Sacred Heart Parish, Newburgh, NY

September 19, 2010

Peace and Good,

Hope all is well! I finished up my mission in Iowa. Holy Rosary Cluster has five sites and one priest. A couple of the sites are relatively close, but a couple of them are over 20 miles from each other. It is a real challenge.

The people of Iowa are very much like all the people whom I have met in the mid-west. They are honest and friendly and straight forward. It was a pleasure working with them this past week. I had a morning and evening session at each of the sites, one of each of the Gospels and one on the Acts of the Apostles.

I flew back to Baltimore on Friday, and picked up the van and headed up 95. I drove as far as Trenton, NJ and stayed there for the night. Then I drove the rest of the way the next morning. The parish I am in now has about 2,000 families. It is called Sacred Heart, and it was originally an all Italian parish. They still have a Mass on Sunday morning with the readings and songs in Italian.

I finished a few works this week. One is a book by G.A. Henty called When London Burned. I had read a book by him earlier in the year about the battle of Agincourt. He wrote a large number of books about English history - historical fiction. He died around 1900, and his books are basically feel good stories of heroism. Once in a while it is good to read something simple like that.

The second book I finished was a biography of Kosciusko by Monica Gardner. K. was a Polish aristocrat who fought with the Americans during our revolution. When he returned to his native land, he fought the dismemberment of his own country by Russia, Prussia, and the Austrian empire (the partitions). He led a rebellion, and was eventually imprisoned by Catherine the Great. He was only liberated during the reign of her son.

The third book is actually a work in three volumes called Traditions of the North American Indians by James Athearn Jones. It was published in 1830, and purports to be a series of stories told by native Americans. I am not sure if all of the stories are authentic, but it was good reading and gave me a bit of insight into their culture.

My schedule for the next weeks is:

09/25/10 - 09/29/10 - St. John, the Apostle, Kingston, Ontario p.o.c. Fr. David Collins (Parish Mission)

10/02/10 - 10/06/10 - St. Raphael, Burlington, Ontario p.o.c. Fr. Maurice Richard (Parish Mission)

10/08/10 - 10/10/10 - Priestfield Retreat Center, Priestfield, WV p.o.c. Carolyn Protin (SFO Retreat)

10/14/10 - Dominican Retreat Center, McLean, VA 22101 p.o.c. Sr. Agnes (Evening for Married Couples)

10/15/10 - 10/17/10 - Dominican Retreat Center, McLean, VA 22101 p.o.c. Sr. Agnes (Men's Retreat)

10/22/10 - 10/26/10 - St. Julia Church, Siler City, NC 27344 p.o.c. Reverend James Fukes (Parish Mission)

11/06/10 - 11/11/10 - Sacred Heart, La Plata, MD 20646 p.o.c. Fr. Ron Potts (Parish Mission)

11/13/10 - 11/18/10 - St. Alphonsus, Wexford, PA 15090 p.o.c. Fr. Peter P. Murphy (Parish Mission)


God bless and
Shalom
fr. Jude