Chronicles Archives

Merry Christmas

December 26, 2015

For obvious reasons, I don’t have a lot of time for blogging during the Advent and the Feast of Christmas. During the actual Christmas Season, from the 25th until January 6th or so, there’s a lot more time to be spent updating here and there.

But suffice it to say that despite the busyness, it was a marvelous time.

Here are a few things I learned this Christmas:

Making a reservation at the hotel where you’re going to be having dinner is ostensibly a great idea, until you forget to cancel the reservation and have to either pay for the room or stay in it.
There’s nothing wrong with staying in it, but it’s much more expensive than staying at one of your friend’s rectories.
It was very nice having a place in the city where friends could congregate and socialize. So, while I doubt I’ll be staying at the Roosevelt again anytime soon — if ever, even though it’s entirely lovely — it was a good way to spend Christmas night.

That’s about it for my social life. Now, back to my prayer life….

The Mangy Manger

December 16, 2015December 15, 2015

First of all, let me say that this manger is not mangy at all. The title was just a little alliteration and used to describe the great guys inside the manger, who built it as a labor of love.

But what a mangy crew!

Abita Springs is such a great town. I always think that Alfred Hitchcock would have loved it here. It’s a down to earth place, where people get to know one another, and no one is afraid to be eccentric, and no one is afraid to be holy.

The Manger Scene is coming along; a few reflection issues here in the morning shade, before the inside lights are connected, to highlight the construction crew.

Helloooo…….

The figurines were ordered from Italy, and came in boxes saying “Made in China”, a bit of international flair there, and they are beautiful.

In the meantime, our gardening club freshened up all of the gardens for the Christmas Season. They’re so great.

My camera’s UV lens has some issues going on with it evidently, all of the clouding here and there.

I worked inside all day, took a long walk, and knocked out the mounds of paperwork that go along with pastoral duties. What would life be without paperwork? Bills? Taxes?

It’d be a foretaste of heaven no doubt. But until then…

Jesus Christ is very strong here. That’s a great thing.

Down At the Farm

December 14, 2015

So, my cousin and his lovely wife have taken to farming, and I have taken to visiting them. I suddenly feel so much closer to the whole “buy local” movement.

It’s an astoundingly beautiful place out in the Louisiana countryside, where the plentiful rains replenish the ground regularly, and our temperate (hah!) climate nurtures wondrous growth. I hear Californians are moving here too, escaping the ongoing drought out West.

I can’t help but love any colors which look somewhat like fall colors.

They raise chickens, lambs, goats, and grow hydroponic lettuce and herbs. The eggs are delicious. The lettuce is wonderful. The herbs are beautiful and filled with flavor. I’ll admit I’m biased, but why shouldn’t I be? They have excellent product.

All in all, it’s made me want to start a farm in the backyard here at the Rectory. Or at least a garden.

The beginnings of Catholic Social teaching, starting with Rerum Novarum of course, taught that every family should have the space for a garden. I think that teaching’s coming full circle. A “back to the land” movement started about a century ago, following publication of Rerum Novarum, and Fr. Vincent McNabb, in England, started a movement for people to move out of the large, industrialized cities, back to the countryside. As the “back to the land” movement spread to literature, Margaret Mitchell, a devout Catholic (well, somewhat… she actually left the Church in later life and became Episcopalian.,) who grew up visiting with the local nuns, and hearing their stories of the Civil War, wrote her Pulitzer Prize winning, and epic novel Gone with the Wind, in which the heroine is constantly renewed by her return to the land; Tara, the plantation, from terra for earth.

I don’t think we can be raising sheep here, in downtown Abita. These ewes are eyeing me up here; great expectations. I’m sure they would not appreciate their photos on my little weblog here. But, that’s life when you’re a sheep.

The goats, aside from being very inquisitive, are also very friendly. And cute as could be. I mean, look at those mugs! There name are Eustes and Leroy.

God bless the farm, and the farmers. Without farms, where would we be? Be sure to check out Our Family Farm, and their partners over at Sacred Roots.

A Week in Chicago

November 14, 2015

If you find yourself in Chicago, a visit to St John Cantius is worthwhile.

School, Church, Convent. And while the school and the convent no longer serve their original purpose, they have a great repurposing of both of those buildings. The school is leased o an Arts School: the Convent is the Canonry…. home to the brothers and fathers in the Canons.

Well… A typically short post. I just flew into New Orleans and drove home to Abita Spings, and I’m exhausted. I’ll follow up on this post though, off to pray.

The Last Leper’s Colony

October 23, 2015October 23, 2015

Excuse me here for reminiscing.

But way, way, back in the wayback machine, we learned in grammar school all about Carville, and the Leper’s Colony on the Mississippi River, out in the middle of nowhere, where lepers were sent to live… and to die. Eventually a cure was found, and the name leprosy was renamed to Hansen’s Disease, and it’s no longer to be feared.

That’s about all we learned. It was.. way, way back and all that. The place was still open.

It was a fascinating and mysterious place to hear about, and always evoked mysterious images in our minds. After all… Jesus cured lepers. And they were sent… away.

Visiting the museum, tells a simply passionate story.

The Daughters of Charity were called upon to the found the place, and they didn’t want to. (Who could blame them, really?) The facilities were a ruined plantation and some slave quarters.

But the Provincial of the order visited and decided it was truly a worthy cause, and so it came to be.

The nuns, many of whom probably knew Margaret, yes Margaret, that Margaret, personally, they walked with her, and talked with her and were at her funeral…. were then called to start a leper’s colony in an old, ruined plantation house that was falling apart, and ridden with bats, rats, and no doubt … roaches.

How awful.

The above by the way is Sr. Hilary’s camera. Sr. Hilary Ross was the head of the center for decades, and instrumental in the research and cure of leprosy.

She was an accomplished photographer, which was just the spiritual boost I needed today.

This was a microscope she used. She never even went to high school, and helped not only cure Hansen’s Disease, but also helped to promote and encourage hope amongst the hopeless. The community at Carville developed into quite a thriving and creative group of people.

That long basket back there… that’s what was used before bodybags.

One of my friends was telling me his sister loved gruesome things, the more gore the better. I told him she’d totally love this place. But really, it’s not gory at all, it’s just fascinating.

Very information driven, a lot packed into a small space.

Still, I found myself not wanting to touch anything. The stigma of leprosy… There was a Holy Water Bottle that the nuns kept in their Chapel, and the typed label said: “Please Touch! It’s just Holy Water.”

There are two graveyards, only one on the self guided tour. God rest them, all.

If you ever have the opportunity, National Hansen’s Disease Museum. Or at least take A Virtual Tour of the National Hansen’s Disease Musem.