A yea ago this week ...

...the sabbatical was about to launch and Julian was going on the loose. It sure sems like a lot longer. I have the pics with me here in Indy, so maybe I'll start vicariously retracing my travels. It would also be good for me to make an attempt to reclaim what German I started to learn.

Meanwhile for life in Indy, there's been no want of things to do. I was home for a few days at the beginning of the month when the Indianapolis Priests held their annual convocation on the Hill ... as Director of Liturgy I coordinated all the common prayer and Masses for the convocation, but stayed in my Monastery cell. It was nice. Last week I had a wedding and a funeral, with another funeral (mortuary service the burial) tomorrow. Betwixt and between, I've been doing some yard work and landscaping around the Cathedral ... last Monday I worked outside for a good five or six hours straight, for which my back has been very slow to forgive. I've also been doing some work with the large potted plants we have in the Church.

On Saturday the 28th, the Archbishop will ordain first class of Permanent Deacons fpor the Archdiocese ... TWENTY-FIVE of them. I keep saying that the hospitality ministers will need to be armed guards, since admission to the Cathedral will be carefully controlled ... NO TICKET, NO GET IN. We only seat 800 in the Nave, and other spaces have to be held for priests and worthies ...

Sunday, the Solemnity of Sts. Peter and Paul, is our Parish Feast Day, so we're having a picnic in a park not far from the parish. Then on Monday I'm heading out for a week of vacation ... flying to Memphis for a few days, then on to Seagrove Beach, FL, to hang with some friends in a condo on the beach through the 4th of July.

Come June 30th, I will officially have one more year here ... that's the date referenced on my letter of appointment from the Abbot. The Archbishop's letter is less specific, so we'll see how it all shakes down. I imagine there are a few people around here who may start a countdown calendar ....a proverb's paraphrase may apply ... you can please some of the people all the time, and you can please all the people some of the time, but you can't please All the people ALL the time.