The Unbearable Shabbiness of Being  29 August, 2022 Dear and gentle reader: I suppose one could call these the dog days of summer - hot and humid, in a word, unbearable.  Couple that to the fact that I am definitely a cat person, and you may get a glimpse of my loathing of this time of year.  Wed that discontent to the fact that I find myself surrounded by shabbiness, and you will begin to understand the ennui that confronts me at almost every turn. Try as I have, I have been stymied at trying to make this little rectory in which I am doomed to dwell into a home.  It seems that my not-so-gracious ordinary has once again sent me to pastor barely solvent parishes, which might well close their doors in but a few years.  This, after I told him that with my age and health, I am tired of being shifted about.  Ah, the tender pastoral solicitude of the hierarchy.  Really, there is nothing like it. Combine that with a hectoring lay trustee who, with a smi...

 14 July, 2022 True Confessions  Dear and gentle reader, I am now settled into the rectory, and slowly but surely turning it into a home - ridding it of clutter and rubbish, and bringing my own inestimable style to this little house.  And that, dear reader, leads to my confession to you. I am a snob.  I have been for at least four decades, and more.  Mind you, I wasn't born into money.  The family was solidly middle class, with all that goes with it for better or ill. From a young age, I appreciated the finer things in life - no, not money, you silly, grubbing prol (how very, very middle class of you), but the truly finer things, art, music, literature, culture.  These are what is lacking in the middle class lives.  I blame it on frequent trips to the Art Museum, or the Kinder Koncerts at Powell Symphony Hall.  I lay blame on my excellent education as well.  I didn't inherit my tastes from my parents, love them, though I do. Because of t...

 Ora et Labora 28 June 2022 Dear and gentle reader: It's been a few weeks since I last posted, due to my transfer to a new assignment in my diocese.  I was called to leave the care of two small, rural parishes, to assume the care of two larger rural parishes near an urban area in my diocese.  If you've ever moved, you know how stressful a move can be.  There's the whole process of a move - packing, loading the truck, the travel, unloading, unpacking and adapting to a new environment.  I've weathered it, am adapting, and slowly settling into my new digs.  So far, I am quite pleased with my new parishes and with the kind response of the parishioners.  I'm not so happy that the previous pastor let some things go, and left me unprepared in facing them. In addition to the transition, there was also the news of several big events:  the preparations for the "Eucharistic Renewal" here in the USA, the preparations in my diocese for eventual re-configuratio...

 6th Sunday of Easter 22 May 2022   Dear and gentle reader, pardon please, my absence.  I've been living in a whirlwind.  I was informed last month that I would be transferred to a new assignment, to be pastor of two parishes.  So, I've been busy lining things up for the move, learning about my new parishes, and preparing my two current parishes for my successor. I will admit, I loathe packing, moving, and unpacking.  Consider this from a priest's perspective.  You're used to a routine, community, area, and then, up you go, off to another.  It can be disconcerting, stressful, exciting, and bitter-sweet, all at the same time.  I have been in my current assignment now for five years.  I've gotten comfortable here, know my people, and have gotten used to the challenges of living in a remote, rural setting.  Come next month, that will all go.  My two new parishes are rural, but not remote.  A large urban area is just a few mil...

 Springtime   28 April 2022 Dear and gentle reader, with my hiatus from blogging over, Holy Week and Easter liturgies survived, and visiting family completed, I'm back and full of blathering. The natural world surrounding us is coming back to life.  The grass is greening up, flowers and trees are budding and blooming, the wee creatures seeking mates to make more wee creatures.  The cold of winter is gone, and life begins to show itself once again. Thus it is with our faith.  After the forty days of penitential Lent, we celebrate the Lord's victory over sin and death, not for Himself, but for us and the world.  Nature herself echoes what God Himself does for us.  New life; new hope; new love planted firmly in our hearts, minds, and souls. The new life can be frightening, since it calls for continual conversion.  The victory of Christ rising calls us to daily take up the Cross, die to self and sin, and rise with Him to the life of the sons and daugh...

 Doldrums  29 March 2022 Dear and gentle reader: I just don't feel like blogging.  Perhaps it's due to the dreary weather.  Perhaps it's due to laziness.  Perhaps it's due to just a handful of readers. In a world where "big news" is a celebrity slapping another celebrity, methinks that my comments on larger, more important events and ideas are seen as dull and uninteresting. If that be the case, then perhaps I should cast away my digital pen, and resume the solitude of my life with my books and cats as companions. As ever, gentle reader, may our Lenten journey lead us to true life and joy. Father P.

 Putin's Fall? 22 March, 2022   Good evening, dear and gentle reader!  As a student of history, who has focused on it during my Master's degree studies, I find that I have a deeper insight into some events, than those who do not know history.  This is a blessing, and a curse.  Perhaps the like is true for the dictator Putin as well. Putin is no fool.  He is obsessed with "restoring" Russia's power, yes, but certainly no fool.  Surely he cannot be ignorant of the history of his own country, but perhaps he is.  An astute student of Russian history could point out many times when her leaders were taken out of power, in Tsarist times, and under the Soviet regimes.  Russia seems to have a fondness for this kind of transfer of power.  I wonder if that thought has crossed the mind of Dictator Putin. Ukrainian intelligence reports that already there are plans afoot within Putin's circle of power to replace him.  If these reports are true, t...