I didn't intend to take time off from blogging, it just sort of happened. Certainly, after fifteen months of the blog, the initial zeal is over. I never intended it to be a daily journal, and there are plenty of blogs out there to fill that pocket in you.
Here at the parish, we just had an 8am Mass for today's Holy Day. We have one more Mass at 11am, but right now I'm taking some pleasure in looking out my office window at the cars driving by the parish, the passengers wondering why there are no cars in the parking lot at this time? The answer: there is no 9:30am Mass this morning! 8, 9:30, and 11 is our usual Sunday schedule, and despite publishing the Mass times for today in our bulletin and announcing them at every Mass this past weekend, there are (obviously) people who either don't listen that well, or leave after receiving Holy Communion, and so are neither there to hear the announcements nor to grab a copy of the bulletin.
It's hard to believe we've arrived at 2008. This year will be the tenth anniversary of my ordination, so I've had this year dancing around my head for a number of years already. I've been speaking to some classmates of mine (including a great afternoon a few days ago with classmates from the dioceses of Trenton and Wheeling-Charleston), and we're trying to arrange an "anniversary trip to Rome" this coming October. Our class did a trip while we were still seminarians, back during Christmas of 1996. Today is the kind of day that begs you to look back at your life: where you are, where you thought you'd be, friends who you've lost contact with, and friends who you didn't have a decade ago.
But, like Jesus said, no one can plow a straight furrow whilst looking back. New Year's Day is just as much about looking ahead than behind. There's something about today that brings out the optimist in everyone: I will lose that weight. I will contact old friends. I will pray more, read more, study more. There's lots of unknown adventures out there, and lots of things I can't wait to see and read. So, for the new year, I make the words of today's first reading my own wishes for you:
The Lord bless you and keep you!
The Lord make His face to shine upon you and be gracious to you!
The Lord lift his countenance upon you and grant you peace!
1 comment:
Thanks for the blessing, Father. The same unto you.
Steve
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