On a Sunday afternoon, I just gotta blog

I realize that I do not do this nearly as much as I used to.  No real reason why just a current fact.  Today feels just like one of those days I need to blog, and reflect and share with those kind enough to read my stuff.  As Sunday's go there are no grandiose plans and I am "working" hard this day as a Deacon.  Working is in quotes because, well, it's not work.  I am assisting today at 3 separate masses, 8 and 10 in the morning(check, done) and 6 pm tonight.  I also got to visit with quite a few folks at the 1st weekend coffee and donut event this morning and the unexpected pleasure of picking up some BBQ at the Knights of Columbus event also held this morning on the church grounds.  In the meantime I have decided there will be no grass cutting today, after all I have cut some grass 4 of the past 5 days.  There is the distinct hope of an afternoon nap but I am enjoying some golf on the tube.

This weekend has been full of many Catholic highlights.  Here at home we witnessed the ordination of 8 new Priests for the Archdiocese of New Orleans.  That is a pretty darn good number.  These are good men who will make fine Priests and they all will begin their new pastoral assignments on July 1.  I did not attend the event in person but did watch it all unfold live on the computer.  You know what was incredible?  The pure joy in the 8 men who became Priests of Jesus Christ yesterday by the laying on of hands.  The ordination was attended by an overflow crowd and greeted with excitement by the people of New Orleans.  I thought about the decisions of these men, and the perseverance and the hope their ordinations give to us even in what has not been a stellar year for the church in America.  Yet every single report that we can dissect tells us that vocations are up, vocations are strong and that the church is ordaining more men who happen to be slightly older and undeniably zealous in their desire to serve.

As this is happening at home, more than half-way around the world, the Pope is celebrating all things Catholic in Romania.  He has been met by large and enthusiastic crowds and has presided over simply beautiful liturgies.  These events, always infused by local culture, help remind me of the universality of the church; of course the word catholic means universal.  I was able to take in several events from Romania thanks to EWTN and have posted every major event on this very blog.  These papal events almost always remind me of the hope that Jesus expressed that we all be one.  Sometimes I reflect on just how separated we are in Christianity.  It seems every year someone or something comes along hoping to be the next new shiny toy or the latest flavor of the month.  If we are all ever going to be one, as Jesus prayed, how can it not be anything but under the authority of the Catholic Church, founded itself by Jesus.  That thought makes me smile.

This weekend we had a wedding at the church that was celebrated according to the extraordinary form.  After the actual nuptials there was a full celebration of the Mass, in Latin, according to the 1962 missal.  I was not there but my wife Wendy was as she directs all weddings at the parish.  Wendy has never been to a mass celebrated in the EF.  As she put it, this was my first Latin Mass.  I asked for her thoughts and she loved it.  She was unaware of the beautiful aspects of worship in the EF; the music, the reverence, the way communion is distributed and received.  You know if you ever wanted to come and see the Mass celebrated in the EF, in Latin, according to the 1962 missal, come on over.  Every Sunday at noon our celebration of the Mass is in the EF.

So the longer I blog the shorter the window for a good nap before returning to St. Jane Church this evening.