Bon Voyage...

Friday I will be leaving for a MUCH needed vacation cruise to the Caribbean. A friend from my seminary days and I are flying to Ft. Lauderdale on Friday and our ship sets sail from Miami on Saturday. We will be visiting Half Moon Cay (Carnival Cruise Lines private island), St. Thomas in the US Virgin Islands, San Jaun in Puerto Rico and finally Nassau in the Bahamas. We also have two 'fun days' at sea making our cruise an 8 day trip. We arrive back in KC on January 27th.

I am really looking forward to the trip. I have never been on a cruise before and neither has my friend, Dan. I will probably not be blogging during my cruise although they do have internet cafes on the ship so we will see. If the mood hits me right and the salt water lands on me just right I might make a blog entry from the ship just to tell you how it is going and to let you know the temperature in the Caribbean in relation to Midwest temps...hehehe.

So, I will not plan on blogging again for sure until January 28th although I may get a blog or two in from the ship. I will certainly post pics on the blog upon my return. Until next time...God bless.

posted by: crossman at 09:11 | link | comments |
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Random ramblings 1

I watch some of the things here at the parish and it gets my mind going off into weird tangents. I thought I'd share a few with you.

Reconciliation: I've been hearing confessions almost 8 months now and I have noticed something interesting. People's confessions seem to fall into one of 5 categories...

1) Speedy Gonzales confession - rattling off 15 sins in under 20 seconds and hoping they can exit the confessional in less than 1 minute

2) Bartender confession - talking to the priest as if they were at the bar...describing all their problems, how the ball game went last night, why they think they deserve better than what they got. These are all real things I hear and I almost feel like I am supposed to ask them, "You want beer? Bottle or draft?"

3) Justification confession - the person confesses their sins but after each one they justify why they committed that sin. These are usually in the form of "I committed the sin of ___ BUT my husband really upset me that day. I did ___ but it was a long day and I was tired." This goes on for the whole confession.

4) Sandwich sin - the person confesses their sins and inserts the worst sin right in the middle saying it really quickly thinking the priest won't catch it. For example, the person says, "I lied twice, I gossiped a few times, I didn't go to Mass on Sunday, I killed my husband, I used God's name in vain about a dozen times and I haven't prayed as much as I should which is really bothering me alot." They always seem to make that last sin the one that really is bothering them.

5) One sin confession - a person comes in and says, "its been 2 years since my last confession. I have lied a number of times. That's about all I can remember."

There are those persons who have what I consider a normal confession but they seem few and far in between. The important thing is that they are making use of the sacrament but it is also very interesting to see how they use it too. More random ramblings to come...God bless.

posted by: crossman at 08:05 | link | comments (6) |
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You think you have a busy day!

One of the first things that I realized as acting pastor is that time is not on your side. Your schedule is absolutely packed with the activities of running the parish and administering the sacraments. With 2 priests that can be split up a lot but when it's only you its not as if you can pass most of these things off to someone else. To give you an example of a typical day I have had since Fr. Frank left, here was my schedule for Wednesday:

6:15am to 6:45am Mass

7:30am to 8:00am - Marriage preparation mtg. with a couple

8:15am to 9:00am - School Mass for 1st - 4th graders

9:00am to 12:30pm - Funeral

1:00pm to 2:00pm - Hospital visit

3:00pm to 4:00pm - lunch or dinner or I am not sure what meal it was

4:00pm to 5:00pm - preparation for Cub Scout religious award evaluations

5:00pm to 7:15pm - Cub Scout religious award evaluations

7:30pm to 8:30pm - Rosary at Penwell-Gable funeral home for Thur. funeral

9:00pm - back to rectory for dinner

That was about as busy of a day as all the rest I've had this week. Even Tuesday (my day off...hahaha) I was in the office for 5 hours planning the funeral and then had a school council meeting that evening which lasted nearly 2 hours. So, I told you I would give you a little insight into the life of a pastor. There you go. I am not complaining, however. It has been a great joy for me this past week but being a new experience it can be a little draining. Until next time...God bless.

posted by: crossman at 08:46 | link | comments (1) |
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Solomon...I think not!

Well, my first few days as acting pastor while Fr. Frank is on vacation have been enlightening. It didn't take me long to realize that, for some reason, everyone thinks when you put on the pastor's hat you somehow now have the wisdom of Solomon and can solve everything! I've been asked questions from "where do we keep the gluten-free hosts" to "do you think $125,000 is a resonable estimate for replacing the carpet in the church?" Both of my answers to these were, "I have absolutely no clue." Those were the answers that ran through my head anyway. What I actually said was that our sacristan, Frank, should know where they are so let's go ask him. To the carpet question I replied that we would have to wait until the other estimates come in to compare them and see if any are especially high or low because that might set some alarms off.

