I'm back in St. Louis, everyone, after a wonderful sabbatical. I left Rome on Thanksgiving Day for a long weekend in Cambridge, where I got to see one of the famous Lessons and Carols services. I returned to St. Louis on December 1st. What a blessing these last four months have been: Lourdes, Meuse-Argonne, Switzerland, Italy, the Holy Land, England. I am so grateful to God for the opportunity.
I ask your prayers for two intentions. Dad will be having surgery on January 4th, to repair a fracture in his neck that is not healing quickly enough. The surgeon is very optimistic---says there is a 70 to 90% success rate for the procedure---but still it is serious surgery. Second intention: I will be leaving for Colorado on December 28th to begin my new assignment, also on January 4th. I will be living in a parish I have been visiting for years, and I will be working at the Catholic Center in Colorado Springs as director of permanent deacon formation, as director of continuing formation for priests and deacons, and as theological consultant for the diocese. I am very excited about all of this but it is a big change and I would appreciate your prayers.
Finally let me offer Christmas greetings to everyone. The image I would like to use is copyright, so let me provide a Christmas link in place of a Christmas card:
http://www.nationalgallery.org.uk/paintings/sandro-botticelli-mystic-nativity
I pray that your celebrations are prayerful and joyful. This is the central mystery of our faith. The invisible God made himself visible to save us, and we need that salvation. May we all enjoy it together. Merry Christmas.
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