Friday

.... aaaand we're back. The pace of my life slowed a good bit around Christmas, as I expect was the case for you as well. It picked up a good bit this week, but not as much as I would have liked, as I've had a lingering bug that has made itself known as acute bronchitis. So I'm on three medications that I'm hopeful will have a salubrious effect in due course.

 In the meantime, I was due to be back in the office today, so I toughed through my symptoms and made the trip down--metaphorically at the crack of dawn, but literally a full 90 minutes, at least, before sunup. Got myself organized, and then had a discussion with a staff member wherein we plotted a quick path toward his moving on from his position. If you're in the diocese, you got an email about this. Such things are never a pleasant experience, but sometimes needful. I followed this up with a handful of related administrative actions. The rest of the morning allowed me to do the finish work (refine, edit, print, schedule for posting) my homily for this Sunday at Trinity, Lincoln, and do some cosmetic surgery on a "vintage" sermon text for "regifting" at Christ the King, Normal a week from this Sunday. Lunch consisted of an overpriced, but delicious, hamburger from 5 Guys. I guess that fact that it was delicious explains how that can get away with charging so much. The afternoon found me processing a substantial amount of email "on the fly," and engaging the time-consuming task of plotting my sermon prep work for the period between Ash Wednesday and Trinity Sunday. Spent some time in meditative prayer in a dark cathedral (not quite qualifying for the "holy hour" label it bore in my task list), following by the evening office. Dinner at Pie's the Limit piazza. Then an early bedtime.

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