Today was “one of those days” and I thought it would never end. To begin with, I woke up with a headache from the bowels of Hades. The weather fronts were shifting and locked my sinuses up tight, causing a huge sinus headache.
I went over to open the chapel early because I had the 6:30 a.m. Mass. However, before Mass, I had to write my daily reflection because I had put it off until the morning. I got it done and posted at 5:45 a.m. so that it would auto-post at 6:00 a.m.
After the 6:30 a.m. Mass, I got busy gathering the paperwork I would need for today’s deanery meeting. When I got the agenda and other papers together, I celebrated the 8:30 a.m. Mass.
After that Mass, I did more office work. I wanted to get my Pastor’s Page and bulletin cover finished for this coming Sunday. That never happened. I’ll have to do it first thing tomorrow because the bulletin goes to the printer tomorrow.
At 11:00 a.m., I was at Calumet Park Cemetery to do a committal service for a dear friend that lived in our neighborhood when I was growing up. I got to know her family really well, even babysitting for her three daughters from time to time in high school. It was bittersweet to see them again. I was glad to see them but sad because of the death of their mom.
After the committal service, I picked up one of our deacons and one of our priests and we went to St. Bridget in Hobart for our monthly deanery meeting. (We meet on the third Monday of every month but at different parishes in the deanery.) Our special guest at the meeting was our new bishop. Today gave him a chance to meet a good number of the priests of the diocese and to hear some of our thoughts about our history and our future. It was a very good meeting.
When I got back to the parish, I wrote up the minutes of the meeting and sent them out to the priests and deacons of our deanery as well as to the bishop. I finished that up at 4:20 p.m., just in time for an appointment I had at 4:30 p.m. to do some marriage paperwork.
When all was said and done, I headed back to the house to sit in my recliner and try to nurse down my headache. To be honest, it hasn’t worked. I generally take two Tylenol when I go to bed for my joint pain; so, hopefully it will calm the throbbing head. I’m popping my night pills now.
Tomorrow I’m back to both Masses in the morning. My associate, Fr. Declan, is away on vacation until next week. He comes home Mardi Gras evening, just in time for Ash Wednesday.
So, as you can imagine, I’m about to end this with my typical sign off: g’night
What a day!! It makes me dizzy just thinking about it. I still want to see you, but I don’t want to add one more thing to your schedule. My faith has been shaken, and I’m reading the wrong things. Either I work this out myself, or I add to your already busy schedule. Time is on our side, I believe. (I need to stop reading “stuff”.) God Bless!
Give me a call, Pat. I’ll be more than happy to make time for you. If you need to talk, let’s do it.