O Captain, My Captain!

I cannot fully express the dread that comes over me in realising that the rumour is indeed true: Fr. Larry is retiring. I ought not be surprised - he is old, he is ailing, he well deserves time away from bills and heating buildings but.... Perhaps this is what my students feel when they know their grandfather is dying. But it is more than simply the loss of a grandfather, this is a loss to the entire community, a loss of a pastor, a loss of one who will guide us and direct us and urge us always to pray, pray, pray. This is the loss of one's confessor - to whom, now, shall I go? This is the lost of a solid homilist - although he always said otherwise - shall I seek out another parish then? What saddens me more is that I do not know if we have the immediate vocations to fill his place. St. Mary's will be merging with St. Ann's - a fitting conjunction in more than name - except that.... Weeeeeell, not every priest is QUITE the priest that Fr. Larry is. So, as the priest told my parents back in Jersey when they appealed to him re: our Ye Olde Hyreticalle Pariyfh, "Travel."

Lord, bless and keep Father Larry. Lord, please send us more vocations, or rather help us to hear those vocations You send and to respond to them. Lord, please stir a fire in our hearts. Lord, please draw us back to You and fill Your church to overflowing once again. Lord, keep our priests strong. Lord, pastor the shepherds, teach them Your ways, never let them stray from You. Lord, You know all things, You are the master of all things, and thus Your will and not my piddling insecurities be done. Please keep Archbishop Sean O'Malley close to You, infuse Him with Your Wisdom, the Holy Spirit, that he might make good decisions for us, that he might continue to do Your will. Mother Mary, be with him, intercede for him to Your Son, please wrap your mantle around us all - particularly those of the parish who honours you, Mother of Our Saviour. St. Anne, please keep us in your prayers. Nag your daughter to nag her Son, nag your Grandson on behalf of His priests! And St. John the Baptist, who had such a fire in his heart, who feared nothing - not even death at the hands of Herod - please, teach us how to be "voices in the desert, crying, 'Prepare the way of the Lord!'" Let us not be cowardly. Amen.

And may the Lord bless and keep us, ever in His Sacred Heart. Jesus, I trust in Thee.

Mood: Tristesse
Music: Pipes shuffling water
Thought: And now to making midterms....