Catching up

Bishop Lucas gathered in the See City yesterday with his seminarians for their annual Christmas gathering.

The priests and deacons (with their wives) are invited each year to join them for Vespers and dinner. It is always an enjoyable time and a good opportunity to catch up with the seminarians and our brother priests.

In between Vespers and dinner we usually have about an hour’s time to visit and mingle. I was surprised to learn how many deacons are following my blog and listening to my podcasts and my radio interviews.

Thanks to the continuing help of our retired priest, I was able to stay the night in Springfield to visit more with the seminarians. After dinner I introduced some of them to that wonderfully entertaining game, Apples to Apples. We played until 12:30 before calling it a day.

I rose early this morning and returned to Effingham in time for the last part of wrestling practice.

After doing a few things around the office and rectory I rested for a short while before resuming the day.

Some of the high school boys have been asking me to join them at their new favorite restaurant: Buffalo Wild Wings. We had planned on going last week, but an ice storm that shut down the Interstate canceled those plans (the restaurant is 30 minutes away).

The boys were at a basketball game not far from the restaurant so I met them at B Dubs – as they call it - after the game. I’m not generally a fan of wings, but the sauces were great! I ordered a garlic parmesan chicken flatbread (something like a pizza) and was told that I had to have at least six wings (with a honey BBQ sauce). I gave in; it’s usually easier.

As we waited for our food we played an arcade game that struck me as a much more impressive version of Duck Hunt. You could hunt ducks, antelope, moose and even gophers. I wasn’t very good – I’m better with swords – but it was a good time. All in all, I was pleased and may join them again sometime.

I’ve been taking a quiet evening catching up on some reading, and I intend to do so for the next hour or so.