Please join us this Saturday, March 2 for Bunco at St. James of the Valley For event registration, please register at EventBrite.com and search on Mardi Gras Bunco in Wyoming, Ohio. Click on title for full event information.

One of the more stressful experiences that virtually all of us go through fairly regularly is assessment and evaluation. From the time we begin school until we retire, there is usually someone who breaks down our performance and tells us what we did wrong and how we can do better in the future. Every few years I have a review with the Archbishop. Many have a yearly review with their boss. In fact, perhaps retirement isn’t as free from all this pressure as I imagined. Having never been a grandparent, for all I know there is some sort of standard review between parents and grandparents to make sure one can maintain their license to spoil the kids rotten. Click on title for full column.

I am a number of years removed from being a teenager, but from what I remember about the experience, and what I can cobble together from what modern day youths tell me, there are two primary social concerns that drive kids in the modern age. The first is the desire to have fun virtually all the time, which, by the way, is exhausting to even think about for me nowadays. The second is an overwhelming desire to fit in. Nobody wants to feel socially isolated by others. There are certainly those who are socially isolated by choice, but that’s another issue entirely. Click on title for full column.

I wouldn’t say that I come from a particularly musical background, but I do love music. In addition to the handful of instruments I play poorly, I also find myself whistling and/or singing virtually all the time in the office. You can ask the wonderful parish staff, as those poor folks are subjected to it almost constantly. In fact, one of the benefits of living on my own in the rectory is that I can loudly serenade my cat with made up songs without anyone else judging me condescendingly. Click on title for full column.

The ebb and flow of parish life is truly a beautiful thing, even when passing through these dreary winter months when I spend my free time thinking about the glorious possibility of one day being old enough to retire and spend January and February ministering as a priest in Miami or someplace where 50 degrees is considered freezing. Because of the weather, flu season, and probably other factors of which I am unaware, there is a fairly steep increase in anointings and sick calls during the winter. But even though Fr. Lambert, the deacons, and myself see an uptick in hospital and home visits, it seems to me that there are still some misunderstandings about when, and to whom, the sacrament of the anointing of the sick should be administered. Click title for full column.