A Week Off

June 21

This week finds the Sisters on retreat which means that I have the week to engage in personal endeavors. The retreat master is a Dominican friar who is an alumnus of Catholic Theological Union, as am I.

Since I have retired from the position of administrator of CUSA, I am endeavoring to downsize my cleaning up the office area with a view to being able to move out of it. I am not sure that is going to be possible, but at least I can get rid of the clutter. I hope to be able to make something of a dent in that this week.

At the same time, I am also indulging in reading more fiction. Some years ago, I watched a series PBS about a Scottish constable by the name of Hamish Macbeth. While watching the credits, I noticed that the stories were taken from the novels of M.C. Beaton. I found the novels of this author in our local library system and have been reading them for the past two weeks. They are supplementing my love for murder mysteries by the British novelist Anne Perry. If you are into murder mysteries, I recommend both authors.

At the same time, during the Easter season I did some interesting reading about the Book of Revelation. I focused my Sunday homilies on the second reading in the Lectionary for Sunday Mass. I got the idea for this approach from the homilies of Bishop Robert Barron. Oftentimes the second reading gets very short shrift in Sunday homilies. This reminded me of the series of homilies that I did during the year that hope Benedict XVI set aside as the “Year of St. Paul.” I think it is time for me to revisit that idea.

This week will probably go by very quickly. Before you know it, July will be here, the month that is causing me some anxiety. Just this past Saturday we heard the gospel reading in which Jesus tells us not to worry. As my mother used to say, “I’m not worrying; I’m just concerned.”