Thanksgiving Update

Sorry for the long delay on posts. I should be up and running again this week and back to normal. I am hoping to post several times a week from this point on. It has been a long November as seemingly most of the work has piled up as of recent. I was fortunate to be able to go home for Thanksgiving, which was a nice treat.

Unfortunately I left my laptop battery at home, which means I have little power left to write the four papers I need to do this week. I hope to get a replacement one this afternoon. If I am successful I will post again tonight. In the meantime I am conserving what little power I have for my papers. Until then I thought I would post a picture that could buy me some time. It is from our "photo shoot."

Multiple Endings, Your Choice

Did you ever read one of the books as a child where you got to choose your own ending? This posting/continuation of the last one/ works that way, only one of the endings is real. The others are j.f.f. (just for fun).

Ending # 1. I realized that my tires were bald. This of course was bad news, very bad. Tires are outrageously expensive and it looked as if I needed four more. I furiously went inside and began calling around for quotes. Being a seminarian means being in formation and as a student full time, translation= having no money and not being able to earn any. The first several places quoted $500 (including an alignment).
Looking at my checking account and then again at the cost I was getting rather nervous. After hours of searching on line I found the perfect place where I could get four great tires for only $400. There was no way this deal could be too good to be true. So, the next day, Saturday, I plugged the address into a borrowed G.P.S. and away I went. The tire store was in Maryland, so I thought how far away, could it really be? I mean after all Maryland is not big of a state right?
So, off I went on my journey. The G.P.S. was not behaving and for some reason claimed it was 90 minutes away. Surely there was some mistake. So I kept driving and as I drove the time kept getting later. Two hours later I arrived. What on earth made me drive two hours to the middle of nowhere for tires! The service was great. As I sat in the lobby I played with the GPS and discovered I was as far south as Richmond, Virginia, but at the southernmost tip of the state. AHHHHH
After two hours back, I made it just in time for dinner, tired, annoyed and poor. However, thanks to the generosity of a great friend I was able to cover the tires. So, if you are ever in the farthest reaches of Maryland I know a great place for tires.....

Option #2. I realized I left my meal at Burger Kind

Option #3. I realized that there was a small kitten trapped in a tree by a hungry bear which was below. I climbed the tree and rescue the small kitten. On my way down I fought off the angry bear and happily returned the kitty to its 85 year old owner.





Hope you picked wisely. Stay tuned for my next adventure.... a dark and stormy night.... a get away car and a possible faith crisis....

A Bus, a Burger and a Bru Ha Ha

The other day I was went for a quick dinner at a local health food restaurant. It was a nice one that even had an armed police officer on duty in it 24/7, to make the customers feel safe. Although I must admit I felt less save when I realized that it is not a good sign if Kurger Bing needs an armed guard for the Whoppers.

None-the less I grabbed my "salad" and headed to the parking lot. The good thing was I did not stick out at all as a nerdy white guy with a salad. When I got to my car I prepared to pull out of the parking lot. I sat waiting for the right moment to head out into traffic. As I sat waiting I noticed a big Baltimore bus headed down the road on my side. Next thing you know I saw the driver put the blinker on and pull over a few hundred feet from my exit. Seeing my opportunity to finally leave I pulled out.

I am not sure if it was my New Hampshire liscence plate, whether the bus driver was intimated by me or if he was jealous of my 2003 toyota camry, but suddenly the driver was coming at me at full speed. I may be a seminarian but I was not quite ready to meet God yet. Visions flashed through my head of the newspaper articles that would follow. Seminarian killed leaving Burger King.

Being the good driver I am, I stepped on the gas. At that very moment, to my horror, my car stood still. My tires began to spin widely, but my car barely moved. Don't panic, I said to myself, that is not a large bus moving at 40 mph in my rear view mirror. It is not really closer than it appears.

Hey look the nice man driving the bus is trying to say something to me. Oh, he is waving to me. Isn't that nice.

Welcome to Baltimore!

Well a little shaken up I arrived back at St. Mary's. It was at that very moment that I realized, to my horror that...


to be continued

AHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH

Note: Listen to the whole itunes cd before you buy it. Otherwise you might purchase an album of songs with great instrumentals for the first 30 seconds, and horrible vocals the rest of the time.

Sunday Morning

Today I am relaxing and enjoying a beautiful Autumn Sunday morning. It is in the 60's, the sun is shining and it is truly spectacular. I had an early breakfast, went for a walk and am about to head down for Mass. Sunday is supposed to be a day of rest, yet in life it often seems so hard to find the time to stop and do just that. I for one find this quite difficult to do. It always seems as if there are one million things to do and only limited time. One of the great things about being in the Seminary is that there is time to stop, relax and reflect. Today for me is one of those days and I am so grateful for it. I am looking forward to doing some reading outside and just taking in the beauty of creation. Every time I stop for such a relaxing interlude I wonder why I don't do it more often.

On a side note today the seminarians from Manchester are being visited by the Diocesan communications director and a photographer. We are schedule to have an afternoon photo shoot for the vocations campaign materials. Just another typical day for me, a quiet morning and an afternoon photo shoot (just kidding about the typical part). In reality my picture is now featured on the diocesan vocation webpage (www.liveinblackandwhite.com ) and every time I see it I am embarrassed. This of course guarantees that my fellow seminarians will be frequenting this webpage whenever I am in the room, just to make me crazy.

Election Day

First they came for the Communists,
and I didn’t speak up,
because I wasn’t a Communist.
Then they came for the Jews,
and I didn’t speak up,
because I wasn’t a Jew.
Then they came for the Catholics,
and I didn’t speak up,
because I was a Protestant.
Then they came for me,
and by that time there was no one
left to speak up for me.

by Rev. Martin Niemoller, 1945




Who will you speak for?














..

All Souls Day

Throughout the month of November the Church takes particular focus on praying for those of our brothers and sisters who have gone before us. Here at St. Mary's we have a special book with the names of the departed that sits in the center of the chapel for the entire month. In it are the names of loved ones who have passed on. Each and every day we gather in November we pray in a special way for each person whose name is found within. The tradition of praying for the dead is a long one in the Church. We ask God in a special way to welcome all those who have departed into his kingdom.

On the left column of the blog I have my email address attached. I would like to invite all of you who follow the site to email me the names of your loved ones who you would like remembered in our prayers. I will add each of their names to the book of the dead and our entire community will remember them in our prayers each and every day.

God Bless!