A little adventure

It seems I posted this by mistake at A Beggar for Love on the 20th.

Greetings from St. Francis of Assisi Friary in my beloved home of Quincy!

The friars are very kind hosts and I might have to see about staying here more often. It’s very peaceful and quiet. Refreshing, really.

I have returned to the Gem City for the wedding of a friend from high school. Rose remains of my few high school friends with whom I have managed to stay in contact. At the reception, which begins in just a few minutes, I’m expecting to see another friend from high school, whose name happens to be Darren (notice he has two ‘r’s).

The wedding took place this afternoon in St. Francis Solanus church, which may well be the most beautiful church in the Diocese. Even though the flowers for the parents were misplaced – or maybe lost – the wedding went very well. (The flowers were found after Communion; I’m still not sure where they went. I put them next to the ambo before Mass…)

I left Effingham yesterday afternoon after concluding parent/teach conferences in a bit of hurry, which is never a good idea. About halfway to Quincy, and already on schedule to arrive late for the rehearsal due to incredibly high traffic on the highways, I realized I had forgotten to bring something that I have never forgotten before: my Roman collar. I really need a personal assistant.

Ordinarily this might not have posed much of a problem. However, this time I decided only to bring my cassock and just make travelling simple. That will teach me. The cassock, minus the collar, looks extremely goofy.

Not sure what else to do, I called the Cathedral and asked if I might borrow one of Bishop Lucas’ collars as he and I have roughly the same neck size. Naturally, he wasn’t in. About thirty minutes later I received a call back to the affirmative, much to my great relief.I had already resolved to go through the practice and hop back in my car to return to Effingham to fetch my collar. I didn’t really have any other option. It’s the curse of being a smaller priest.

As it happened, one of the priests who serves at the Cathedral happened to be coming to Quincy last night for a weekend with our candidates for the permanent diaconate, which was a good thing before I had already passed through Springfield. He very kindly brought the collar with him and gave it to me. Consequently, I ran the rehearsal in jeans and a DrPepper hoodie, a first in itself, (it’s about all I had with me) but afterwards put the cassock on and went to the rehearsal dinner.

Bishop Lucas has arrived in Quincy this afternoon for his pastoral visit to St. Francis Solanus parish. I haven’t seen him yet, but I’ve heard he has arrived. I will return his collar with many thanks tomorrow morning before I return to Effingham in time for our end of the year soccer party.

Through this little adventure I learned one thing: always keep a spare collar (and cuff links just in case) in the glove box, because this will happen again sometime.More posts about the Quincy visit to come.