Dear Family,
June 1 begins Hurricane Season, and since it didn’t take any hard breathing I found myself checking out the evacuation zones in our neighborhood. It’s pretty simple: Leave!

That got me to thinking about “where should I go” and “what should I bring” and on and on. It’s the old “What if” syndrome. Those two words are second only to “If only” in my lexicon of words I hate myself for using.

For one thing, it makes me realize that my trust levels might not be what they should be considering that I’m supposed to be a “Man of Faith.” Aren’t we all! The truth is that the last four months left little room for either of those two verbal bookends.

Corpus Christi

Dear Family,
Memorial Day Weekend and the Solemnity of the Most Holy Body and Blood of Christ occur together this year.  (Stick with the Latin name of the feast: it’s shorter.)  If you’d like a good overview of Memorial Day, check out Wikipedia’s contribution.  Wikipedia also has an article on American combat deaths throughout our history as well as casualties related to those wars. Cf. “United States military casualties of war.”  Stunning.  Although I had seen it before, seeing again the number of 600,000 casualties during the Civil War always grabs me.  

Trinity Sunday

Dear Family,
This feels like one of those “been there, done that” moments. How many times can you keep returning to the front line of the parish  with the hope that you’re here to stay? It felt very good to be able to celebrate Pentecost with you all, breathless at moments as it might have been. Will you not feel too badly if I tell you that you didn’t take my breath away? Our current intention is getting rid of the water.

I went back and looked at all the Twitches since this began on February 17th. I was impressed, deeply moved, tickled, proud and a whole bunch of other adjectives. Reading the Twitches of Nancy Adams, and Frank Krauser and Annie Gardner made me delighted to be a part of this community.

Feast of Pentecost

Dear Sisters and Brothers,       
Today we celebrate the Feast of Pentecost, sometimes called the birthday of the Church.  We commemorate the disciples’ reception of the Holy Spirit, the shedding of their fears and how they boldly went into the world to proclaim the Good News of Jesus.        

Shortly after his election as Pope, Francis gave a homily based upon the reading we heard today from the Acts of the Apostles (Acts 2:1-11).  In it, he reflected on three words that he believes are linked to the working of the Holy Spirit.  The words are newness, harmony and mission.  I will try to summarize his message.