I write this Monday, June 20, the first day of summer. I’ve just come back from a weekend of golf with some old college friends. We go back over forty years together.
We played a course about ten miles south of Jamestown in the beautiful hills looking into Pennsylvania. Guess what? We saw a bear! A big black bear. It was running across a fairway. It was very beautiful.
Later I wondered what the bear was thinking as he looked at all the orange and red shirted golfers . . . “hmmm. Hunters in shorts . . . no guns. Yummy!”
All this to say I intend to enjoy these brief summer weeks. I hope you will do the same. I hope to get back to Ohio a couple times midweek to see my sisters. Toward the end of the summer I’ll be celebrating mass at our fiftieth high school reunion (Class of ’66).
I want to read a couple books I’ve had on my desk for some months. I’m starting to carve out time at night to enjoy an old pleasure — reading. And golf, of course, will be a weekly occurrence.
So what are you doing these summer days? Please take time to savor this beautiful season. God was so kind and brilliant when he made us in such a way that we could enjoy stuff. When he gave us the ability to stand outside the moment to observe what is happening. Every time you say, “Wow, that was fun!”, you are experiencing God’s gift to the human being.
Think of it. Every other creature . . . just is. There are no weekends or vacations or road trips for that black bear. He just lives in the forest paying no mind to the golf balls that land in woods from time to time.
No, we’re the creature that can look around and see the wonder that is all around us. Read Psalm 8 for a great description of this moment of wonder.
“O Lord, your greatness is seen in all the world! Your praise reaches up to the heavens; it is sung by children and babes.
What is man, O Lord, that you think of him . . . that you care for him?
Yet you have made him little less than a god. You have given him rule over the works of your hands, put all things at his feet. O Lord your greatness is seen in all the world.”
The work continues, of course. The Facilities Committee is looking into re-lamping the nave of the church with LED lighting. These lights were designed and arranged by Rambusch Inc. in 1968. Much has changed since then in the move from incandescent light to the cooler, longer lasting LED light. A part of the job will be to connect a dimmer system to the new lights which will do away with the breaker panel we’ve been using since 217 BC!
It’s going to cost a few dollars, but energy savings over three years will pay us back. I’ll keep you informed.
Lastly . . . watch this space . . . it’s gone. At least for the summertime. Horan’s front page article will go away. In it’s place will be day old bread. (Things we’ve read be- fore but are so important, I want you to read them again!!)
Have a wonderful Summer.
See you in church.
Fr. Tim
