Friday, November 27, 2015

What? What? What?

YOU HAVE EVERY RIGHT TO BE  CONFUSED!




A Presbyterian Church in Canada



Catholic Bishop Gary Gordon of Victoria, Canada, With His Dog Merlin and Pick-Up Truck


Moses and his two Tablets


Should a Pope be doing this? 


A married Roman Catholic priest in St. Vincent and the Grenadines. His wife is the Bishop's secretary. 



A Catholic priest friend of mine from  Iraq. He is the pastor of Ascension Church in the Diocese of Victoria, BC, Canada. 


Sister Jeannette is a member of the Franciscan Sisters of Oldenburg, Indiana.
A mother of three, grandmother of two and great-grandmother of seven, she decided to become a nun at 47 and is now 66, fulfilling a dream she had as a child. Being a black Catholic from Mississippi, she was not encouraged by religious orders of the time. 


A Catholic priest preaching to a room full of Protestant preachers


From my secret archives of vacation pictures - Island of St. Maarten, Horny Toad Hotel




A blind seminarian and Deacon about to be ordained a priest for The Diocese of Owensboro. 


A married former Free Will Baptist Church Minister, and former South American missionary for that Church, now a Catholic Deacon about to be ordained a priest for the Diocese of Little Rock Arkansas


I actually owned a dog for six days, but couldn't take it! His name was Bear!


I used to smoke cigars and I loved them! 



I actually used to take back packing trips to Europe (five in all)and sleep on the ground for weeks!
That's me in the striped shirt at Taize! Me camping? Even I can't believe it now! 


A family that texts together stays together? 


My idea of great vacation.


Obvious disobedience at its best! 



Why would anyone open several purchases in the the Kroger parking lot and then throw the packaging out both sides of the car and drive off leaving it for someone else to pick up? This so symbolic of much that is wrong in our culture that I had to get a picture of it before hauling it to a trash can fifty feet away. Since I walk across the lot from my condo daily, it is not uncommon to walk over used diapers, rotten food spilling out of paper cartons from the Chinese restaurant and even half-consumed 30 oz drink cups standing straight up with their straws still sticking out, right outside the drivers door of a once parked car. 

Monday, November 23, 2015

Speaking to the Bishops and Priests of Canada

From My Louisville Presbyterate 
to
Presbyterates All Across Canada

I have led over 100 priest retreats and convocations and study days in seven countries, but I always go as a member of my own presbyterate of Louisville. Here is a shot of Bishop McCloskey and the Louisville presbyterate in 1887.
  COMPLETED CONVOCATIONS AND RETREATS IN CANADA.....
I have already spoken in many archdioceses, dioceses, seminaries and priest groups across Canada: Toronto (6 times), Winnipeg, Saskatoon, Prince Albert, Kamloops, London, Hamilton, St. Augustine Seminary, Redemptoris Mater Seminary and the Niagara Falls Priest Gathering. (see my post Up To My Ears in Priests of 9-19-15)
This fall I finished Kingston (Ontario), Regina (Saskatchewan), Corner Brook-Labador (Newfoundland) and Victoria (British Columbia) - see below. 
...WITH MORE TO COME
Next year, I will go to Nelson (British Columbia) and Saulte Ste. Marie (Ontario) and Pembroke (Ontario).  I have been in dioceses in the very far east and the very far west and many places in between. 



Archdiocese of Kingston
Ontario, Canada
September 21-23, 2015

Archbishop Brendan O'Brien on the right, myself on the left.

Archbishop Brendan O'Brien and his priests at the 2014 ordination of Father Justin Pulikunnel (originally from India and to the right of the archbishop in the photo).

The 2015 Priest Convocation where I was a presenter at the 
Ambassador Hotel in Kingston, ONTARIO.

Fr. James Quirk


Father James Quirk (former Anglican priest). He has a wife and five children, 

Like many dioceses today, the Archdiocese of Kingston is beginning to receive 
some international priests. These three priests are from Nigeria in Africa.

Archbishop O'Brien Ordaining a Class of Permanent Deacons With Their Wives Behind Them.

_________________________________________________________


Archdiocese of Regina
 Saskatchewan, Canada
October 5-8, 2015 


The Convocation was held at Heritage Inn Conference Center in Moose Jaw

This is what the priests of Regina see most of the time.

