Twilight Twitches

Dear Family,
What a week! Annie and I think we could have easily (and gratefully) skipped it. There’s a lot of behind-the-scenes stuff regarding building maintenance, etc. You may have noticed some discoloration on the beam toward the altar area which it turns out is not a leak (thank God) but moisture from humidity build-up. We can paint it with a mold resistant paint. The product is called “Kilz.” (All I can think of is TS Eliot’s Murder in the Cathedral.)

Another project underway is the installation of three gates at the entrances to the property, two on the south side of the Sanctuary and one at the main entrance. The use of the parking lot at night has continued to be a long-standing problem and this should finally solve it. It’s one of those situations where the sins of a few spill onto the lives of the many. I don’t have any problem with kids parking to go to the beach. Unfortunately, some of the night crowd (who obviously are not working on a tan) leave the place littered and have also disturbed the neighborhood.

Dear Family,
I know today is not a liturgical feast day, but I wanted to jazz the masthead up a little in honor of what the notion of Independence Day means for people of faith.

For starters, our very independence as a nation is why we can gather to pray as we wish. The founding fathers knew God. They also knew there must be freedom to pursue Him.

Unfortunately, it took a while for that notion of freedom to work its way through the fabric of our nationhood to erase the barren bondage of slavery.

As I reflect (and I warn you it is the middle of the night as I write and so reflection becomes a little less disciplined), I’m asking myself, independence from what?... independence FOR what???

News item: Monsignor Fetscher has fallen into an upholstery shop... Word has it... He is recovered.

That piece of wit came from good friend Dan Kroger.

The truth is, with your prayers, I am recovering. And believe me, the prayers are more important than you could possibly know. It’s funny how people will say “you’ve got my prayers and thoughts.” Somehow these days those words seem to be shallow on various occasions. But I can attest to the fact that they are not, at least for me. It was like in the misery I had people standing around me.

More than once, I was also thinking about how many people endure chronic illness and how many were suffering much worse.

Dear Family,
Three jobs, seven kids, Thursday night grocery list from ads, Friday family grocery shopper, one beer, faithful partner, patient parent, silent patient... He crammed a lot into 53 years. I have always believed when he died, he heard a very resounding, “Well done, Fred. Enter the kingdom of your Lord.”

I have no doubt that my personal sense of a father/son relationship with God flows from the way I remember my Dad. I think it works that way with my brothers and sisters, too.

Dad had very clear ideas about ways of acting. He had a deep sense of fairness that I don’t think was always reciprocated, but you wouldn’t hear him saying much about it.