Friday, June 10, 2011

Busy Weekend

     Much on the agenda for this weekend.  First and foremost, it is the great Feast of Pentecost, the birthday of the Church, the feast of the Spirit, the conclusion of the Easter Season.  Secondly, I will be attending my High School All School Reunion at Saint Vincent in Latrobe (our class is 46 years out).  And thirdly, on Sunday I have been asked to celebrate and preach the 40th Anniversary of the Ezekiel 37 Charismatic Prayer Community in New Kensington, PA, which I deem a great honor and joy.

     As I mentioned in an earlier post, I entered seminary formation after my eighth grade year.  Being from a Polish parish, most of the guys who went to seminary attended Orchard Lake in Michigan.  I wanted to go to the former Saint John the Evangelist High School in Uniontown through the seminary program, but they were full and I was not from that parish.  Father Norbert Gaughan (mentioned in a previous post) made sure that I was enrolled at Saint Vincent Prep School in Latrobe, for which I am eternally grateful.  In my sophomore year, the newly established diocesan minor seminary of Saint Joseph Hall became our residence with classes continuing at Saint Vincent.  We were "day-hops", riding the old yellow school bus every day to classes.

     Saint Vincent is a Benedictine community that was established in 1846 in Latrobe, Pennsylvania by Father Boniface Wimmer from Bavaria.  It is an Archabbey that contains a Monastery, Major Seminary, College, and at one time the Prep School - which served as a regular prep school for boys from the area until our class ... the first of all priesthood students.  We were the beginning of the end for the prep.  I arrived at the prep in the Fall of 1961 and graduated in the Spring of 1965.

     The reunion is an all school affair held every other year on campus with three days of activities.  We begin this evening with a cook out.  I'll share some observations tomorrow.  Have a wonderful PENTECOST WEEKEND!

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