The Heart of the Matter

I wish I had a picture!

The highpoint for me this Easter was baptizing so many people at the Easter Vigil.  In fact, it was a high point in my life.  You should have seen the look of their faces as they were baptized! It was like ecstasy.  The word "ecstasy" means standing outside of oneself, caught up as it were into another standing point.  These man and women knew well what they were getting into by being baptized.  They yearned for it more than my words could describe.

I wish I had a picture of the actual event, but the one I chose captures something of the Risen Jesus these newly baptized people were encountering in the waters of this sacrament.  (The sculptor of this pictured piece was also the sculptor for our new crucifix, Lynn Kircher of Jaroso, Colorado.)

How often do the cradle Catholics just not "get it" when it comes to encountering the Risen Lord.  Oh that all the world could know the exquisite joy of knowing the Lord directly!  Just think of what it was like for these newly baptized to receive Holy Communion later on in the Easter Vigil!

Thank you Boulder!

Who would have thought that a short trek to get a haircut would turn into an ambulance ride to the hospital for stitches in the back of my head?  But the ice on the road had me tumble backwards, landing on the back of my head, bleeding as only head wounds do.  Suddenly a host of college students surrounded me (I was on the Hill by the university), one gave up his jacket so my bloody head would not be on the road, they called 911, the ambulance came, and one of the college students was a former student at my parish school!  Thanks Teddy and the other students who took care of me until the great Pridmark ambulance EMTs took me off in excellent fashion to the hospital.  Thank you to them as well!  And Lastly, the ER nurses and doctors took care of me so well and with great skill and great bedside manner.  I've been in that ER many times giving last rites to patients, and here I was receiving their care.  College students, EMTs and ER people: I'm proud of you and very grateful.

How God answers a prayer

The other day my schedule was constantly thrown out of whack.  It didn't seem to make sense that so many interruptions caused me to get behind.  To mention just a few: A hospital call got me delayed in showing up at the 5th grade for a discussion on saints, and the noon Mass flowed into a need to put off my meeting with a priest who helps us a lot by another call from the hospital.  I was to meet a woman entering the hospital just before a scary procedure to give her the sacraments so she could have a sense of the consolation of God's presence and grace.  However, I forgot the oil for the anointing of the Sacrament of the Sick; I had to retrieve that before I went on.  One delay after another.  I was finally able to get back to my schedule when, while walking the long hospital corridor, one of the finest volunteers of our parish was walking towards me.  She said, "Can I speak with you?"  "Surely," I said.  So we went to where we could sit and talk and she poured out her anguish over having to initiate the "living will directives" for her loved one.  It was a powerful and very moving conversation for both of us.  During that conversation, she said that she had just been praying that she would find a priest, or someone to talk to, on her way into the hospital.  How humbling to be an answer to someone's prayers.  How amazing it was to see that what looked like a chaotic day was crafted as such by a loving God to provide an answer to this woman's prayers.

Tee

I received a card and a check yesterday from "Tee" from my previous parish.  She knew of my wanting to treat my former parochial vicar (assistant pastor) who had been a missionary in Papua New Guinea for 30 years.  His name is Father Malachy, a Capuchin.  He's battling cancer and I thought a cruise from Istanbul to Venice would be just the tonic to keep us looking forward.  Back in 2000 we went on a cruise from Barcelona to Rome and during that time he wrote a very poetic rendition of the Stations of the Cross.  Thanks, Tee, for your constant caring of others.