A LONG-STANDING PRACTICE
This could be my First Communion picture?
Pre-beard on ordination day.
May 16, 1970
Ever since I grew my first beard during the summer of 1972, while on a backpacking trip to Taize in France, I have made it a practice to change my beard to celebrate significant milestones. Here is my updated short history of my facial hair during times of transition.
This could be my First Communion picture?
Pre-beard on ordination day.
May 16, 1970
Pre-bead and sideburns at 27 years old - a year and a half ordained.
Saint Mildred Church - Somerset, Kentucky
September 21, 1971
In the summer of 1972 I grew my beard on a back-packing trip to Europe. The photo below was taken in Belgium during that first trip. When I came home, I did not show anyone in the parish until I walked down the isle for Sunday Mass. You could hear audible gasps. After Mass, I heard two old ladies talking about the beard. One of them came to my defense, saying, "Well, Saint Francis had a beard!" The other one, shot back, "Yes, but he isn't Saint Francis!"
The photo below was taken in Monticello, Kentucky, at Saint Peter Church, @ 1977
The photo below was taken about the time I became Pastor of the Cathedral in 1983.
The photo above was taken @1990
To celebrate my 25th anniversary as a priest, in the photo below, I cut off part of my beard in 1995.
This was my beard during the years when I worked at Saint Meinrad Seminary. @2010. I was there between 2001 and 2015.
In the photo above, I celebrated my retirement in 2015 by cutting off my beard altogether because it had turned white when I quit dyeing it. and because someone said I looked like Colonial Sanders.
It's baaaaaaaaaaack!
Five weeks into the pandemic.
April 28, 2020, on my 76th birthday.
Eight weeks into the pandemic and it's still growing!
Eleven weeks into the pandemic and still growing!
It could come to this in a year or two! If so, have me committed!
No comments:
Post a Comment