Diary Entry #26: Votive Candles (The Guy Who Lit All the Candles) Most Catholics, and even some non-Catholics, enjoy the practice of visiting the church to “light a candle for someone”. The phrase “to light a candle for someone” indicates one’s vow to pray for that person (thus, the name “votive candle” from the Latin…
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THE DIARY OF AN INNER-CITY PRIEST #25 – EL DIARIO DE UN SACERDOTE URBANO #25
Diary Entry #25: The Cassock Perhaps one of the most difficult aspects of being a diocesan priest is that we are often asked to take new assignments. This requires moving, leaving behind a familiar situation (good or not so good), and starting over somewhere else. The difficulty can be exacerbated by many factors. One of…
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THE DIARY OF AN INNER-CITY PRIEST #24 – EL DIARIO DE UN SACERDOTE URBANO #24
Diary Entry #24: Driving Miss Sanchez (Part 2) During my five years as an inner-city high school chaplain and teacher I had the privilege and pleasure of getting to know hundreds of teenagers. The Sanchez girls were a pair of my favorite students in sophomore Scripture class one semester. They were fraternal twins whose personalities…
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THE DIARY OF AN INNER-CITY PRIEST #23 – EL DIARIO DE UN SACERDOTE URBANO #23
Diary Entry #23: Driving Miss Sanchez (Part 1) In my days as an inner-city Catholic high school chaplain and teacher I was frequently confronted with situations that had no simple nor perfectly “safe” solution. I had to do what I thought was best for my kids at any given moment, in accord with, or despite…
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THE DIARY OF AN INNER-CITY PRIEST #22 – EL DIARIO DE UN SACERDOTE URBANO #22
Diary Entry #22 Jake Baby Cake Not all teachers are created equal. There are teachers, and there are Teachers. In my opinion, Mrs. T. was a Teacher. Not everyone would agree. I will let you be the judge. I have told this story many times to illustrate a particular point of Catholic doctrine. Often, it…
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THE DIARY OF AN INNER-CITY PRIEST #21 – EL DIARIO DE UN SACERDOTE URBANO #21
Diary Entry #21: Tabernacle to the center This is one of my favorite stories. Every word is true, as it is in all my stories. At my first assignment, in the early years of the Third Millennium, I was stationed at a typically “Vatican II” parish. Once, everyone knew what that meant. Today, it is…
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THE DIARY OF AN INNER-CITY PRIEST #20 – EL DIARIO DE UN SACERDOTE URBANO #20
Diary Entry #20 Mass every day but one When I was first ordained, I made a promise to myself that I would offer Mass every single day as long as I was able. The reason for the commitment was twofold. First, the Code of Canon Law, the official “law” of the Roman Catholic Church (last…
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THE DIARY OF AN INNER-CITY PRIEST #19 – EL DIARIO DE UN SACERDOTE URBANO #19
Dairy Entre # 19 Full Moon I was sitting in a chair looking out the window praying my rosary this morning at about 5:00 am when I noticed that the moon was full. A full moon always brings to my mind a number of things which are not necessarily related. The first thing I thought…
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THE DIARY OF AN INNER-CITY PRIEST #18 – EL DIARIO DE UN SACERDOTE URBANO #18
Diary Entry # 18 “Is this where you wrote ‘Full Moon?’” As I have said before, I have never considered myself a writer, though I have spent most of my priestly life doing both technical and creative writing. My primary audience has been my parishioners. I have occasionally been asked to write for broader audiences,…
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THE DIARY OF AN INNER-CITY PRIEST #17 – EL DIARIO DE UN SACERDOTE URBANO #17
Diary Entry # 17: The Lady Who Could Not Hear One Sunday after Mass an elderly lady complained to me that she could not hear the announcements about upcoming parish activities customarily made at the end of Mass. We usually put these announcements in the parish bulletin, or on the website, and reinforce them with…
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