As Summer Winds Down
I am writing this update from the Archbishop Brunett Retreat Center at the Palisades in Federal Way. We are so fortunate to have such a beautiful retreat center in our Archdiocese. I have conducted numerous retreats here over the past 17 years.
How well I remember coming here nearly 18 years ago for my diaconate retreat. It snowed during that week and I stared out the window for quite some time watching planes come and go from the Sea-Tac airport. My seminary formation was rapidly drawing to an end and I was overwhelmed at how quickly the 5 years had gone by. I borrowed my Aunt Millie's car who was in the nursing home. I decided to make a surprise visit to her during my retreat. I had a great conversation with her and during that time and she said she was proud of our family and that she was ready to "move on". She "moved on" to her eternal reward on March 17, 1997. I flew up to sing at her funeral. She was a remarkably generous and kind person and I always enjoyed spending time with her.
The reason for my visit to the Palisades now is an overnight meeting with my brother priests in my Jesu Caritas priest group. We will celebrate Mass in a little while and then have a Holy Hour finished with a review of life, lunch, and then departure.
I have one last vacation planned with my dad and my brother. We will depart on Sunday for a five day fishing trip on Vancouver Island. We will be traveling in a sea plane on Sunday morning. I am very excited about the trip. The last time I got to do some fishing with my brother was in 2007 at Moses Lake. My brother is married and very busy coaching sports for his children and I am obviously very busy in the parish and seldom find time to break away to visit with him.
School for St. Brendan parish will begin on Tuesday, August 25th. The summer sure raced by and yesterday all of the staff from our school joined us for daily Mass. I prayed a special prayer for them that this would be a year to discover the goodness of the Lord and a year where charity would prevail in all of their activities. Please continue to keep our pre-kindergarten/1st grade teacher, Gwen Lipetska, in your prayers as she receives treatment for cancer.
I have decided that I need to spend more time developing administrative skills and have signed up for the Good Leaders/Good Shepherds program. This is a three year program designed to help priests be better administrators. The seminary I attended was gravely insufficient in providing classes in this important area of formation. I am looking forward to the classes and trying to do a better job with this particular aspect of parish ministry. I will need to spread out and be a lot more sensible with personal appointment requests within the parish. Personal appointments greatly dominate my time and while I realize that is a part of parish ministry, I need to find a much better balance of meeting people's personal needs and being available to staff, councils, and commissions.
How well I remember coming here nearly 18 years ago for my diaconate retreat. It snowed during that week and I stared out the window for quite some time watching planes come and go from the Sea-Tac airport. My seminary formation was rapidly drawing to an end and I was overwhelmed at how quickly the 5 years had gone by. I borrowed my Aunt Millie's car who was in the nursing home. I decided to make a surprise visit to her during my retreat. I had a great conversation with her and during that time and she said she was proud of our family and that she was ready to "move on". She "moved on" to her eternal reward on March 17, 1997. I flew up to sing at her funeral. She was a remarkably generous and kind person and I always enjoyed spending time with her.
The reason for my visit to the Palisades now is an overnight meeting with my brother priests in my Jesu Caritas priest group. We will celebrate Mass in a little while and then have a Holy Hour finished with a review of life, lunch, and then departure.
I have one last vacation planned with my dad and my brother. We will depart on Sunday for a five day fishing trip on Vancouver Island. We will be traveling in a sea plane on Sunday morning. I am very excited about the trip. The last time I got to do some fishing with my brother was in 2007 at Moses Lake. My brother is married and very busy coaching sports for his children and I am obviously very busy in the parish and seldom find time to break away to visit with him.
School for St. Brendan parish will begin on Tuesday, August 25th. The summer sure raced by and yesterday all of the staff from our school joined us for daily Mass. I prayed a special prayer for them that this would be a year to discover the goodness of the Lord and a year where charity would prevail in all of their activities. Please continue to keep our pre-kindergarten/1st grade teacher, Gwen Lipetska, in your prayers as she receives treatment for cancer.
I have decided that I need to spend more time developing administrative skills and have signed up for the Good Leaders/Good Shepherds program. This is a three year program designed to help priests be better administrators. The seminary I attended was gravely insufficient in providing classes in this important area of formation. I am looking forward to the classes and trying to do a better job with this particular aspect of parish ministry. I will need to spread out and be a lot more sensible with personal appointment requests within the parish. Personal appointments greatly dominate my time and while I realize that is a part of parish ministry, I need to find a much better balance of meeting people's personal needs and being available to staff, councils, and commissions.
Make sure to mark your calendars for our annual all parish Mass and picnic which will be on September 21 at 10AM. We will only have one bi-lingual Mass on that day.
There is a beautiful sunrise here at the Palisades that I want to be a part of, so I will draw this blog entry to an end.
I hope that you and your family had a chance to enjoy the beautiful scenery of Washington. We have an amazing state! Desert, forrest, and oceans all uniquely come together to make up the great state of Washington. Do any of you know our state song?
Have a blessed day!
There is a beautiful sunrise here at the Palisades that I want to be a part of, so I will draw this blog entry to an end.
I hope that you and your family had a chance to enjoy the beautiful scenery of Washington. We have an amazing state! Desert, forrest, and oceans all uniquely come together to make up the great state of Washington. Do any of you know our state song?
Have a blessed day!
