Saturday, December 31, 2022

MY ANNUAL PERSONAL NEW YEAR'S EVE RETREAT

 

"Our culture made a virtue of living only as extroverts. We discouraged the
inner journey, the quest for a center. So we lost our center and have to find it again."
Anais Nin

Maybe it's because I have lived alone most of the last 52 years, maybe it's because I am definitely an introvert, but as long as I can remember I have looked forward to spending New Year's Eve alone in the solitude of my own home wherever it has been! I deliberately do not accept invitations to New Year's Eve parties.

I realize that many people like to "ring in the New Year" in a huge crowd making lots of noise! Personally, I continue to prefer "the road less traveled." I like to spend those few seconds between years "on my knees" and "in solitude."

In fact, I spend quite a bit of time preparing for that moment of transition into a new year. I usually spend the week after Christmas going through my "nest" and getting rid of junk and unused items that have accumulated over the past year. This includes, not just ridding myself of external "junk," but also identifying and ridding myself of any internal "junk" that may have accumulated. By New Years Eve, I try to have a "clean slate," externally and internally, physically and spiritually, in which to begin a new year.

In my newly cleaned house, I like to prepare some special food and drink, some relaxing music and maybe a scented candle or even a little incense to enhance the "specialness" of the evening. Since I have kept journals over the years, I like to read back over the past year and try to take an inventory of where I have made progress and where I have fallen back and try to make plans for "a correction of my direction." I like to "turn the page" by reviewing last year's journal and then starting the new year with a new journal.

I realize this approach is not possible or even desirable for everyone. However, as an alternative to "loneliness," this may work for a few more people than you imagine. As the old song goes, "If you can't be with the one your love, love the one you're with!" In this case - be "with yourself" in a new way!

For those who think this is a "pathetic" way to spend New Year's Eve, go ahead and gather in a herd, drink till you drop and yell your head off if that makes you feel better! Whatever floats your boat and gives you life! Go for it! All I am saying here, to all those who will feel they are missing someone or some special social event, is that there are alternatives to "feeling bad" on New Year's Eve!


 


 





Friday, December 30, 2022

MAYBE NEXT YEAR?

 

Beginning in 2011, I was able to offer an annual "Blue Christmas Mass for the Grieving" first at Our Lady of the Woods Chapel at Bellarmine University and later at Holy Family Church on Poplar Level Road here in Louisville. It was very popular and well attended telling me it was very much needed in our community. It had never occurred to me, before that, that so many people grieve in such a very serious way over the Christmas holidays. 

Because of COVID, I was forced to cancel for two years. This last year, I was so deeply involved in my Saint Theresa Family Life Center project down in Meade County that I simply did not have time to plan and execute it for this year. 

Starting back in September, people never quit asking if I were going to do it again and were genuinely disappointed when they were told "no." A few days before Christmas, I got a call from AMERICA magazine, the wonderful national Jesuit weekly journal, wanting to interview me about my annual "Blue Christmas Masses" for last week's edition of their magazine.  That interview renewed my hope that I will be able to offer an annual "Blue Christmas Mass" again at Christmas 2023. 

He is the link to the article that came from that pre-Christmas 2022 interview. 

    ‘Longest Night’ services bring comfort to Catholics dealing with loss this Christmas season

Wednesday, December 28, 2022

YOU WON'T BELIEVE THIS!


“See that you do not despise one of these little ones, for I say to you that their angels in heaven always look upon the face of my heavenly Father.”
Matthew 18:10

"He will command his angels concerning you, to guard you!"
Luke 4:10



Monday, December 26, 2022

THE LATEST HVAC TECHNOLOGY FOR MY SMALL COUNTRY PARISH

HAPPENING NOW AT THE SAINT THERESA FAMILY LIFE CENTER
Rhodelia, Kentucky


GEOTHERMAL DRILLING & GROUTING & LOOPING COMPANY
Bardstown, Kentucky





AIR WARMING AND COOLING SYSTEM
18 deep holes (drilled down 200') and lots of underground trenches and now covered in dirt. The dark spots in the black and white picture above are the holes and the dark lines are the trenches. The trenches make their way from the drilled holes in the field into the back of the building. The temperature underground is a constant 50 - 60 degrees F.  With this system, air is warmed in the winter and cooled in the summer as it goes into the heating and cooling systems. This will cut down on operational costs significantly, especially now that the installation investment was a gift from a generous donor.   

SOLAR ELECTRICAL ENERGY PRODUCING SYSTEM
The solar panel field will go over the top of the drilled holes. The solar panels will produce electrical energy which will be stored in huge batteries inside the building.  RECC will be the back-up system.