Twilight Twitches

Dear Family,
So, what do you do on your Diamond Jubilee? Well, if you are the Church of Miami, you gather the folk together and acknowledge the blessings God has given us. Central to those blessings are the people who make up the Church of Miami, saints and sinners.

Annie has listed some of the events of the coming year here in the bulletin.

Next Sunday, October 7th, the feast of Our lady of the Holy Rosary, is the official anniversary of the beginning of the Church of Miami. Bishop Coleman F. Carroll came from Pittsburgh and was formally installed as our first bishop on October 7, 1958. That made St. Mary's Church a Cathedral. Ten years later, we became an Archdiocese, sort of a mother church for the six other dioceses in Florida.

Dear Family,
As I write, the priests of the Archdiocese are gathering for their annual convocation. It's a time when we can do some business and share a fraternity that we normally don't get to do. I wasn't able to go because I was 'tethered' to a toilet. (I wouldn't have said 'toilet' here, but the temptation to alliteration won out.)

It got me to thinking about all the priests I have known over the 50+ years of ministry, not counting the additional ten in the seminary and the growing-up years when priests played such an important part in my life. Often, hindsight can make you see even more clearly.

Dear Family,
Welcome to mid-September 2018.

Hurricanes proliferating, politics exploding, division ‘profusing,’ (I made that one up), insanity prowling, AC units leaking... just another day at the ranch. It’s hard to know what direction to face.

Do you sometimes wonder who you are in the middle of a lot of chaos and conflict? At times, have you wanted to go and find a hole where you can shut out the noise? Welcome to my ‘sometimes’ reality.

Dear Family,
Once again, this is one of those marvelous moments when I’m writing the Twitch VERY early, August 31st to be exact. I won’t be here (hopefully) next week so we need to get the stuff ready. Had I thought about it I could have asked someone to write it as I have in the past, but it’s not fair to give so short a time. Anyway, I’ve got through the first paragraph.

I’m thinking about the last nine days and all that was packed into them; happy, sad, disgraceful, and you wonder what on earth the next nine days could bring.