A page from a prairie picture book presented to me and signed by all the priests.

Archbishop Daniel J. Bohan

One of the typical tables of priests during my presentations.

Thanks to my friend, Tim, I have become a master of Power Point presentations.

Archbishop Bohan installed seminarian Arpee Urquico (on the right) 
in the Ministry of Acolyte during one of the masses at the convocation.


One evening we all rode a bus into the Hotel Regina to celebrate the 
100th anniversary of the diocese becoming an archdiocese. 


Archbishop Luigi Bonacci, Apostolic Nuncio to Canada, attended the celebration.

__________________________________________________________


DIOCESE OF CORNER BROOK - LABRADOR
(one of three dioceses in far eastern Canada)
 in
Newfoundland and Labrador, Canada
October 19-23, 2015


The amazing scenery along the way to the retreat site about an hour north of Corner Brook. 
We met at the Shallow Bay Motel in the town of Cow Head on the sea. 
It was cold, windy and rainy mixed with snow, but the pool was still open. 
No one even dared to try it!

Shallow Bay in Cow Head, Newfoundland, Canada.
(The emphasis, I learned is pronounced, on the last syllable, not the first as in "NewfundLAND, 
not "NEWfundlund."

Bishop Peter Joseph Hundt is a very young, warm, humble and charming bishop. He has about 25 parishes and 25 priests. He was previously an auxiliary bishop in the Archdiocese of Toronto. 

Bishop Hundt celebrating Mass for our priest retreat. I preached every day 
as well as delivered eight retreat conferences. 

A group photo of Bishop Peter Joseph Hundt and his priests at the closing Mass.

A break for refreshments. In total, about 23 priests attended. Six had to take a plane from Labrador, another part of the diocese across the bay. As you can see, this presbyterate is very international too - Philippines, Vietnam, India and Nigeria. 

On the first night, some priests and the bishop (on the right) played cards in the evening 
while others watched the Canadian election returns on television. 

Deacon Andrew White, the diocese's only seminarian, presented me with a calligraphy of the Good Shepherd psalm he did in his own hand at the end of the convocation on behalf of the bishop and all the priests. He attends St. Peter Seminary in Ontario.


The view near the Deer Lake Airport.
__________________________________________________


Diocese of Victoria
British Columbia, Canada
(Located on an island just north of Seattle, Washington, in far western Canada)
November 16-18, 2015 




Bishop Gary Gordon of Victoria, British Columbia.
Former Bishop of the Yukon Territory - a humble, down-to-earth man.




This a Bishop Gary Gordon in a more typical situation with his dog, Merlin, and pick-up truck.
"You can take a bishop out of the Yukon, but you can't take the Yukon of a bishop!" 


Bishop Gordon had a funeral on the mainland so I had Mass for the Chancery staff for the Diocese of Victoria on Monday morning.



Conference Centre Tigh-Na-Mara

Tigh-Na-Mara Resort
Parkesville, British Columbia, on Victoria Island

It was rainy the day afternoon I arrived - still beautiful.
This is a shot from my balcony. 

Bishop Gary Gordon (center) with most of his priests relaxing after the evening session.


Bishop Gary Gordon on the left and a married priest with five children on the right. The Vicar General of the Diocese of Victoria is in the center. 


Father Karam Alraban is a priest from northern Iraq now serving in Canada.

Bishop Gary Gordon, Bishop of Victoria, led us all in Mass at Ascension Parish down the street from the hotel where we had our conferences on Tuesday night. 


The parishioners of Ascension Parish fixed a dinner for the Bishop and all his priests on Tuesday night.


I did a presentation on spiritual leadership to the bishop, priests, lay ministers and parishioners at Ascension Parish on Tuesday night.


On Wednesday night, I repeated my talk for the bishop, lay ministers and parishioners at St. Patrick Parish. 

***************
I have been all over Canada in the last couple of years.
Next year I will be in the Dioceses of Nelson, Saulte Ste. Marie and Pembroke and probably one more at least. 

This does not include several more in the United States and maybe Nigeria.

Looks like a real "retirement" will just have to wait!