Where to begin ...

I haven't forgotten abaout the blog, it's just been ... well ... busy.

Mom's 70th Birthday was on March 8th, so after Mass on Sunday the 9th I drove up to Toledo to surpise her. Dad didn't know I was coming, either ... only Kathy knew, and I forbad her to even tell Butch. The ruse built up for days with phone calls, the last of which was made as I was within blocks of the house. I had made a big batch of czarnina (duck soup) that weekend and told Mom that maybe I'd swing by and drop some off ... ha, ha, yeah, yeah ... then a few minutes later I pulled in the driveway and got the cooler out of the trunk. Mom greeted me at the door with a kind of "What the hell are you doing here?!" look, and I said "I told you I'd drop off some soup ... Happy Birthday" Both Mom and Dad were very surprised ... mission accomplished.

With the Archbishop's treatment regimen he's pretty much confined to his house so as to avoid germs, and subsequently was unable to preside at the Holy Week Liturgies in the Cathedral ... that means I got to. At the Easter Vigil I Baptized two adult men and received six other adults into Full Communion. Easter Sunday we had First Communion for five of our young people. Of course I had my own suggestions and ideas on how to do things ... and some of them were actually well received (which means others were NOT).

Easter evening (after my nap) I went to supper at a parishioner's home ... it was nice and low key, and no little kids running around.

Dad's 72nd birthday was Holy Saturday ... I told him ahead of time not to expect any surpiose visits, as I was kind of occupied that weekend.

This past few days the NCEA national convetion was here in Indy ...about 8000 people. Since the Office of Education for the Archdiocese was the official host, other Archdiocesan agencies were enlisted to help. The Office of Worship coordinated the major liturgies ... the opening Mass in the convention center had 3000 people, the closing Mass was much more intimate ... only 1500. As Director of Liturgy it fell to me to figure out, among other things, how to distribute Communion (under both forms) to 3000 people in an orderly and timely manner. We did it, and the powers-that-be seemed pleased. Before all these liturgies could happen we had to pack up and haul down to the convention center everything needed for Mass with 3000 people ... Altar, linens, books, vessels, candles, and much more. And, becuase this was the convention center, we had to take stuff that was proportionate to the size of the space ... BIG altar ... BIG cnadlesticks ... LOTS of vessels ... you get the idea.

Tomorrow I have my first wedding here at the Cathedral ... the Bride is from Jasper, and the Groom is Polish (both parents 100%) from Columbus, OH. We're made for each other. They invited me to the Rehearsal Dinner to have the meal prayer, so I started out with the Sign of the Cross in Polish. The Groom's Busia was thrilled. After the 2:00 Wedding, I click into weekend mode with the usual schedule. But inbetween ...

I have to finish planning/coordinating a priest's funeral for Monday morning.

Today I received an email from one of my Monastery classmates who left a few years back. He started out something like "Well, I guess the big news is that I had a heart attack on Palm Sunday then triple bypass surgery on Monday of Holy Week." He's one year older than me ...

So it's been with me ... but I'm having fun and most people are great, and that makes it all very worthwhile.

Alleluia, y'all.