“Fill-in Twitcher:” Annie Gardner
Dear Sisters and Brothers,
This “Twitch” is starting out very similarly to last week’s. Monsignor Jim was admitted to the hospital yesterday (that is Monday, May 2nd) because of shortness of breath. A tube was inserted into his chest Monday night to drain fluid which has built up (again!) in his lungs. He will be hospitalized for at least “a few days” while the fluid drains and his medical team tries to figure out what’s going on to cause this. As you can imagine, he is frustrated with his health issues and with being away from his Parish Family. Please keep him in your prayers.

Sixth Sunday of Easter

Dear Brothers and Sisters,
Since - at the time this bulletin had to be at the printer (Tuesday at Noon), Monsignor Jim is preparing to undergo a procedure
to drain fluid from his lungs - he is not feeling well enough to write his weekly “Twitch.” Please continue to keep
him in your prayers that he may fully recover and be back with us soon.

So, in the meantime, how does one fill “Twitch Space” lacking adequate time for research and reflection?

Last week in his Twitch, Monsignor expressed the hope that we can send two of our young people - Marcus Mickey and Simon Rave - to World Youth Day in Krakow this summer. We are really stepping out in faith on this one, and praying that our Parish Family will support this. The young men went to their first meeting regarding the trip last Saturday and they have been given all the paperwork that they and their parents need to complete and return by May 10th. I am praying that we will have the funding for them before that time. If you would like to help fund this opportunity for our boys, please place your contribution in an envelope with your name and World Youth Day marked on it. Contributions for this will be collected and kept separately. If (WHEN, I hope) we have sufficient funds for the boys’ fares, we will make a deposit and write a check to the Travel Agency. Should there not be sufficient funding, contributions earmarked specifically for World Youth Day will be returned to the donors, and these young men will not have this opportunity... No pressure.

Our young people are the future of our Church. Would you believe that St. Sebastian Parish has 22 children in grades one through eight who are finishing their year of Religious Education this weekend? Thank you to their dedicated teachers, who share their time and talent our children. We are a community of primarily retired people, but obviously there are some young people among us, and - while my prejudices may be showing - I think those young people who participate in our community are outstanding. Two of our Religious Education Program “graduates” are pictured below. They are J.T. and Ashlyn Cowgill. Several years ago, J.T. saw the need for someone to be with the St. Vincent de Paul truck when it is in our parking lot to help people get their donations from their vehicle on to the truck. J.T. volunteered and has been faithful to this task since. Realizing that he will be leaving us for college in the fall, he recruited his sister, Ashlyn, to take over this responsibility. They are pictured below on the truck where they worked together (yes, siblings CAN do that) last weekend. You can see why I say we have some outstanding young people. Thanks to their parents, Marlene and Jim, for doing such a wonderful job of guiding them in their faith development!

Let’s do all we can to encourage all of our young people be active, involved Catholics and let them know that we appreciate
and value them.

Have a great week, and I hope to see a lot of you dropping off envelopes this week. :-)
Blessings and peace... and thank you in advance,

Fifth Sunday of Easter

Dear Family,
So what is the first thing you do when you come back to the office? You smile at the people you work with and then stare somewhat blankly at the stack of stuff that has accumulated despite the best efforts of your workmates to dis-accumulate. The first thing I had to do wasn’t even stacked anywhere: tell the IRS I am filing for an extension.  You know what the worst part about that is? They are printing the information forms with much smaller print than they used to. I did find out if I send them bunches of money I don’t even have to file for an extension. It happens automatically.

Ain’t life grand?

Fourth Sunday of Easter

Dear Family,
With the Lord’s help this is the last Twitch I will have to write from “seclusion.” Next Monday I hope to return the toil and sweat of the factory. Ok, Ok… I know that one won’t sell since Annie does most of the toiling.

As I said last week, the problem with recovery is that your world shrinks and you become very self-preoccupied. It also makes me think far more empathetically about people who are shut in and the importance of bringing some kind of different light into their worlds.