An unexpected day

I fully expected - and indeed looked forward to - to spend the majority of the day on my couch with an afghan and a few good books and articles that I've been meaning to read for some time now. But, as happens often enough, such was not the case.

I did spend much of the morning, which I enjoyed very much. About lunch time I went up to the high school to join the teachers for a lunch welcoming back the teacher that I filled in for the past several weeks (he returned on Monday).

As I was about to return to the parish one of the teachers called my cell phone. I hear the ring tone in time (the original Super Mario Bros. theme) so I walked up to his classroom to see what he needed.

This particular teacher will often start his classes (this one happened to be a chemistry class) at the beginning of the week asking his students what they remember from the Sunday homily. One of his students apparently remembered what I said toward the end of my homily comparing going to church to going to the gym. The student not only remembered it but thought it made a lot of sense. The teacher, thinking I might enjoy hearing this, called me so that student could tell me. I'm very glad he did.

I ended up sitting through the class as the students went over a test they took on Monday. Looking at the questions I realize how much chemistry I've forgotten. I stayed through most of his next class (conceptual physics), as well. The teacher spoke about why he stays at a Catholic school making far less money than he could elsewhere.

I then followed it up with some thoughts on what everyone wants from life: happiness, peace and fulfillment. Naturally, I connected this to the will of God for our lives.

After leaving that class I was pulled into the multi-purpose room to join a study hall and a geography class that was eating food; the food was gone by the time I arrived. While I was there two students asked to go to confession, which always brightens my day.

After a brief return to the rectory I went back to the high school for wrestling practice. As I was talking with the students in the weight room another student came looking for me, also to go to confession. When I returned to the weight room we had another interesting conversation about sex. I'm told tomorrow's conversation will be the question: is there sex in heaven? I answer, "No," simply because there is no marriage in heaven. Because sex outside of marriage is gravely sinful there can be no sex in heaven. I expect this will turn into quite a debate. I wonder if St. Thomas Aquinas addressed this question somewhere.

After wrestling practice I popped in to see how the preparations for the Fall play are coming along; the play opens on Friday. All seems to be well in order.

I finally returned to the rectory about twenty minutes ago. After playing with the Pastor's dog for a bit, I have now returned to me suite.

All things considered, it's been a great day!