Everyone is welcome to join us at 6 p.m. on Monday evening, August 4 for a sung Evening Prayer and installation of a monsignor. Bishop Rhoades will be here along with a couple dozen priests and most all of our seminarians. I’m not sure that there is much involved in installing a monsignor, but I do know that I will be wearing a cassock with fuscia-colored buttons. I borrowed and wore a cassock once in 1988 and once again in 2006. This will be an historic event. We will not have an evening Mass on Monday.
School begins this week, on Thursday, August 7. The senior citizens among us delight in telling others that school didn’t begin so early back in our days. I don’t think that the required count of 180 instructional days has changed; schools today must get out earlier in the spring and have more breaks during the year. Our school building looks amazing with the new windows, waxed floors, several new HVAC units, a lot of new desks and fresh paint, and everything ready. We’re anxious to have our children back again.
Our seminarian, Michael Florin, finished his assignment in the parish last week. It was a joy to have Michael here this summer. He is a gifted young man and he has the qualities of an excellent priest. Michael was active with youth ministries, young adult gatherings, liturgies, and a variety of parish events. He led a Bibles and Burgers talk and a baptismal prep meeting and he has set a new seminarian record by planting five trees on our property! He returns to St. Meinrad Seminary in southern Indiana for his second year of study, with four more years after that.
News from India: Fr. James is now teaching two classes for the seminarians at his monastery school. His area of expertise? English grammar.
