Hello everyone.  I hope you are well and keeping safe.  All good things come to an end.  Time to make my way back to IHM.  I do so gratefully.  It was a prayerful and wonderful experience.  I know for many it is tough to get away for one reason or the other.  Of course, these problematic days might discourage one from traveling which I completely understand.

I look forward to seeing you this weekend.  Enjoy the day.  I leave you with a quotation from a poignant book by a young dying priest from the Archdiocese of Cincinnati.  Fr Jim Willig died at age 50 in 2001 but heroically encouraged those around him during his illness.  

“One day, when I thought I was alone, I prayed in church. While making this offering before the cross, a parishioner came up to me, put her arm around my shoulder and prayed, ‘Dear God, please heal Father Jim. And give me his cancer.’ I was incredulous. I looked at her, and then back to the Lord and quietly prayed, ‘If she insists, Lord, hear our prayer!’ Later I was able to pray, ‘Lord, rather than give my cancer to her, give her heart of love to me – the love that prompted her to deny her very self and pray in such a loving way.” 

― Jim Willig, Lessons From the School of Suffering: A Young Priest With Cancer Teaches Us How to Live