The 1998 Good Friday accords are finally seeing fruition.
I had made plans and fixed my schedule to attend Holy Thursday events at my parish, so imagine my annoyance Wednesday night when those plans fell through. I had moved the HLA4 planning meeting from Thursday to Wednesday. So on my way home from a rather successful meeting, my chain derails and the left pedal slams into my left knee. I walked the bike out of the arterial intersection I was in. Once I was on the sidewalk, I bent down to fix it, only to discover that bending the knee was too painful. I tried various things, but the knee was swelling up fairly bad. So, one quick cell phone call to Monte and he was gracious enough to give me a lift. As soon as I was home I put some ice on the knee, which helped the pain and swelling immensely.
The rest of the week I was bus bound, with an ACE bandage for support. As my parish is nowhere near a busline, I wasn't going to be able to get to Holy Thursday events without walking over a mile from a bus stop, and then I'd have to walk almost five miles home as bus service would have been over by the time I would have left. I knew that my knee was not up to that.
By the time Holy Saturday rolled around it was time to head to the Easter Vigil at St. Theresa Parish. My mother picked me up from work and we headed over. John and Matt, seminarians I grew up with in Life Teen, were home for Easter. In fact, John is now a deacon, soon to be a full priest! How exciting. John did his first baptisms, and boy did he have a lot to do! This was one of the most full Easter Vigils in a long time, with the baptised and those being confirmed filling from one door of the church to almost the other. That also meant that mass ended close to 23:00, so not everyone stayed for the whole thing. Dave and Patty were there, and Dave finally was confirmed. He had gone through various confirmation classes over the years, but they always moved before he could complete it. I was so proud of him for completing his journey.
Father Mike gave a wonderful homily. Afterward I had a chance to talk privately with John, Matt, Dave, and Patty, as well as enjoy a full meal of snacks including wraps, cheese cubes, fruit, vegetables, cake, and lemonade.
Once it got late my mother took me back to their place where I crashed in the spare room. Before going to bed I gave my stepfather his birthday card and gift, for which he was grateful. In the morning, Mom made breakfast for everyone and had us search for Easter baskets (actually paper bags with our names on them). Afterwards, we went over to my grandparents to help cook dinner (ham and cabbage, mashed potatoes, baby carrots, apple sauce, and cranberry juice cocktail). After dinner, we played some games (Yahtzee, Uno, and Rack-o), chatted or napped, and swung on the porch. Then it was time to go home and prepare for work the next day.
So, I hear this story on the radio about a man walking 1000 miles to prove his love for a woman after they broke up. The newscaster says that she polled the women in the office, and they all thought that jewelry would have worked just as well. Isn't that sad? They're admitting, to the whole of their wide listening office, that their love can be bought with material things. Is that really love then? No wonder the state of our society is the way it is. I feel compelled to pray, not just for these shallow news people, but for all such people who are in relationships for all the wrong reasons.
Even sadder was the co-anchor, Connie Weber's response. She said that jewelry would have been better! Of course, I'm not surprised. She treats her co-anchor Ned Foster like dirt. A lot of times, he can send the zingers back, but other times she'll go so far the other news people are shocked and Ned will have to tell her to stop. So is it any wonder that later in the same newscast Connie says that she's like to thank her husband for putting up with her nagging for ten years. She then goes on to comment that the thing she remembers from thier wedding ten years ago today was that she cried all day because it was snowing, ruining it (somehow). So I guess I'll be making a special intention for her and her husband whiling I'm praying each day for the shallow people.
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"Experience is a hard teacher because she gives the test first, the lessons afterward." ~ Vernon Law
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