Thursday (Joseph Butler)

  • When is McDonald's for breakfast the "healthier" alternative? When what's being served where you are is a protein-free assortment of carbohydrates. So Brenda and I made an early-morning McDonald's run.
  • 8:00 Morning Prayer.
  • From 8:45 until 11:20, we were in teaching mode: First Fr Halt making his second of two presentations on the Book of Genesis (Chapter 1-3 thereof, to be specific ... and it was quite fine), then YFNB on the final installment of my four-part series, focusing on how believing that Jesus really did rise from the dead is actually the most rationally plausible response to the documentary and historical data on the subject that we have.
  • Choir practice in the chapel, followed by Mass for the lesser feast of Joseph Butler. I presided and Fr Tony Clavier preached.
  • Lunch was at a simple picnic pavilion at a state park in East St Louis, and consisted by pizza, chips, animal crackers, and Gatorade. The actual air temperature hovered in the upper 90s, and, with the humidity, the "misery index" was ... up there.
  • The heart of the afternoon was spend around the backyard pool of St Michael's, O'Fallon parishioners Mark and Audrey Waight in Swansea.
  • Back to the ranch to clean up and report to Christ the King Chapel for the final of Fr Baumann's fine presentations on prayer, followed by Evensong.
  • Dinner in our customary Guild Hall location.
  • Back to the chapel, where Frs Baumann and Wetmore taught the kids how to prepare for and make a confession. Then, while the Blessed Sacrament was exposed in a monstrance on the altar for adoration, there was an opportunity for those who wished to to actually make their confession, while everyone else kept vigil in the chapel.
  • The evening was concluded with the customary St Michael's Conference tableau of the battle of St Michael and all his angelic forces against the evil powers that rebel against God. Tomorrow, the conference concludes with a late-morning Solemn Mass.

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