A year in review

Keeping an annual calendar carries with it many benefits, from being on time for meetings and appointments to reflecting back over the course of a year. As I look back over my calendar for 2009, I cannot help but be grateful to the Lord for the many blessings given me over the course of the past twelve months.

It was – to say the least – an eventful year, from meetings of the Priests’ Personnel Board to wrestling and track meets, soccer games, weddings, funerals, additional meetings, retreats, classes and other various travels and duties.

Without a doubt, the greatest blessing of the past year for me was my ministry among the high school students of St. Anthony High School in Effingham. If found me fielding questions from all areas of life wherever I went and absolving sins in extraordinary places.

Each month, too, was marked with it’s own particular blessings and joys. January found me in Washington, D.C. for the annual March for Life. While the occasion for such a pilgrimage is truly lamentable, the March itself is quite inspiring. Seeing so many people gathered in the nation’s capital for one purpose is most moving.

February found me back in Hawaii for my annual retreat. It was, without question, the most powerful retreat of my life under the unintended guidance of St. Damien of Molokai.

In March I was the spiritual director for a De Colores weekend outside Effingham. It was a blessed time spent with people searching for the face of God and gave me many opportunities to share my faith and what I have learned with others.

April brought the news of the appointment of His Excellency the Most Reverend George J. Lucas as the Archbishop of Omaha. While the news was sad for us here in the Diocese of Springfield in Illinois, it was happy news for the good people of Omaha. Now we continue to wait for the appointment of a new Bishop, a time to look in confidence to the Lord to give us another shepherd after his heart.

It was in May that I learned of my appointment as Pastor of Sacred Heart Parish in Virden and of St. Patrick Parish in Girard, from Parochial Vicar of St. Anthony of Padua Parish in Effingham. It was an appointment I did not seek and, as such, came as quite a shock to me. It was an invitation for me to give my myself over more fully to the will of God for my life, to let go of my own desires to go wherever the Lord should have need of me.

Whereas May brought news that tore my world apart, June brought a great tragedy in the death of the soccer team’s Coach K, a good friend, that, in some ways, cemented it back together. I watched with much wonder and gratitude the team’s reaction to his death, from their quick action on the field in calling for help and doing all that was necessary, to their gathering in the church to pray for Coach K, to the way they came together and played well for him throughout the season. It was all a testimony to Coach K’s influence on the boys – and on me – though he was only with us a couple of weeks.

July was a rather quiet month, spent among good friends and in much prayer, both of which are always welcome.

Much of the month of August was spent bidding farewell to the many friends I made in Effingham over the course of my four years among them. Though many tears were shed, the opportunity to say farewell was a tremendous blessing not always given priests at the time of a transfer.

In September I moved to Virden with the help of some of the high school students and was welcomed most warmly by my new parishioners. The cordial welcome they extended through a pot luck dinner (who doesn’t like a pot luck?!) assured me that I had been sent to minister to good people seeking to follow Jesus Christ.

In October I went to Rome with a couple of friends for the canonization of Damien of Molokai, who over the past couple of years has become one of my spiritual heroes. Too many blessings were experienced during that pilgrimage to recount here.

November found me travelling much of central Illinois for retreats and confessions, even as I grew accustomed to my new home in Virden and began to get a feel for the life of the two parishes.

The restored Cathedral of the Immaculate Conception was rededicated in December with much joy and gladness. The beauty of the house of pray will inspire many and strengthen their faith, hope and love.

All in all, 2009 was a year filled with many joys and sorrows, a year of many blessings. I, for one, am sad to see it go, yet look forward with hope to 2010, curious as to what the Lord will ask of me.