Fr. Jim's Blog

Things have been really busy in the parish. We had our 8th grade graduation Mass and ceremony last night. The teens who spoke did a great job. When I arrived at St. Brendan parish these teens were in kindergarten. The time went by so quickly. I am looking forward to Priest Days and will leave Sunday afternoon. I will definitely find sometime to do some blogging and will bring my video camera to finish the welcome video I have been working on. Have a great weekend and God bless all our fathers on Father's Day.

I enjoyed conducting a retreat at the Palisades Retreat Center last weekend. There were a lot of new people who were making their first visit to the retreat center.  I am working on getting the presentations posted and should have them done by later this evening.  Tomorrow evening we have Confirmation with Archbishop Sartain. We have 72 all together who will be receiving that Sacrament. Come Holy Spirit! 

My vacation is drawing to a close and I will be boarding a plane to head back to Seattle this evening. I have had a great time getting tossed about like a salad on some of the best roller coasters in the country. I also had the chance to visit Universal Studios with a classmate from the seminary. It was great to catch up with him and find out how he is doing as the pastor of the Newman center at USC. They have a beautiful church and very nice Catholic Center. He has to continue to find funding to pay for it and is currently in his 9th year there. He was definitely the right pick as he worked in marketing before entering the seminary. I was going to spend the rest of the day at Knott's Berry Farm but it is very crowded today and very hot! So, I will have a more peaceful day at the beach until I have to return the rental car. I will hit the ground in Seattle with both feet running as I have a very busy weekend ahead. I thank the Lord for some needed time away from the parish....

I am busy trying to get ready for my departure this afternoon for a few days away from the parish. I was able to get the homily recorded and published. You can listen to it by clicking here.  I will post a few updates while on my vacation to the blog. Can't work on the website as my laptop is officially dead:( Have a blessed Divine Mercy Sunday!

First off, Happy Easter! The last few weeks have been incredibly busy. I haven't had much time to think about a blog entry because of the pace of parish life, but now that Easter has arrived things aren't quite so hectic. (Knock on wood!) A lot of priests take the week after Easter off to recharge. I am taking the second week of Easter off and will reconnect with some friends from the seminary. It will be good to have some down time and I am looking forward to my departure on Sunday evening.  I had a good visit with my brother and his family the week before Holy Week. We did a number of tourist things, including Ride The Ducks in Seattle. It was a little cold and I sure appreciated the blankets they provided as we zipped around Seattle with the windows (or plastic shades) down. I have always been fascinated by amphibious vehicles and remember one in Richland that would cross the Columbia river before they built a bridge. We also visited the zoo and I bought a membership and...

I have posted the Lenten Resources for the 5th Sunday of Lent. I didn't record a message for the After The Homily Resource as it is very time consuming and practically no one has clicked on the link according to the statistics at YouTube. This is a very busy time of the year. Your prayers are greatly appreciated as we journey into Holy Week and Easter. Tomorrow is the Chrism Mass at St. James Cathedral. That is always a highlight in the year and I am looking forward to it. Have a blessed day! in Christ, Fr. Jim

I fixed the "After the Homily" resource for the 3rd week of Lent. There was part of the presentation with two audio tracks going on at the same time. I have uploaded the homily from the 10AM Mass yesterday and provided the homily notes. An English speaking woman came to the Spanish Mass so I showed her the quote I read from the book from Pope Francis. I think she thought I was loaning it to her and she took it home. I had asked her to return it after the Mass. As soon as I get it I will add the quote to the homily notes and the description of the podcast. I will also post another "After the Homily" resource in the next couple of days. You can find all of the Lenten resources so far by clicking here. My brother and sister-in-law arrived this evening. We will be doing a number of tourist things over the next few days.