On Saturday, December 6, 2003, the Montreal Gazette reported on the launch of a new “approach” to the Eucharist by a group called the Relais Mont-Royal. I reported on this in my blog of the same day. It was subsequently picked up by Catholic Blog for Lovers, Catholic and Enjoying It!, and even the Secret Agent Man (whose fisking is linked to in the next blog post below).

Here in our parish we are trying to instill a vision of “total stewardship”, and the pastor has asked me to lead special efforts in this regard. As anybody who has ever tried to work a “total stewardship” vision quickly discovers, it is very hard. It brings out the cynicism in people very quickly. “Oh, this is just another way to try and get us to give more money” is an oft-heard complaint. Yes, money is involved, but so what? We can’t pay our insurance bill with goodwill.

I don’t normally post replies to “comments” in my blog, but Dawn is one of my most faithful readers, and her comment post cut me to the quick:

In speaking about the Muslims, one or two Anglican churches in Pennsylania were sold to Muslims who now have turned them into mosques. What do you think of that. It makes me sad.

Today I taught my first class of the semester. I got to the university early, in order to prepare (and also to avoid the traffic coming into town — it’s murder that time of day). So I went to the cafeteria, where it was so quiet, and took a chair near the back doors.

I finished a significant task today (significant at least for me): I managed to complete my scrapbook for 2003.

I celebrated a funeral today at one of the local funeral homes. I was a nice chance to journey with the family in this difficult time. Mrs. Gita Horvath is now buried next to her husband, which she wanted.

Last night I was out with some friends, and my friend Iris asked me “How do you handle doing funerals?” (She meant: how do you handle it emotionally). Well, I must say, it depends on the funeral. In the short span of time I’ve been doing them, I’ve seen a lot.

Yes, even priests have to take care of boring everyday stuff like balancing a checkbook. Most of my day was spent trying to do just that, in preparation for tax time over the next couple of months. While there isn’t that much to balance in the first place, it starts to get complicated fast. For example, the government lets us deduct a share of our automobile expenses, based on what %age of our usage was for pastoral purposes.

May 2004 be full of blessings for all of you.

2003 was quite a full year for me….let’s see, what were the main highlights?

In January, I started teaching theology at Concordia University. Definitely one of the hardest things I have ever had to do. I am not sure who learned more, me or the students. And the learning process continues, and I will be teaching once again next term.

The short answer is yes, unless you want to descend into process theology. The real question is: what does it mean to be outside of time?In my post of December 22, I quoted a passage from the Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy which points out that there have historically been two approaches to examining the nature of time: “Reductionism/Relationism with Respect to Time”, and “Platonism with Respect to Time”. In the first, time does not exist outside of the events (i.e. changes) that occur in time.