What a Saturday! I Should Have Stayed in Bed!

I need to share my story of the Saturday from Hell! Just in time for the beginning of Lent.

I woke up and had a leisurely breakfast. That was beginning of the most non-leisurely day in a long-time.

I had to finish preparing for my liturgy on Sunday-the First Sunday in Lent. No problem. I took the liturgy to the local copy place the only one within miles next to Loyola's campus. This was the second time they happened. "Sorry the copy machines are down. They will be up by Monday." Can't do it, need tomorrow. "Leave with me and I will have for you." Two weeks ago, the machines were down and she had one of the locals deliver to me at home after hours.

Next stop I headed to the dentist to find O’Meara was closed! I think he decided to take Spring break and didn’t bother to notify this patient that my appointment was being dropped. Grr.

So that meant that I could move the next meeting to plan a liturgy as my list of Saturday chores was a long one. Barbara was amicable and I cooked her breakfast as she had just gotten off from working all night as a hospital chaplain. She ate breakfast and we argued over the liturgy for 3/29/09-world day of prayer for Women's Ordination. Barbara is old school in that she doesn't mind some forms of sexist language. But the Harold community will tolerate none of it. I told her, "Barbara you may be corrected but ultimately be who you are." I figure they can give Barbara the feedback, I have warned her, my duty is done.

Then we discussed the "state of the Roman Catholic Women Priest movement" which is having its challenges including the naming of bishops for the various active regions. Because these are women of personal power (they would never take on the institutional RCC if they weren't) there is dissension because of how some of the priests are using their power. Sigh, when it comes to power within an institution/structure there is no difference between men and women and their abuse of it.

Then I had to take the car in for service. “No problem done in an hour” well you can guess what happened. No call, no call. I called them, “Almost done.” Toyota called back, “We will send a car for you as we close at 6PM.” No car, no car. Shoot! I need the car for tomorrow. 20 minutes to 6 PM the young driver shows up. I have bread in the oven “Can I get home before it burns?” Dash, dash. $130 to get the 4 electronic keys to the Prius “tuned and new batteries.” Don’t ask why I have 4 (I don’t know-we must have lost, bought replacements then found the originals as I know we started off with just two) and none of them was working well.

Barbara had asked me to come to her liturgy at 6PM. I had the right address about two blocks from my apartment but got lost and arrived in the middle of the dialogue homily. Apologies accepted. I finally “settled down” and really enjoyed an excellent pot luck dinner after liturgy and stayed a lot longer than I thought I would. I did find my way home after dark with no problem.

So I thought I didn't start the day with prayer but I ended this day of chaos with prayer and it settled me in just fine.

Slept till 5:30 AM this morning, got up and wrote my birthday cards for the month. My Grandson Jonathan's is on the 27th; he turns 11. My sister Judy's is the 29th, she was actually born on Holy Thursday. Got my liturgy items and headed out into the snow and the cold. Good liturgy this morning about 12 people present. We explored the meaning of Lent and how God is asking us to grow spiritually no matter where we are on the journey.