wet morning

Wet morning. Much rain. At least it's not butt-freezing cold. I drove to my home parish for morning mass. My pastor thanked us all for being there and said he was surprised that with all the rain, anyone came at all. It was so good to be at my home parish. I thought about how much I love my parish home and my pastor and my archbishop and how much I look forward to our new cathedral. I don't know how I would feel if I had to leave this archdiocese to be in a convent elsewhere.

This being the end of the liturgical year, our pastor encouraged us to look back on our year and see where God has touched it--moments of good and bad. During the preparation of the gifts, I chuckled inwardly as I mentally expressed a desire to give Jesus everything, but requested that I may keep my guardian angel. Then after receiving from the cup, I remembered T.O.'s incident with the cup and couldn't help but smile as I made my way back to my seat. After the mass, the liturgical/decoration crew got busy preparing the church for Advent.

Being in the south, at this time we would see many, many birds. Sometimes I think it's even more than what was seen in Alfred Hitchcock's The Birds. They would fill the trees and cover the power lines and there would be much cackling (or whatever you call bird noises). One day in a parking lot, I saw a man, his wife and young daughter walking from their car. As he passed under a tree, he hollered, bringing forth a flutter as the birds scattered from the tree. His daughter giggled. As they neared another tree, he did it again. Fun dad. I enjoyed it as much as his daughter did. Anyhow, with the rain this morning, I saw one bird on a power line and maybe six pigeons on the ground. I wonder where the birds went. By the way, Wal-Mart parking lot was fairly empty...where are those frenzied shoppers?