While everyone else is thinking about dressing up for Halloween, I am thinking about dressing up for Rome in December. I had to go to Chicago today to have my fitting for my cassock and other paraphernalia for when I go to Rome. I felt very, very uncomfortable. Anyone who knows me well knows that I am not a real “dress up” kind of person when it comes to church garb. For me, dressing up simply means wearing my clerical collar, not even a suit coat.
So, for me to be measured and fitted for a cassock, cape, surplice, sash zucchetto, biretta, and the like is mind-boggling.
We (I went with Fr. Ted and Fr. Declan) had a chance encounter at the store today. We met three priests who came in to order things and they were from the Diocese of Madison, the diocese where Bishop Hying is now the bishop. One of the priests was ordained this summer, just four days after Bishop Hying arrived. Bishop Hying ordained Fr. Declan three weeks before he left our diocese. That was interesting.
At the all school Mass this morning, the students sang happy birthday to me and presented me with a big card and a Mickey Mouse lap blanket. I told the students that tomorrow, on my birthday, I will be sixty-three years old. Some of the younger students looked in awe and said wow. I told them I was almost as old as the dinosaurs.
So, given the cold and damp today, this old dinosaur is going to get his bones into a tub filled with hot water and then into bed. See you tomorrow.