The Peace of Christmas

December 26, 2009

This time of the year is, ironically, quite quiet of me. While everyone else is running around taking care of holiday chores, I get to set back and take it easy a bit. There really aren't very many missions at this time of the year.

I was able to use this time to catch up a bit with my family. I spent a few days in Buffalo visiting my brother and sister. While I was there, I also visited two sisters who taught me in grammar school: Sr. Florence and Sr. Vincentia. They are Franciscan Sisters of St. Joseph. My family was always close to the sisters and friars at my home parish of St. Francis in Athol Springs.

Today I will take off for Pittsburgh because tomorrow I will be baptizing my grand niece. I am on the road so much that I often miss family events, so it is great when I am able to be present.

Yesterday, I was able to have Mass at a retirement village. The weather down here was not that great yesterday, so the folks there would not have had Mass otherwise. I prefer doing something like that on Christmas to having Mass at on over packed Church. There was just a goodness to it.

I have finished a couple of books. The first is a history of the armies of the Roman Empire called Storming the Heavens by Antonio Santosuosso. It gives a good overview of how the armies of Rome changed throughout its history from a civilian force to a mercenary force made up of barbarians hired to protect the empire from barbarians.

The second book was one that I read on my new Kindle. I received a gift from someone and asked the guardian if I could purchase an electronic book. I have been so pleased with it. It is especially giving me a chance to read some of the classics (many of which are free of charge on Kindle through Amazon.com). I finished the first volume of the Personal Memoirs of President Grant (volume one - there are five more to go). It goes from his youth to the earliest days of the Civil War. He is a fairly good author and it is interesting to read the story from his point of view, especially when I know other parts of the story from other sources.

Hope you have a good week. Here is my schedule for the next weeks.

01/03/10 - 01/07/10: St. Patrick's Seminary, Menlo Park, CA - Seminarian Retreat

01/08/10 - 01/14/10: Franciscan Sisters of Little Falls, Little Falls, MN - Sisters' Retreat

01/16/10 - 01/20/10: St. Joan of Arc Catholic Church, Spring, Hill, FL - Parish Mission

01/23/10 - 01/28/10: St. Gregory Catholic Church, Plantation, FL - Parish Mission

01/30/10 - 02/04/10: St. Gregory, the Great Catholic Church, San Diego, CA - Parish Mission

God bless and
Shalom

fr. Jude