A good day

     This has been a busy but good day - filled with busy things and rewarding experiences and good news.  The day began as it usually does with Mass, a good way to start.  Then to the office to take care of a variety of things like bulletin news, mass scheduling, phone messages, mail, and even receiving some early Christmas gifts - a box of chocolate candies for the staff, cashews, homemade cookies from a former parishioner in Scottdale, something that sounded liquid beneath its wrappings, and lots of cards.

     This evening after a good dinner, eleven priests heard, by my guess, at least three to four hundred confessions at the last of our Regional Penance Services held tonight at Immaculate Conception in Irwin.  It was, as always, very moving.

     Coming home I found a nice surprise - the annual December newsletter from members of my Sabbatical Class at the School of Applied Theology (SAT) at Berkeley, California.  I attended the Fall term back in 1996.  There were some fifty-six people on the Sabbatical from all over the world, of all ages, mostly Religious women and men and priests and deacons, and some laity.

     Tom Crawford from Sacramento pulls it together.  This year we heard from ten of the group: Tom and myself, Sisters Tricia Nugent and Maree Haggerty of Australia, Cora Richardson from South Africa, Catherine Ryan in Scottland, and Fathers Louis Richard of Broussard, Louisiana, Jesuit Joe Kappes of Wisconsin, Jack Brockman from Brazil (Indiana) and Romy, who has become a bishop in the Philippines.  Our paths crossed for a brief four months, but our respect and love for each other continues.  These newsletters are devoured thoroughly.  Much is happening in the world, and this reminds me of how universal the Church really is.

     And before beginning this post I read online that the Pope has approved a miracle of a young boy in our West attributed to Blessed Kateri Kekakwitha, clearing the way for her canonization, along with Mother Marianne Cope who was approved recently.  The Lily of the Mohawk will be a welcome addition to the Saints of the United States, as will Mother Marianne from Syracuse, New York, who ministered at Molokai with Saint Damien de Vesteur.

     All in all, a good day.