Next week, I will be taking my canonical retreat before ordination - five days at a Benedictine monastery down the road a bit. Things look like they’re going to be nice and busy at work up until the very last minute, which, y’know, sort of tracks. Other than knowing that I’ll be out-of-pocket and off-the-grid for a little while, I haven’t given it much thought. I’ll take a few books with me, but don’t have anything planned otherwise.
Our monthly meetings are reduced to a single Saturday now. We spend a couple of hours delivering and writing homilies or stepping through various liturgical things. Last weekend, we learned a bit about serving mass when the bishop is presiding. Our director of deacon personnel was there, and he showed us a cheat sheet for when to get him the mitre and crozier, and I need to ping him to see if he’ll send it out to the rest of us. In the meantime, I see that they’ve published the banns for our petitions, which means that the people of God get three weeks to register their feelings regarding our ordinations. I hope they’ve staffed up the call center.
Our OCIA is busting at the seams. Over 70 at this point in both the English and Spanish sections. We’re honestly out of physical space to hold everyone. This sounds like the opposite of a problem, and it is in a way. People continue to show up week after week, with I heard this was where OCIA is, and we show them where to sit and get them onto the sign-up sheet. I wish we could just split them into separate evenings or something, but it’s not my call, and I’ll likely be gone by January anyway.
Cooling off slowly outside. It’s starting to look and feel a little more fall-ish, but the grass has gotten tall again, and I’ll need to cut it again soon. Still working through de Sales, MacIntyre, and PKD. I just noticed that the latest season of Slow Horses has dropped and am very stoked. Otherwise, it’s old British detective shows for us via Britbox: Lewis and Happy Valley right now.