Nothing dramatic happened this week but here are a few tidbits.It had been a couple of years since I donated blood and this past Friday our Knights of Columbus hosted a Red Cross blood drive and so I went. It changed quite a bit since the last time I donated. It is much more high tech. This is not nearly as disturbing as when they switched from having homemade goodies to prepackaged cookies and tiny tins of orange juice. That was a heartbreak.
There is a new question they ask now that they must ask with an absolute straight face. “Are you now and have you always been a male?” They must have completely believed me although I think a look rather masculine of for no other reason than I have a beard. Each station I went to they asked, “Is male your gender from birth?” They don’t come up with questions unless they see a problem such as when Mad Cow Disease was floating about and all of sudden they had to ask you if you’d been to Europe. Apparently this has been a problem.
I came to understand the horrors of water boarding this week. I was baptizing one of the most active babies in my life. He squirmed and lifted his head up and down and I was doing my best to hit my target but, gosh darn it, this tyke was quick! Just when I thought I had him he threw back his head and I hit square in the face and water must have gone up his nose. He was not too happy with me after that though his (slightly) older brother said, “Don’t worry about it. That’s Okay.”
There was a Family Fun Night here at the parish this past weekend. If you missed Fr. Ference’s performance (who was at the 4:30 Mass and who celebrated the 9:00) here is a little taste of what he did in Zwisler Hall on Saturday Night. (Far better than my accordion playing during intermission.)
It is an honor as well as enjoyable being the administrator of Saint Sebastian but I found one thing that I truly miss about being a parochial vicar. One afternoon I got down to the Jewish Community Center to exercise and found half of the parish there and probably spent half of the time chatting. I do not get to do this as much anymore. As a parochial vicar you get to add that extra flavor to the parish that the pastor is unable to do because of his other duties. So taking an hour just to chat about matters of faith or throwing together a program (such as Fr. Ference did above) is just a bit out of the range of possibility. Of course the trade off is fantastic but still I miss the opportunity just to sit around and discuss what faith topics are on people’s minds.
4 comments:
Yes, Father, those questions related to sex and gender are more than tedious. To me, they illustrate the Church's teaching that no sins are "private" and that in some way they hurt the wider community. What someone did "in private" can be deadly to someone else who is already dealing with serious illness or injury and who receives a transfusion of that person's blood. "No man is an island, entire of itself" (John Donne).
Fr. V. - regarding your loss of time sitting & chatting with parishioners/friends about religious issues -
The Pastor of a Church I attended in Columbus had a 'breakfast with the Pastor' once a month, where he invited 5-7 people to join him at breakfast in the Rectory. I believe they had to sign up on a list to attend and it was limited to 1 1/2 hours.
From how he explained it - the parishioners loved it (unfortunately, I could never get on the list!) and he found it very informative. It also gave him ideas to talk about during the Homilies on Sundays (and many funny things that happened that could never be mentioned).
Accordion beats electric guitar, hands down--but of course I'm Polish.
So did you get any exercise done at the JCC? They should rename it the SSCC (St. Sebastian Community Center), especially in the summer.
-his (slightly) older brother said, “Don’t worry about it. That’s Okay.”-
He should have said, "That's okay. I absolve you."
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