Tuesday, March 24, 2009

One of those days...

Grabbed some coffee and donuts for breakfast on the way to the office. Plenty waiting for me, as always on Tuesday morning. Took awhile just getting through emails, and snail-mail and phone calls. Was in the middle of responding to an email when a call came--one of our parishioners had just died; the parochial vicar had been visiting, but he was unavailable. (He was performing a wedding at a nursing home--not for a resident, but for a couple who elected to be married there so an elderly parent could take part. That required special permission from the Archbishop, by the way.) I was also having a short meeting with a member of the staff, and we cut it short, and I went over to the house. Spent about an hour there, praying with and consoling the family, until the funeral director arrived.

Back to the office, back to the same stuff. That death--plus another one--meant planning funerals. Turned out both families wanted the funerals the same day and same time. Various phone calls and emails later, we worked it out.

In between all this, I'm preparing for tonight's penance service. Thank God for the parochial vicar, who was planning to preach. I put a program together and had my secretary run it off just before she headed home for the day. Oh, I forgot--someone stopped by, unexpectedly, needing to talk. That happens a lot.

Around 5, I ran to Rallys for a late lunch; back to the office, and wasted a little time, before heading over to set things up for the penance service. Opened the doors, turned on the lights, set up chairs in various places for the priests and penitents. Eight locations (including two confessionals), all but one had option for anonymous.

A nice number of folks showed up--but never enough. We finished in an hour. That's why I always get as many priests as we can accommodate. No one complains if you get done earlier, and we're ready if lots show up.

I invited the priests back for a drink--"a little conviviality"--afterward, but this time, everyone had to go. I got back home around 8:30 pm, ordered up some Chinese for dinner (some House Special Soup and some more of the Singapore Chow Mei Fun I ordered last week).

Sat back and watched the President's news conference; Bill O'Reilly was haranging about the President being "boring." Who cares? News conferences aren't usually anything else, and it's hard to see what's in it for the President to try to keep things other than boring. Actually, for the part I saw, I thought Mr. Obama handled himself pretty well--setting aside how much of what he advocates, I disagree with.

He sometimes fumbles around without a teleprompter, but he seemed reasonably good most of the time. I noticed, however, when he tried to describe the moral and ethical considerations of embryo-destroying "research," he fumbled a lot. I wondered--is this the first time he's tried to say, out loud, what those moral considerations are? Or was he aware that he might, unwittingly, give away the game? It sounded to me as though he was well rehearsed in saying things like, "I know many people have serious moral and ethical objections to this research, and I respect that..." but utterly lacking in comprehension of just why.

While all that was going on, I'm browsing the 'net, catching up on the news, and reading amusing things. I am saddened to read about what's going on at Notre Dame University; I think this is a major sell-out, and I fear this is a crossing-the-Rubicon moment.

Well, it's about 10:30--that's my day.

9 comments:

Greta said...

You should have been a cop with all the donuts you eat. I gain weight just reading your blog, but would never give it up.

Fr Martin Fox said...

one cup of coffee, two donuts--my frequent breakfast!

Peyton talk said...

Bishop John M. D'Arcy of Fort Wayne, IN has made a statement regarding
this situation:
http://www.diocesefwsb.org/COMMUNICATIONS/statements.htm

Anonymous said...

Fr. "a late lunch at 5 PM" is not lunch, it's dinner! I pray you can start eating at regular times and intervals! God bless you for being optimisitc and prepared for the one day that all will value the Sacrament of Reconciliation again. Thanks for your faithful service in your vocation.

Anonymous said...

Oh give me the coffee & the doughnuts! English spelling! lol

Jeff said...

Add it together with Caritas Boston being allowed to refer people for abortions and an editorial by the head of the Pontifical Council for the Family writing in L'Osservatore Romano that a Brazilian bishop should not have declared an excommunication of doctors and parents who got an abortion for a young girl and you have a very depressing scene.

Anonymous said...

twit, twit twit, yawn....

Sharon said...

Father, why don't priests have housekeepers any more? I am sure that a housekeeper could prepare nourishing and healthy meals for you.

Fr Martin Fox said...

Sharon:

Well, for the following reasons:

1. I'd never be there to eat the meals the housekeeper made. I am at the office all day or out and about and get home about 9 or so most nights.

2. The cost.