Teaching Parish Assignment

This weekend I was able to spend time in my new weekend assignment.  At St. Francis de Sales Seminary, we have a "Teaching Parish."  This will be our "home away from...seminary" for our four years of Theology.  To keep me in the Diocese of Madison, the powers that be chose for me St. Joseph's in Fort Atkinson.  It's a decently long 75 minutes away.

 Unfortunately it was difficult to get a good picture inside because the outside light streaming in makes it look darker than it was.

 This mosaic was in the "old" church behind the altar.  The "old" church was built in the 1960s and was praised as one of the "most modern" at the time.  So the new church is a great improvement.

The church is going through a bit of a transition with the new pastor (assigned last year).  He is a good man who cares for the Church, his people, and the Truth.  I think we will get along just fine.

I arrived around noon on Saturday.  Mass was at 5:00, with Confessions starting at 4:00.  We got there at 3:00 for a bit of a tour and to prepare for everything.  The new church is only 11 years old, so not so old that it's modern-ugly, but not so new that it's retro-beautiful.  Somewhere in between, and that's fine.  Sunday Masses are at 8:00 and 10:00.  A nice addition from the new pastor: they pray the Divine Mercy Chaplet after each Mass, with each of the five servers taking a set.

The pastor had me introduce myself after each of the Masses this weekend.  I gave a brief 1-2 minute history of myself and why I'm there.  The people all seemed to be excited to see me.  It's amazing how, even in this fairly small corner of the diocese, there were people with connections.  One family had a wife that went to that little school in Austin, and the husband went to University of North Texas.  They had lived in Houston, and asked me what part.  "Spring."  "Get out!  Which church?"  "Christ the Good Shepherd."  "GET OUT!  Our children had all their sacraments there!"  An amazingly small world.

One of the best parts of the weekend was after dinner Saturday, the pastor got a call by a family that needed a visit.  I don't want to go into details here, but it was a real experience to remind me why we are needed.

So this will be my weekend home for the next four years.  There are only two small difficulties.  One: the distance.  Two: the pastor is not a sports fan and has no television.  This means little if any Aggie football for the next four years (I was only able to catch the very end of overtime this Saturday, but at least it was a happy end).  I guess God has to teach me something.