The days crept along and many a bullet of conversation was dodged. The weekend before the meeting with the bishop was my ten year anniversary, the Feast of the Sacred Heart (to whom I have a special devotion) and World Day of Prayer for priests. What more could a guy ask for?The morning of the meeting I awoke extra early and said my prayers, had Mass, and tried to do some work in the office. The pastor asked me how I was doing but it was hard to categorize. He understood. He said, “It’s a bit like getting married isn’t it?” I readily agreed - at least in theory. On the one hand I was thinking, “Wow! I’m getting married!” but that was echoed by a second thought that said, “O jeez! I’m getting married!” In an attempt to dump the jitters I decided to go early, purposefully this time, and have a cup of coffee and journal since it seemed to have such a positive effect the last time. I put on my finest clerical attire and set a course for downtown Cleveland. Soon enough a steaming cup of java was obtained and pen was in hand scribing thoughts. With extra minutes yet to be ticked away on the clock tracks were made for the bishop’s of
fice. I arrived fifteen minutes early and was warmly greeted by the bishop’s secretary and another priest who straitened my collar and patted me on the back and invited me to have a seat.The bishop soon joined us to announce that when he handed me his orders I would be the administrator of Saint Sebastian parish. He gave much direction and advice, the most important being to remain close to Christ. It is only in remaining close to Christ can we be effective pastors of souls. With that he handed me my faculties and I knelt for his benediction. That was it. From that point forward the priest that had been so kind in his welcome said, “Now you can tell whomever you want. Get on your cell phone and call away. It is official now.”
As was mentioned last week one of best priest friends was to meet me for lunch after for he too had an appointment later in the day. We went to my favorite restaurant downtown and
I broke the news to him with advanced apologies that I was probably going to be quite self-centered at this lunch. A stroll was taken after and I bought a hat to mark the occasion. When we parted a call was put in to the retiring priest who was very warm and encouraging. An invitation to come out and see the place as quickly as possible was offered and accepted. This was an odd time of excitement about the new assignment mixed with a bit of the blues, for there would also be many goodbyes to be made to another parish that I had grown to love.
9 comments:
Dear Father, As you were preparing for your appointment, our parish was hoping for a pastor who would be "in touch with Catholic tradition," and who would make the Mass "reverential and consequential to our spiritual journey." Among other characteristics stated was for a pastor who was "not afraid to show his vocation;" a man of "deep personal prayer, rooted in scripture,... a good homilist"; and a pastor who would "improve our prayer life."
Wow Pat, sorry about your luck.
Wow Pat, great to hear about your luck.
If you have any left over, send me some.
Dear Father, In regard to your initial trepidation about the new assignment, I would like to offer something I heard regarding the Servant of God Terence Cardinal Cooke. On the night before his appointment as Archbishop of New York was to be made public, the Cardinal confided to his close friend, Bishop Patrick Ahern, that he was very sad. "They're going to put me on the cross and never take me down." The next morning, Bp. Ahern stopped by to see him and asked how he was doing. In response, Cardinal Cooke quoted what he had learned from his own father during times of great tragedy in their family life: "Even this won't be so bad. God will get us through it."
I better start putting smiley faces after sarcastic comments or people are going to think I'm a jerk.
:-)!!!!
Oooh
Sparky - You had me worried!
Thanks for the advice Pat.
Change is hard…even harder when you can’t talk about it with friends. The people of St. Sebastian are glad to have you. As human beings we are afraid of change, but change is good! If nothing ever changed we would never grow.
I also like the stores your doing about the windows, I’ve sat in the pews many times going over the stories that they tell, we are lucky here at St Sebastian to have so much wonderful artwork.
If you think St. Sebastian took a hit with the windstorm. Jump over to my blog and look at St. Mary’s in New Albany, IN. my hometown, we were down there this weekend and they got hit much worse than us.
http://keithaweber.blogspot.com/
I hear they are STILL CRYING THE BLUES up there at St. Claire's, Fr. V. Don't worry, we've been trying to keep them supplied with lots of Kleenex! :-)
Fr. V. ~ It must be really difficult to leave people behind that you've come to love and know like your own extended family. I know from our perspective, when a priest we love is moved on, it's difficult. My parish usually takes a newly ordained priest at least every other year, and if he's not moved after 2 years, then 3 for certain. Sometimes our Pastors aren't even around for very long before there's a transition. But even though it's difficult, we're happy for him (um....usually!), and really just wish maybe he could be cloned....
HEY! There's an idea for St. Clare's! Clone Fr. V.!
:-)
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