just about 10 days.
So I am sad to see October go but very happy to welcome November and to always rejoice that each and every day, each change of month and each change of season all belong to God. May we all experience a grace filled November!
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