Twenty-first Sunday in Ordinary Time 
Dear Family,

Are you praying about the kitchen? Did you get around to reading Chapter Six of John’s gospel? … not necessarily in that order!

Marius considering kitchen options.

Marius has definitely considered the first question, judging by his affinity for icing. I’m not sure what being covered in icing means, however, so you probably need to keep up your prayers.

As for John’s Gospel, boy, what a powerful five Sundays we have had. We pictured in our minds the phenomena of mass feeding, commanding nature to become still, walking on water. Then Jesus pushes us to the incredible: to challenge us to believe that we must “eat the flesh of the Son of Man and drink His blood.”

Twentieth Sunday in Ordinary Time 
Dear Family,

“Everyone gets to be young once,” said the pretty card. Then I opened it and it said, “Your turn’s over.” I shouldn’t be laughing but for some reason, it’s one of those cards that keeps me chuckling.

Thanks for all the good birthday wishes you sent in one form or another. There certainly is nothing special about 74. Perhaps I’m surprised to have made it. However, Sunday evening, when my family gathered, my brother Pete announced that he planned to go to 100... retire at 70 and direct deposit Social Security. Pete and his wife Carolyn are very sensible eaters so they well may make 100. I doubt that the cream cheese cake which I made for our event is on his diet very often. All things considered, I suspect that if I don’t make 100, I’ll have a smile on my face as I check out.

Nineteenth Sunday in Ordinary Time
Dear Family,

With a good deal of prayer as well as hope, I may be getting the very best birthday present I have ever received in my long, if not so illustrious seventy-four years: the return of our wonderful Main Sanctuary to an air-conditioned state!!!

We have a new air-conditioning company (family), A.M.I. Dennis and Corey Mullins have my admiration because of the patience they had in working through the fun and games of the permitting department of our fair city.

Eighteenth Sunday of Ordinary Time 
Dear Family,

I am almost afraid to put this in print, but next Sunday, with the help of all the angels and saints, we will celebrate the Lord’s Supper in the Main Sanctuary which will have been cooled down to a heavenly breeze by the Trane AirConditioning units with their tie downs which the City of Fort Lauderdale finally deemed suitable for use in our fair city.

There is a sainted man in our community, one Brian McMahon, whose prior claim to fame was expertise with brautwurst during the Oktoberfest. He now has become our chief negotiator with powers-that-be. Because of him our exile in St. Sebastian-on-the-Prairie will come to an end. (I did have two mothers of the bride in the wings on reserve to sic on the Building and Zoning Department. But it wasn’t because I doubted the skills of our chief negotiator.)