I had lunch with Father Marco Guzman today. He was the priest that got me set up for my month in Mexico, and now he is returning home. Many thanks for all your help, Father, it was great getting to know you.
As a special treat, Father Guzman gave me a gift: a Spanish-language sacramentary! This is a major addition to my liturgical books collection, and I look forward to practising the mass in Spanish. Thank you Father!
I drove up to Camp Kinkora today, to offer mass at the Diocesan Liturgy Camp. There were over 60 campers there this year, from small kids to big teenagers (and the staff as well). I was recruited to go by a former parishioner of mine (shout-out to Fiona!) who welcome me warmly when I got there. We set things up, and after people had assembled I took the time to explain each element of the mass as it was being celebrated. The people seemed to appreciate it, and the kids were certainly paying attention, so I see this as a success.
I began my day today with a new function: after a (surprisingly long) visit to the bank I am new a signing officer of the Canadian Centre for Ecumenism. My signature is needed for any cheque over $500 (except for common recurring expenses). Why me? Because I am the Treasurer of the Centre, so in reality this change should have happened a long time ago. I am hoping to get a new financial system in place soon (development is progressing) and this is part of the renewal of our fiscal control mechanisms.
This weekend I was at the Journey to the Father conference in Cornwall. I had never been to one of these conferences before, but I was asked to go as a guest speaker this time. So Friday I packed up the car with luggage, laptop, projector, and so on, and headed out to “Saint Raffles” parish.
I got together with some of the guys I did my pilgrimmage to Germany with back in 2005 (our World Youth Day gang) and we played Settlers of Catan. While I had never played this game before I had heard of it, and I know it is one of the most popular games out there. The game itself was lots of fun, but so was the time spend with this rather competitive group of guys!
Next time, Supremacy!
I did something tonight I’ve never done before: I took in a show to the Just for Laughs Comedy festival. Now it’s not that I don’t like to laugh — I love to laugh! — but I find a lot of comedy these days involves just either insulting people or using shockingly coarse language. The real comic geniuses, those capable of identifying the absurd and pointing it out in a way that shows us how absurd it is, are few and far between.
No, it’s not the basilica in Rome, it’s a friendly nickname for Peter’s Cape Cod in Sainte-Anne-de-Bellevue. I headed over there today for lunch with a priest friend of mine, to share fellowship and to talk about some new responsibilities being added to the scope of his priestly ministry — and to see how I’ll be able to help him out, something I am looking forward to. The restaurant was his idea, but since it’s Friday I appreciate having a fish menu.
Well, not quite. This afternoon I actually headed over to Anjou, a sub-section of Montreal, to meet with a brother priest who is himself from Brazil. Although we had seen one another from large diocesan gatherings, we had never actually met or chatted, so this was our chance to get to know one another. We headed out to his favourite coffee shop (where “it takes like coffee from home”, as he put it), and had a good couple of hours just sharing priestly brotherhood.
I love days like this.
