I think this says it all.

Who painted it?

Hillary! visited the basilica of Our Lady of Guadelupe when she was lately in Mexico. They lowered the tilma so that she could see it and she brought a bouquet of white flowers to honor it. She turned to the priest who was on the staff of the basilica and asked "Who painted it?" And this from supposedly the world's smartest woman!

Where have I been?

To say that I've had nothing to do since the last posting would be wrong. Plenty of things have been going on in the life of our parish and in mine. We resurrected the St. Joseph's Table for March 19th in the parish hall. From a small beginning, I expect that it will grow if we just keep doing it for several years. The "Tuesdays in Lent" series will come to an end tomorrow night when we show the pictures and commentary on them from the EOHSJ pilgrimage to the Holy Land and Rome. The picture shows me in a "Titanic" pose at the prow of the boat on the Sea of Gallilee.

A number of "seekers" have appeared here at Holy Redeemer. They are on a journey of faith, and are interested in joining the Catholic one. It is gratifying to see.

Wednesday is the anniversary of my ordination, April 1, 1978. It seems only like yesterday, but I can assure you that there has been a lot of water under the bridge since then.

Abbot Jerome came to visit me Friday, March 27. He assisted at our communal penance service with two other priests from the deanery, and me. On Saturday he preached at our annual Lenten Quiet Day. This is something the we've done for many years now with St. Mary's Episcopal Church here in El Dorado. When it is at St. Mary's, as it was this year, Holy Redeemer supplies the speaker. When it is done at Holy Redeemer, St. Mary's provides the speaker. We average about thirty attendees annually. Abbot Jerome's topic was the "communion if saints" with quotations from the Letter to Hebrews. It was great, as all his presentations are.

The statues have been veiled for Passiontide. Several stalwarts of the St. Agnes Guild were on hand Saturday to do the veiling. They look creepy now, the statues, that is.

I hope that our Palm Sunday celebrations will have the beautiful weather that we are having now. I am intending to plant my garden tomorrow. It was tilled by a parishioner last week, but the rain made it impossible to do any work in it.

All in all, March has been a busy month, and with all going on I haven't blogged much. I will get back in the swing of things pretty soon.