Quiet Sunday Morning

The graveyard of the Arundel family Church next to the Carmelite monastery, that was taken after the Reformation to become an Anglican Church. But Catholics from centuries past are buried there!

Part of downtown St. Magwan. The sign in the middle says "Craft Shop and Boutique: Interesting Things." That about covers any possibility: "Interesting things"...

Dear Family and Friends,

On this quiet Sunday morning I just took a stroll and took the above two photos. In a little bit I'll be heading down to hear Confessions and then to offer the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass. This week I wanted to simply give thanks for a few of the many blessings of this past week involving parishioners.

First though, for those who were praying for my exam, thanks be to God that I think I made it through successfully! I likely won't know for several weeks until it is graded but as far as I could tell I did OK on the essays, which was a real relief because the essays covered six months of classes in three different courses. Thank you very much for your prayers.

Monday evening I had the particular blessing of going to a family's home for a dinner to celebrate the one-year anniversary of their four boys being confirmed in London by Cardinal Burke (who seems to come annually to London to offer Confirmation in the traditional form for children throughout England). It was a fun evening as we had Chinese in honor of the fact that they had eaten Chinese a year ago on that night, they told stories of the trip to London and Confirmation, I got to see an invention one of the young men came up with (or at least let's say that he installed creatively some wiring and lights) in order to provide reading light in his room, etc. It was a real blessing and joy to be there.

Wednesday evening I headed to a family farm for their weekly family rosary--a nice occasion that I am trying to make each week. It is wonderful to have the chance to pray with the children and adults--parents and grandparents--all together, to listen to each one present their intentions, visiting with them before and after, etc.

This afternoon I will be heading for tea to the home of a local lady who lives near the ocean (well I guess I live near the ocean too since we're just a mile or two away!), to get to know her and her family better. I'll likely be going to another villager's home this week to get to know him and his wife better.

Going to homes regularly, perhaps even several times a week, for meals and for tea is a new experience for me, as those in Texas know! But in addition to being chaplain for the Carmel I'm also essentially the pastor of a country parish and so this is an aspect of apostolic life I'll need to grow into. One I don't mind, but that is new.

And speaking of visiting homes and families and blessings, the following happened about two weeks ago but it's worth recounting here:

Each Thursday evening we have a Holy Hour and Benediction and I hear confessions during the Holy Hour. There have also been many fall leaves falling and it has been wet--extremely wet. So when a family came for Holy Hour they decided to also light on fire a stack of wood that needed to be burned up. As a result, when we came outside after Holy Hour, there was a bon-fire blazing away. One of the young men "happened" to have brought along a bag of marshmallows so we got sticks and roasted marshmallows over the fire. But, wonder of wonders, when I asked the family about s'mores they had never heard of them! So I'll have to introduce them to that bit of American culture at some point.

Well, I have to go now.

Sending you all love and prayers.

In Cordibus Iesu et Mariae,
Fr. Tony Pillari