West Florida to the East Coast

January 25, 2010

The Feast of the Conversion of St. Paul

Peace and Good,

I had a mission this past week in St. Joan of Arc Parish in Spring Hill, Florida (about 45 miles north of Tampa). It is a medium sized parish and most of the parishioners are retired. The mission centered on the Gospel of Luke. We had an excellent turn out all week, and the confessions were especially moving.

Most of my extra work these past couple of weeks has been catching up on the daily reflections. I have finished up to the end of February, so I can go back to a couple of my writing projects.

I finished two books in this period. One was a biography of Leo Tolstoy by Henri Troyat. The biography was very, very long (as fits Tolstoy whose novels go on forever). They say that he was almost like God, because he created and peopled an entire world in each of the books that he had written. Troyat is a French scholar, and the book was extremely well done. The only problem is that it does not especially make you like Tolstoy. He had wonderful ideas of pacifism and non-exploitation of the poor, but he was also incredibly judgmental. He and his wife had a very stormy relationship. He died, in fact, when he was running away from home. In his younger years, he made all sorts of resolutions and didn't keep a one of them. They say that in his books his characters show the various dimensions of ideas and show the positive and negative throughout their lives. His characters are very similar to what he is.

The second book that I finished was a biography of Alexander II of Russia by Edvard Radzinsky. Right now I'm on a bit of a Russian kick. This was the czar who liberated the serfs (who were often treated as little better than slaves). He was assassinated by anarchists who prefigured the characters of the Russian revolution. Again, the book was very, very well written, presenting and insight both into Alexander and into the minds of the revolutionaries.

Here is a copy of my calendar for the next couple of months:

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

02/06/10 - 02/11/10: Our Lady of Perpetual Help Catholic Church, Lakeside, CA - Parish Mission

02/13/10 - 02/18/10: Holy Trinity Catholic Church, El Cajon, CA - Parish Mission

02/20/10 - 02/25/10: St. Aloysius Catholic Church, Leonardtown, MD - Parish Mission

02/27/10 - 03/04/10: St. Thomas More Catholic Church, Oceanside, CA - Parish Mission

03/06/10 - 03/10/10: Our Lady of Mercy Catholic Church, Harborcreek, PA - Parish Mission

03/13/10 - 03/17/10: St. Joseph Catholic Church, Pomfret, MD - Parish Mission

03/20/10 - 03/25/10: St. Lucie Catholic Church, Port St. Lucie, FL - Parish Mission

03/29/10: Walter Reed Army Medical Center - Noon Mass & Talk

03/30/10: St. Louis Catholic Church, Clarksville, MD - Knights of Columbus Talk "The Passion Narratives"

God bless and
Shalom

fr. Jude

From the fridge to the fire

January 17, 2010

Peace and Good,

Well, the retreat in Little Falls Minnesota with the Franciscan Sisters went well. There were over 50 of them (both sisters and some of their associates). The theme of the retreat was the Gospel of Luke, which provides ample material for a retreat or a parish mission.

I was impressed with the spirit of the sisters. There is a real sense of Franciscan hospitality in their mother house.

During the retreat I saw the terrible news about Haiti. That country is so poor and poorly run on a good day, and now this devastation. I was impressed with the coverage on CNN. Long before the other networks even reported it, Wolf Blitzer was covering it full time. He must have realized what a true disaster it would be.

At the end of the retreat I was asked to celebrate the funeral mass of one of the sisters, Sr. Seraphine. From what the sisters said, she had a great sense of humor and was a bit of a trickster. She was in her early 90's when she passed away.

I travelled home on Thursday night and flew out again on Friday morning, this time to St. Joan of Arc Parish in Spring Hill, Florida. The people here were complaining about how it got down to 19 last week, and I spoke to them of the fact that it got down to -19 in Little Falls (although, ironically, it was probably more difficult here than there because in Minnesota they build houses to withstand the cold but down here there is so little insulation). The theme this week, as well, will be the Gospel of Luke.

I finished a paperback that I picked up at the airport a while ago: Dark Harbor by Stuart Woods. It was a murder mystery, but not all that good. The characters weren't really developed nor was there that sense of mystery and surprise that I like in a book.

I also finished another book on my kindle: Dante and His Times by Arthur John Butler. This was one of the free books. I'm glad I didn't have to pay for it. It was OK at best. Yet, every time I read one of these books, I learn just a little bit more about the topic, so I guess it was not a waste of time.