I may lose my sanity by the time Fr. Frank returns...and this is just my 4th day. Imagine what the next 7 will bring. Until next time (unless I am in the Osawatomie Psychiatric Ward)...God bless.

posted by: crossman at 10:26 | link | comments (1) |
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Back to school

Prince of Peace began school for the spring semester today. It is so nice to hear the children's voices in the halls again. It was so eeriely quiet the past two weeks and it didn't take me long to miss their presence in at the parish. Its good to see the children excited about coming back to school. Well...at least grades K through 5 look are excited whereas grades 6, 7 and 8 look like they've just returned to prison after an attempted escape. They'll all be back into the swing of things with their friends in the next few days.

I completed my visit to each of the classes this fall and will begin my second round of visits Wednesday. I am going to try to blog a little about visiting each class to give you an idea of both the Catholic school system here at Prince of Peace and an idea of what is my most enjoyable part of priesthood other than administering the sacraments. My goal is to visit each classroom twice this semester so I will be doing a visit to at least two grade levels each Wednesday. I am excited to see the future of the Catholic Church each week. Until next time...God bless.

posted by: crossman at 08:08 | link | comments |
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The keys to the Kingdom

Fr. Frank, the pastor of Prince of Peace, left for a 10 day Caribbean cruise today so for the next week and a half I inherit the responsibilities of the pastor. Liturgically, that means I inherit the responsibility of ensuring the Masses are set up for the visiting priests, preparing the announcements and intercessions for the Mass and administering the sacraments to anyone in the parish who needs them. Administratively, it means that I make the day-to-day decisions about how to do this or needing to purchase that or letting that employee take the next day off for a valid reason. Lastly, it means that I get to field all the complaining parishioners, frustrated people and the loonies that every parish has. Sounds like a lot of fun, huh? Well, it will be good training for when I am made a pastor of my own parish.

I think I will try to blog on the responsibilities of a pastor in the next 10 days. It is certain to be a unique experience and I am sure it will have some moments that will make you thank God for your job instead of having mine. Until next time...God bless.

posted by: crossman at 09:15 | link | comments |
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Mary, the Mother of God

A blessed New Year to my readers. I hope your New Year's Eve was enjoyable and safe.

Mary is the mother of the Son of God so it seems appropriate to conclude the Octave of Christmas by honoring her. This solemnity, which IS a holy day of obligation!!!, celebrates both Mary as Mother of God and the call for peace on earth. Mary gave birth to the Prince of Peace and in 1967, Pope Paul VI recognized this by inaugurating this day as a world day of prayer for peace. After all, we have celebrated the birth of the Prince of Peace for the past eight days, it is proper to reserve this day for "intense prayer for peace, education towards peace and those values inextricably linked with it.

Today, gather the family to pray the rosary. Pray that, through Our Lady, Queen of Peace, we may have peace in our hearts, our homes and our community, nation and world. We pray for others in need so that they may have the peace of Christ in them. Pray the Glorious Mysteries with the following intentions:

The Resurrection - Let us pray in thanksgiving and in praise, giving glory to the risen Lord. Let us offer to the Triumphant Prince of Peace, all those in despair, those who have lost hope lost faith; that in the Resurrection of Jesus will be their own future. He is the way and the truth and the life

The Ascension - Let us pray for direction; direction in our lives and for all those who have lost the way; that they may turn back to God. Let us pray that we might give direction to the children in the world, in meeting Jesus. Let us pray that Jesus may become their first priority.

The Descent of the Holy Spirit - Let us offer these prayers for our own penticost. For an increase in the Holy Spirit's gifts to us. We pray for a deeper faith, and trust in God; for a complete submission to the will of God. Let us pray especially for gifts to the young, for strength that they may be able to stand up to the deception Satan brings to their daily activities.

The Assumption of the Blessed Virgin Mary - Here let us ask Mary to especially pray with us for the souls in purgatory; that she might join with us in intercession for those who can no longer help themselves. Those who now entirely depend on us for their final purification. Let us pray especially for the souls forgotten, who have no one to remember them.

The Crowning of Mary as Queen of Heaven - Let us offer this mystery then for Mary's intentions. Her intercession, her constant appearances, her role as Mediatrix of graces. Let us pray that her efforts on our behalf, her efforts to lead all her children back to her Son, will not be impeded. We pray also, to God, The Father, in thanksgiving for Mary's presence, for her role, for her help.

This concludes the Octave of Christmas. I hope these posts have helped you to have a prayerful Christmas season and gives you a good spiritual start to the new year. Until next time...God bless.

posted by: crossman at 09:27 | link | comments |
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