What's doing

Sorry for no posts for a few days. It's been an interesting week so far:

Monday morning I drove out to Saint Louis. I did so first to look at a baptismal font I might like to acquire for St. Boniface Parish (the jury is still out), but then to visit my brother, who lives in St. Louis. I had a nice visit with the fellow, Michael, with the baptismal font, who told me its history -- it came from a parish in Kansas City -- and who showed me his warehouse of reclaimed religious articles. It is a melancholy sight, reflecting the closure of churches and the odd choices of pastors in altering church interiors. Michael and I chuckled over some of the more modern artwork that found its way to him--"good luck selling that."

As I wasn't meeting my brother and his wife until six, and I had some time to kill, Michael directed me to the Shrine of St. Joseph in downtown St. Louis. I found it with no trouble, but alas it was closed. It is a building from the 1840s, and currently the towers are being repaired. It is supposed to be beautiful inside, sorry I missed it.

I fiddled around in a bookstore, and had a drink, before meeting my brother; actually, I met my sister-in-law, as she was preparing dinner, but my brother was still hard at work. Over the years, he's started a number of business ventures, some have done better than others, although he's done well for himself overall. At 58, he's once again working on a new business venture, and working 16-hour days, including lots of physical labor. I told him, over dinner, it was just like our dad, who ran a one-man business, selling and delivering candy and snack items, until his 70s. At my present age, 45, I'm as old as he was when he had a third (of seven) children on the way.

Tuesday morning, after a nice walk around Forest Park in the center of Saint Louis and breakfast, I drove back to Piqua, got back around 4 pm. I would have gotten back earlier, but cutting up to U.S. 36, just east of Indianapolis, seemed a good idea. Little did I know it was "Drive your Farm Combine Day" in Indiana. No one to blame by myself. It was very pretty country.

Tuesday evening, I met with a group of St. Boniface Parishioners to ask their help on our "Rebuild St. Boniface" project--they are going to ask their fellow parishioners to make pledges to support critical repair and maintenance needs coming due.

Wednesday morning, we had our second Latin Mass--according to the current Missal. I was curious how many would show, since I didn't promote it this time. Would the novelty have worn off? Would people forget? Would anyone be irritated? A good crowd showed, mostly the regulars, and they seemed to do even a little better with the Latin responses; and some came clearly because of the Latin. If you are interested, mark your calendar: first Wednesday of every month, 8 am, St. Mary Church, Piqua. We are using the English texts for the collects and the readings, but everything else is in Latin (except when the priest forgets, as I did for one part yesterday). We are singing Latin hymns and will be doing the proper antiphons.

Other than simply returning calls, and sorting through mail, I spent a lot of time on the baptismal font project yesterday. I had to find out of the dings and nicks in this font can be repaired (jury is out); I got an idea for an alternate plan, that I made some calls to investigate. I almost forgot, but I did make it to a "Clergy Appreciation" lunch at the Kiwanis meeting. I was very heartened when one of the local Baptist pastors made a strong pitch for this Sunday's "Life Chain" to oppose abortion, and thanked him afterward.

Last evening, I had my weekly treat: the Bible study. We are looking at the Gospel of Matthew, and we just wrapped up the Sermon on the Mount. I learn more as I do this, and it seems to be fun for those involved. Again, if you are interested, 7 pm pretty much every Wednesday (we skipped on 4th of July, and when I was out of town), at St. Boniface, in the school.

(In a separate post, I share some thoughts on Matthew.)

After the Bible study, I met up with a group that gathers every Wednesday, and we had some beer and wings; I persuaded several of them to try deep-fried pickles, and they agreed they were good, and they proved my 3rd law: almost anything good is better deep-fried (better-tasting of course; I make no health claims). It was 10:30 when I got home.

This morning I got to sleep a little late and surf the 'net a bit, and post here; now I have to go have Mass at one of the area nursing homes. We have four, so once-a-month for each one.