Sunday, June 21, 2009

Since I forgot to write an entry in after last night's course of events, today's entry will actually cover TWO days - hopefully it won't be too long. Given that Saturday's particular happenings weren't too time-extensive anyway, I doubt I'll be typing this entry much longer than I normally would. We'll see! Holy Spirit, fill the hearts of your faithful! Lead the way!

AFter an extended leave of absence into Saturday afternoon, I arrived at St. Ben's about 40 minutes or so before the 5:00PM mass. I felt slighty...awkward. My left ear was filled with wax and I couldn't hear myself sing! To make matters worse, this continued all weekend. Good thing I had other parish activities to keep me busy; For one, Kyle, an active parishioner (and, as I found out, a relatively recent "revert") started a "baby bottle collection" for a local Crisis Pregnancy Center. I got to help with the distribution of the "bottles" (the idea is that the parishioners will fill them with loose change and bring them back in three weeks' time)after all the masses; I gradually devised a slick "marketing" campaign, too: "Help Women! Save Babies! Just take a bottle!" turns quite a few heads, especially when a little tyke is standing with mommy just a few feet away. Now, how do we make sure they bring the bottles back? Well, we'll worry about that when we come to it.

Dinner with Luciano following the mass at 5 was...a little different. Mexican food (hadn't had that in awhile), and though things were never really "hostile," we began talking about homosexuality/gay marriage as we finished dinner. We ended up talking about it all the way to his apartment, where he was showing "Slumdog Millionaire" (great movie!) to a group of friends. I'm going to have brush up on effective ways of arguing the Catholic position on this. It's very hard not to resort to "it's spiritually/physically dangerous" or "bodily complementarity," neck-deep in theology arguments when speaking about this subject. Thank God his cat greeted us at the door, promptly changing our conversation (I've got a cat allergy, and Luciano told me that I had nothing to worry about. He was right!). The company was also quite friendly (God Bless Barbara of St. Bart's parish. From what she tells me, Fr. Jason needs prayers, too!)

Now the night out left me with little time for writing, and as I hadn't said my rosary for the day at that point, I figured that "chaining myself to God" could scarcely be a worse way of ending the day. So the rosary culminated my Saturday. I think it was a good decision! I woke up fairly refreshed despite the slight sleep deprivation, and I sang as well as I could given my condition. I probably should've served that mass, instead, though. I need to clean that cassock! It's not fair to me or anyone else that it just sits in the sacristy closet taking up space. TO THE CLEANERS IT GOES!!!

Luciano invited Rahul (the cantor) and myself out to breakfast at his favorite little joint, The Lincoln. Being Indian, Rahul had a little to share about Slumdog; but this time the "controversial" topic of the moment turned out to be abortion. Gotta say, I think I was a much more effective witness to the Truth in regards to this topic. Rahul threw out the usual "no one is pro-abortion" and "they just wanted people to make up their minds for themselves" quips, which I thoroughly rebuked. Luciano, though a slightly tougher nut to crack (he's made illusions that he's pro-life already), was speechless at my commentary about voting for a pro-abortion political candidate. After admitting that he would never vote for a pro-slavery candidate, I asked him why, using that standard, why he WOULD vote for a pro-abortion candidate. Speechless. Time to divert the subject to Sarah Palin. Le Sigh.

Anyway, the rest of the day was helping Kyle and Luciano with their respective errands. The heat of the day left me tired; when one of my gradeschool teachers, Mrs. Covington, made a surprise visit (she lives only a few blocks away from St. Ben's!), I didn't know if I was gonna collapse from the heat or the shock of the moment. By God's grace I made it through this day as all days. Bless the Lord my Soul!

I tried in the afternoon to make a communion visitation with Mary Anne Kufner again; no luck this time. She called me back later in the evening; I'll try to reach her again tomorrow. At least I was able to chat with my dad for Father's Day! Yay! I'm still praying for you, Dad!

After the 6:30PM "Youth" mass, Kyle invited me to dinner with another parishioner from the elementary school board. Being dedicated converts and reverts, Kyle and this other woman (What's her name?...Sharron?!?! I can't remember!) chatted up a storm about Notre Dame, their own peculiar "church teaching" moments (an aunt who's living in a homosexual relationship with two daughters from in-vitro fertilization...both from the same donor, but each with a different "mom." YIKES! Maria Goretti, pray for us! :/ ) Kyle also talked about his experience with Men's CHRP (the "Christ Helps Renew His Parish" initiative from the diocese). Finding men to join the group is getting harder and harder; we ended up chatting long after dinner was over, and after "Sharron" had left, too. Both of them left, from what I can tell, at least not being offended by my company, even though I didn't pay for dinner (they refused to let me pay! ARGH!!! It happens every. single. time!).

Dear Father in heaven, bless Kyle, "Sharron," the priests, and all who came to St. Benedict's for mass today. May our voices not drown out your munificence, but only serve to magnify your greater glory. Through Christ our Lord, AMEN!