MONDAY DIARY: JUST A SATURDAY

I usually draw Monday Diary cartoon during a quiet time on Sunday.  There isn’t going to be a stretch of quiet time this Sunday and Monday I will be spending most of the day signing teacher’s contracts the net result being: no cartoons today!

 

It was an enjoyable weekend however.  It started off with Fr. Pfeiffer and I taking a morning trip to Cleveland to our Cathedral of St. John for the ordination of 5 new priests who will be serving in our diocese.  The diocese predicted the apocalypse for downtown on that Saturday morning.  There was a marathon going on and the shooting of the new Avengers movie not to mention the outrageous amount of construction on East 9^th Street.  They sent out “Worship Traffic Passes” and warned us to show up extra early or we might not make it to the cathedral until after Communion.  So Fr. Pf and I found a kindly retired priest to take the early Mass, we cancelled confessions and took off for Cleveland.

 

Having an excellent parking spot because we got there almost an hour and half early having faced nearly empty streets, we walked down to the Hilton for some coffee and muffins.  As it turns out, the marathon was a 5K and was over already and movie wasn’t being shot for another week. 

 

The Ordination Mass was beautiful.  We saw some parishioners there and asked them later what they thought.  They had seats all the way at the back and couldn’t see much, “until,” she informed us, “I noticed people with their Ipods out watching the whole thing live streaming.  So we were in the building but watching what we couldn’t see on somebody’s computer.” 

 

Note to self:  Not everybody looking at a computer screen during Mass is doing something bad.

 

Getting back to good ole St. Sebastian (after a quick stop at Swensons) we had about an hour to set up for welcoming pilgrims to the parish.  St. Sebastian was picked by Bishop Lennon to be one five parishes that people could visit as part of the Year of Faith celebration.  To tell the truth, I was not expecting many people.  It was the first weekend and few people seemed to be catching on to what this whole thing was.

 

I was wrong.  As I write this we are only about half way through our first weekend hours and already about 75 people have shown up!  Wow.  Some are from neighboring parishes, some from far away – one couple was from Texas!  For most we were the first stop though for a couple they had been to St. Mary in Wooster already.  There is more information on the pilgrimages here and here.

 

There was another interesting incident this weekend.  There was a man who took up a post across the street from the church.  He had a sign that said, “The end is near!  Repent!  You are going to hell!”  He also had a bull horn through which he informed everybody that Catholics are going to hell.  I asked him if it was just Catholics in particular or were there others in town that were coming along for the trip.  Apparently it is only Catholics.

 

I tried to get a handle on why we are so special and all he kept saying was that it was because Catholics teach that only Catholics are getting into heaven.  When I pointed out that it wasn’t true, he said I was mistaken.  There was an attempt to engage him in the documents of Vatican II but there was the more important task of yelling at people as they walked out of the church.

 

So what does one do with this?  I thought about the apostles who “went home rejoicing because they were found worthy” to be yelled at for believing in Christ and His Church.  What else are you going do with that?  Such is life.