Finally A Blog Entry!

I hope that your Lent is off to a good start. As a kid it seemed like Lent was forever—especially when we decided to give up sweets! Now, Lent has become a very busy season but also with great opportunities for spiritual growth. I have always been impressed with the "feast" of Scripture the Church provides for us during this season. The Office of Readings has some challenging readings as well, especially for pastors with St. Augustine' comments about bad pastors who don't properly attend to the flock entrusted to their care. 

We finished taping a Sacred Heart Radio Book Club yesterday afternoon. It was great to welcome another priest, Fr. James Johnson, the pastor of St. Jude parish in Redmond. We reviewed and excellent book on Lent, 40 Days 40 Ways —A New Look At Lent by Marcellino D'Ambrosio. It is one of the best Lenten resources I have seen in a long time and the appendix has a great preparation guide for Triduum. It was highly recommended by everyone on the program.
A couple of weekend's ago I had the privilege of conducting a retreat for the permanent deacons and their wives from our archdiocese. I didn't know very many of them, but it was a very enjoyable experience and they didn't seem to mind my warped sense of humor and "dazzling" Keynote presentations complete with fire and fireworks effects. I am working on posting the presentations on my website. Please keep all of our deacons and their families in your prayers and thank the Lord for their great service and ministry to our Church. I just received information for the discernment process for the next upcoming formation program and a number of changes are being made to the curriculum and faculty.

The Good Leaders/Good Shepherds program is continuing to go very well. All of the priests in our cohort are very happy with the program and finding the presentations and materials very helpful. I hope and pray the program finds a way into every seminary! It is a great disservice to future priests to have absolutely no training in parish administration. Sadly, this is the reality for the vast majority of seminaries. I am going to have to miss a three day session in April but will make up the session in Calgary during the last week of March. 

Life in the parish is very busy (typical for Lent) and I have the added challenge of addressing a rather large budget deficit. I am about to make my painful decision about some staffing changes but want to consult with the Archdiocese first as well as get a little advice about tightening things up for the future. 

Our principal announced her resignation so that she can retire at the end of this school year. I am grateful for her 20 years of service to our school, 9 of which were as our principal. I wish her and her husband all of God's blessings upon their retirement. I speak from my own experience how great it is when grandparents are freed up to spend more time with their grandchildren. Now we begin the task of searching for a new principal. Your prayers for our discernment are greatly appreciated! 

My dad called the other day to inquire if I might have a few days to join him for a fishing trip during the summer to Coeur d' Alene, Idaho. I had a trip planned last year but had to cancel it to make the trip to Malawi. I have a pretty busy summer with weddings and quinceañeras and offered few dates that might work for me.  It turns out he doesn't have the time because of all of his fishing and traveling. My parents recently announced they will be traveling to Morocco this spring. I think it is great they have the health and are able to enjoy their golden years. They have a globe with pins which mark all of the countries they have visited. It is starting to get pretty full! 

I will be in Ferndale Monday-Wednesday conducting a parish mission. I am going to bring my Swivl and see if I can tape the presentations. The Swivl is a robotic platform that moves automatically with the use of a remote laniard. I bought it to tape the presentations for the retreat I conducted in December but forgot to bring the tripod. I won't be making the same mistake this time! 

It's time to being a very busy weekend. God bless and thanks for stopping by.

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