To each of you I extend heartfelt Christmas greetings and a promise to remember all of you again when I join Monsignor Duffy, concelebrating the morning Mass today.
Recently I have had several conversations with Rocco Palmo, the young adult Catholic who produces Whispers in the Loggia. Those conversations and emails have noted what a blessing this blog has been for me. Rocco is responsible. When I told him that I have always had a desire to write, he was direct: Go for it. Start your own blog.
These have been unique days for me and my siblings. On the 23rd our mother would have been 87. As I mentioned in an earlier posting, this is our first year without a parent. My sister, in her goodness, scheduled a Christmas party for us with many of our friends who knew our Mom as well as many of her children's college friends. Today another sibling, my brother Bill, is hosting all of us at his home for a Christmas dinner. The "gang" were the ones who took over the half of the first two pews in our west transept for the Children's Christmas liturgy yesterday evening.
Someone asked me about my family. This is the kind of day for sharing that information. We are six: five boys and one girl. Don't feel sorry for my sister: she can take on all of us at any one time. There are seventeen, yes, seventeen grandchildren if you consider it from Mom's Christmas gift list or seventeen nephews and nieces if you consider it from my perspective. They range in age from the mid-thirties to the youngest who is in the first grade. Between the six of us siblings there is 22 years!!! So, we will have a good time this afternoon: teasing one another, laughing, telling stories about Mom and Dad, sharing dreams and worries as well all are growing older (and hopefully wiser), and chowing down on the ham and turkey that brother Bill actually cooked himself "over the hot stove" for all of us.
To you and to you family I send my greetings for a wonderful Christmas holiday season. You are in my prayers. And, speaking of prayers, please pray for one of our parishioners, a collegiate. Home on a visit, he shared with me that he is discerning a religious vocation. Wonderful, wonderful. Please remember him in your prayers and especially when you hear one of the intentions for vocations. I know he would be most thankful to you for your concern.
Someone asked a brother priest: What did you ask Santa Claus for Christmas? Without any hesitation he replied: December 26th!!!!
May this Christmas be special for all of you.
Fr. Milt
