A Small World

One of my favorite things we do here is to visit home-bound folks.  You always meet such loving and fascinating people.  Today Fr. Steve and I headed out to Marion, Alabama to go chat with a lady who used to go to Our Lady Queen of Peace and bring her communion.  She is 93 and sharp as a tack.  Interesting fact about her: she is one of the few remaining veterans of the the Army Nursing Corp during World War II.  Crazy!  She had been stationed in both Italy and North Africa, so she had seen the worst of it.  As it turns out, one of her first assignments was actually at Fort Devens in Massachusetts.  When she told me this, I blurted out, "HEY!  That's in my parents town!"  As we talked a bit more I learned she was from Southern Maine and quite near to my aunt and cousins, who reside in and around Gorham.  Here we are in southern Alabama and I find a Mainer who had close connections to both the places where much of my family is.

Mass coordinating is gradually getting easier.  I'll get one thing down then I'll completely forget another.  It'll come with time.

This Thursday we head down to New Orleans.  The wake for Fr. Mike Jacques will be on Friday, and the funeral, Saturday morning.  It is going to be absolutely mobbed.  Mike, as I mentioned in an earlier post, had 2400 families registered at his parish, the vast majority of which attended Sunday liturgies on a weekly basis. Also, being that he was such a huge advocate for his section of town, particularly for the poor and underrepresented, he was famous in New Orleans for his work with social justice.  One of the first people to publish anything about his death was the mayor of New Orleans.  They are expecting four bishops, including the archbishops of New Orleans and Mobile (our diocese).  So between them, the local clergy, and the smorgasbord of Edmundites, St. Peter Claver will be quite stuffed before everyone else arrives.  Apparently they are going to put a live feed in the school buildings for overflow.  Thursday there will be a service at St. Peter Claver at which some parishioners and close friends will be given the opportunity to eulogize Mike.  I am looking forward to seeing my Edmundite brothers who will be coming down from Vermont and Connecticut.

Our retreat at the Trappist Monastery of the Holy Spirit has sadly been cancelled due to everything surrounding Mike's death.  It would just be too much to try and coordinate all the services and transitions that will be happening in the next few weeks and months.

In a few weeks St. Edmund's summer camp, which is run through Our Lady Queen of Peace, will begin.  It lasts for three weeks. I will be helping out with that in the mornings.  I'm not sure of the exact details but the program has educational and artistic components.  Perhaps I will be able to do some music stuff with the kids!  That would be terrific.

Other than that, not much is new here.  The temperature is on the rise, but I'm adjusting.  Today it got up to 97 and I was in pants and a long sleeve shirt (to be fair, my sleeves were rolled up a bit).  Soon it'll be in the 100s.  Thank God for air conditioning!

St. Peter Claver parish in New Orleans

Inside of St. Peter Claver

http://www.stpeterclaverneworleans.org/
http://www.catholic.org/saints/saint.php?saint_id=94