Thursday, July 13, 2006

'My Day'

Was it the late, not-very-lamented Eleanor Roosevelt who had a column dubbed, "My Day"? Anyway, I am proud to say I'm the anti-Eleanor Roosevelt. I renounce all the Roosevelts' works, and all their empty promises.

But I'm happy to tell you about my day.

Today, I had Mass at my new parish, across town. I'm still learning how they do things. It has a communion service every day at 8 am, then Mass at 8:45; so I was there for both. The time inbetween was a good time of prayer.

After that, I stopped over to meet with the school's bookkeeper; then I stopped in the office at the other parish and did a little business. Then, I stopped at McDonalds for some breakfast, around 10 am, which I took home. I did a little blogging, then worked on a project for a couple of hours, more than I expected. Around 2, I stopped in the office at St. Boniface, did some phone calls and business, confirmed some appointments, checked in with staffmembers, and then prepared for something very important: time to bless the Sauce!

You see, this is our annual festival; and our venerable former pastor, Father Angelo Caserta, fixes a spaghetti dinner for Friday night. This afternoon, with his minions, he was in the school cafeteria preparing meatballs and sauce. And it falls to the pastor to "bless the Sauce!"

Well, of course I was there, around 4:15! There they were, pulling beautiful meatballs from the ovens, and endlessly stirring a massive vat of Sauce. (The vat was custom made by an auto shop so it covers all eight burners on the stove.) Father Ang always helpfully has some red Zinfandel wine on hand; both for the sauce, and as sauce, for the Pastor, among others.

So we toasted our festival, and I sampled the meatballs, con salsa: molte bene! Then, after some conversation, we blessed the Sauce, the meatballs, the workers, and the festival!

If you are anywhere nearby, do come to Piqua this weekend for our 51st annual festival; Friday and Saturday evening and all day Sunday. Father Caserta's famous Spaghetti Friday; pork tenderloins Saturday, and barbeque chicken Sunday.

All very good dinners last year; plus all kinds of fun and games, Texas Hold 'em, fried Twinkies as I recall, and all manner of fun stuff.

See you there!

8 comments:

Anonymous said...

What would have been served on Friday night before the rule about no meat on Friday was done away with?

Fr Martin Fox said...

I dunno; maybe a fish fry. Or maybe I would have given a dispensation (or gotten one from the archbishop).

As it is, the spaghetti sauce has no meat in it, and it's very good by itself! So if one wants to omit meat, one need only avoid the meatballs. We've been doing this pretty long, so I'll have to ask what we did, back in the day.

Actually, what happened was that the "no meat" rule was made voluntary -- i.e., we're still supposed to do some penance; but it doesn't have to be that penance.

David L Alexander said...

I had the impression that communion services were not allowed in your diocese where there was Mass available. In the event that I am mistaken, under what circumstances are they permissible, and how can they be on a day that a priest is available to say Mass (albeit at a different time)?

Fr Martin Fox said...

David:

To answer your direct question, to be candid, I haven't done the research (yet). There's all sorts of particular laws and norms that one looks up, as needed, such as in this case.

I inherited the present arrangement, and everything is in flux: I just became pastor of two parishes, the other pastor is staying, but due to illness is scaling back; one of our longtime retired priests is moving on, while the other is still here -- but he's 87, so we must be practical.

So, as it happens, we're changing Mass schedules and times, and planning for future changes in the expected event we have not 3 priests, but 2 or 1.

My point being, the question of communion services is going to "shake out" as part of all this; and I am mindful of the parishioners' perspective: everything is changing!

Anonymous said...

Father,

Is the recipe for the Sauce secret, or are you at liberty to post it online? It sounds absolutely mouth-watering!

Regards,
Pat Gonzalez

Fr Martin Fox said...

Pat:

Alas, I am not the maker of The Sauce; that honor belongs to Father Caserta, so I do not know The Recipe.

Yes, it is very good; the meatballs are even better!

Anonymous said...

Is this the same Father Angelo Caserta who was pastor of St. Lawrence Church in Cincinnati? I remember him as a very good and holy man and a truly Christian pastor who made it possible for my mother to recieve Holy Communion prior to her death in 1980.

Anonymous said...

You egotistical bastard,
what's with refering to the Roosevelt like they are satan?

Perhaps you should pull your head out of your over-pious asshole,
and realize that the whole word does not subscribe to your point of view.