My future schedule is as follows:

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

02/06/10 - 02/11/10: Our Lady of Perpetual Help Catholic Church, Lakeside, CA - Parish Mission

02/13/10 - 02/18/10: Holy Trinity Catholic Church, El Cajon, CA - Parish Mission

02/20/10 - 02/25/10: St. Aloysius Catholic Church, Leonardtown, MD - Parish Mission

02/27/10 - 03/04/10: St. Thomas More Catholic Church, Oceanside, CA - Parish Mission

God bless and
Shalom

fr. Jude

From warm to cold

January 10, 2010

The Baptism of Our Lord

Peace and Good,

This past week I was out in California giving a retreat to the seminarians at St. Patrick Seminary in Menlo Park (San Francisco). They are a good group of men. There were 56 of them from many different lands and backgrounds. They come from many of the different dioceses on the West Coast.

The theme of the retreat was the priesthood (this being the year of the priest). They especially seemed to enjoy the pastoral content - experiences that I have had in my priesthood.

Being in California, I received a jolt one morning when we had a c 4.0 earthquake (enough to feel it but not to knock anything over). This was only a couple of days before they had the much greater earthquake in northern California.

Thursday I flew to Chicago where I over-nighted, and then the next morning on to Minneapolis. You should have seen the looks on people's faces when I went through the airport with my sandals and no socks.

This week I am giving a retreat on the Gospel of Luke to a group of the Franciscan Sisters of Little Falls, MN. In California it was in the 50's and 60's, the other morning they reported that it was -19 during the night not to far from here.

I finished two books. One was for my spiritual reading: Saint Ignatius by Christoper Hollis. This book is quite old (I picked it up at a parish where they were throwing it out). It is written by an Englishman and shows a lot of 1920's English humor. It wasn't as detailed as I would have hoped, but it did give me a basic background on the conversion and life of St. Ignatius of Loyola.

The second book was Flannery: A life of Flannery O'Connor by Brad Gooch. This was an excellent book. Flannery was a Catholic fiction writer in the south after the war. She died of Lupus in the early 60's. She wrote mostly fiction, and much of it has a gothic overtone. Yet, she was very feisty, always ready with a retort to what she considered to be inane or hypocritical. She was a fervent Catholic (having her St. Thomas Aquinas right by her bedside). I want to read more about her and also read some of her stories. She fascinates me. I use one of her quotes in my homilies, "For those who are in love with God, they slowly realize that life is part of a divine conspiracy."

Here is my coming calendar:

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

02/06/10 - 02/11/10: Our Lady of Perpetual Help Catholic Church, Lakeside, CA - Parish Mission

02/13/10 - 02/18/10: Holy Trinity Catholic Church, El Cajon, CA - Parish Mission

02/20/10 - 02/25/10: St. Aloysius Catholic Church, Leonardtown, MD - Parish Mission

(Sometimes it makes me tired just thinking about it!)

God bless and

Shalom

fr. Jude

Happy New Year

January 3, 2010

Happy New Year

I had a peaceful Christmas at the friary and the day after I drove up to Pittsburgh to baptize my niece Abigail. She is a cute baby with hair that stick straight up. He brother Nolan has grown so much since I saw him last. Right after the baptism last Sunday I drove home to Ellicott City.

This week I have been editing a series of talks I gave in Kenya last summer (13 of them). I think some of them are good enough to be a series we offer, but I still have to think it through.

I also had some dental work done, a tooth extracted. While I was in the chair, I offered up my suffering for a woman in California who has offered up all of her sufferings from bone cancer for the sanctification of priests. Every time I do that, I suffer very little. It is as if her offering and mine become one, and God somehow takes it upon himself. I do not fully understand, but I have been thinking about it as I read a biography of Flannery O'Connor who was a Catholic author in the south who suffered from Lupus.

I finished a few works this week. One was Mystic River by Dennis Lehane. It was brutal in parts, and disturbing in others, but generally well written. There is a character who says to himself at the end of the book that he realizes that he is evil, but that is OK because he loves his family and community. Believe me, that kind of line sticks with you.

I finished the Memoirs of General Grant. It was six volumes, and the first ones were the best. The last part was written when he was ill with cancer, and it shows signs of having been put together in a hurry. A lot of names and battles, but not a lot of himself put into the explanation.

I also finished the Island of Dr. Moreau by H.G.Wells. I had always heard of this book and even seen the film, but never read it. It asks some good questions about experimentation with animals and people, pain, and how humanlike animals can become and how beastlike humans can become. The descriptions of the processes by which Dr. Moreau changes the animals into humanlike creatures are antiquated, but when one thinks about genetic engineering, it come to life again.

I am giving a seminarians' retreat at St. Patrick's Seminary in Menlo Park, California this week. Please keep me in your prayers. My future schedule is:

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

02/06/10 - 02/11/10: Our Lady of Perpetual Help Catholic Church, Lakeside, CA - Parish Mission

02/13/10 - 02/18/10: Holy Trinity Catholic Church, El Cajon, CA - Parish Mission

God bless and
Shalom

fr. Jude