Port St. Lucie, FL

March 29, 2010

Peace and Good,

Last week saw me preaching in one of the friars' parishes in Port St. Lucie, Florida. It was great to see how loved the friars are there. We have a good, warm team of men who have done great things with the people there.

I drove down (two day ride). I love driving, both because the time in the van gives me a bit of time to myself, and I can listen to books on tape of the way there and back.

I was very impressed by the confessions on Saturday afternoon (three friars, or in this case four of us, from 2:30 until Mass time at 4:00). To me, that is a sign of a good parish, people regularly going to confession. They also piled in when I offered it every afternoon of the mission as well as Thursday when we had two penance services with multiple confessors.

One other thing that truly impressed me is that all Masses, services, talks, etc. are streaming onto the internet site for the parish. This was set up a few years ago, and it makes services available to the sick, funerals and weddings available to distant relatives, talks available to all. The initial set up is a bit expensive, but the monthly fee is about $150, which is really not all that bad. What a service to the parish and the larger Church.

I finished two books. One was a free book that I read for fun. You might notice that most of the books that I read are history or some other deeper topic. Once in a while I just read something to relax. This was one of those free books on my Kindle (e book). It is Already Dead by Charlie Huston. It has everything: vampires, zombies, New York gangs, etc. It was quite well written.

The other book was a CD set: The Messenger by Daniel Silva. Once again, it had everything: terrorist plots, the Mossad, the Vatican, art lovers, etc. It was once of those books that you listen to while you drive, and you find yourself sorry to have arrived at your destination.

I would like to ask a prayer for one of our friars who passed away recently: Fr. Bernard Prczywozny (sp?). He was one of my professors, and he was a gifted teacher. Yet, these last few years were not kind to him, and he suffered from dementia of some form. It was so sad to see him incoherent when he was so brilliant.

The following is my schedule for the next few months:

03/30/10 - St. Louis Catholic Church, Clarksville, MD p.o.c. Mike Leumas (Knights of Columbus Talk)

04/01/10 - 04/04/10 - Bon Secours Retreat Center, Marriottsville, MD p.o.c. Lynn Lieberman (Triduum Retreat)

04/05/10 - 04/10/10 - Franciscan Sisters of St. Joseph, Hamburg, NY 14075 p.o.c. Sr. Joyce Kubiniec (Retreat)

04/11/10 - 04/16/10 - Hyatt Regency Hotel, Hamburg, NY (Provincial Retreat)

04/17/10 - 06/12/10 - International House of Franciscan Studies, Canterbury, England, U.K.

06/13/10 - 06/18/10 - Hyatt Regency Hotel, Hamburg, NY (Provincial Retreat)

06/19/10 - 07/01/10 - St. Victor's Major Seminary, Tamale, Ghana, West Africa p.o.c. Fr. David Azambawu(Seminarian Retreat)

07/04/10 - 07/10/10 - St. Francis Convent, Mishawaka, IN 46546 p.o.c. Sr. M. Dorothy

07/11/10 - 07/18/10 - Quellen Spiritual Center, Mendham, NJ 07945 p.o.c. Sr. Teresa Marie (Sisters' Retreat)