Last week after a Sunday Mass I spotted a little girl (about 9 or 10) wearing a set of rosary beads like a necklace. “Very nice!” I said. “Do you know what these are for?” “I think they are prayer beads,” she replied. “That’s right,” I answered, “Do you know how to use them?” She shook her head. “Do you want me to show you?” Her eyes opened wide and she nodded. “OK,” I said, “get out your prayer book and we’ll look in it together.”

Today I visited some of our Saturday catechism classes for students preparing for the sacrament of Confirmation. I took pictures of some of the classes (ones for which all the students were present), and have posted them to the Internet so they and their families can easily get a copy. You can find the pictures by clicking here.

I would have blogged last night as usual, but I have been living a very unusual stream of providence the last 24 hours. In fact, today seems like a mere continuation of yesterday, not a day in itself, to the point where I have to remind myself it isn’t Thursday, it actually *is* Friday.

The question recently came up to me, “Are there things a person should not ask a priest?” I think this is a valid question. I don’t know that I can give an exhaustive answer, but here’s a bit to reflect on.

Today I got a call to go and visit an elderly man at one of our local elder care residences. According to the message he was dying, so I brought my holy oils and my prayerbook. When I arrived at the residence the family was gathered around him, and it was clear he was in extremis — the poor man had contracted pneumonia, and his breathing was very laboured.

So I didn’t go on the cruise today, but instead stayed in and read. I spent quite a bit of time thinking about youth and young adult ministry in my diocese, which right now is apparently about to lose one of its best resources: the Youth Impact Centre. I know it sounds like a junior wresting arena, but in fact it is an excellent facility for holding weekend youth retreats.

Today I did something I have never done before: visited a Disney theme park. Now to be honest, I’ve never been all *that* interested in doing such a thing, but I figured “Hey, I’m in Florida, Orlando is not that far away, why the heck not?” But I drew the line at getting excited by the appearance of Mickey the Freemason Mouse, so I went to Epcot instead. Here is my review.

Today was the second of the two funerals I mentioned in my blog yesterday. We were waiting in the church when the funeral director entered, took me aside, and said: “Father, we have a problem. The back door on the hearse is frozen shut.” Only in Canada….

So our handyman got out a screwdriver and removed part of the back door to the hearse (don’t ask me how, I was inside keeping warm), and they managed to get out both the casket and the stand-with-wheels that the casket rests on.

Today we had a meeting of the North Shore Ministerial, a gathering of the Christians pastors of various denominations for our area. Usually we get together for lunch and chat about what is going on in our respective churches. Today we only had 4 people attend, however: myself, my pastor, the pastor of Roxboro United Church, and the pastor of St. Barnabas Anglican. This was about 1/3 of our usual turnout.