{"id":15868,"date":"2012-08-12T13:53:23","date_gmt":"2012-08-12T19:53:23","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/deaconsbench\/?p=15868"},"modified":"2016-09-30T17:06:06","modified_gmt":"2016-09-30T21:06:06","slug":"my-day-of-rest","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/deaconsbench\/2012\/08\/my-day-of-rest\/","title":{"rendered":"My day of rest"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<\/head>

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

Periodically, people ask me what my Sundays are like. \u00a0 I answered that question a few years ago when my blog was at Beliefnet<\/a>.<\/strong> \u00a0I re-read the post recently. \u00a0To my surprise, not much has changed.<\/p>\n

A snip:<\/p>\n

\n
SATURDAY<\/em><\/div>\n

4:45 \u2013 Arrived for 5 pm vigil mass. Looked over the gospel and the Prayers of the Faithful, to see what strange and hard-to-pronounce names might be listed among the deceased. \u00a0Dragged my chair out of the sacristy, to place next to the Presider\u2019s in the sanctuary. Since I have two dalmatics to use in Ordinary Time, I picked out the one in the shade of green that most closely matched the priest\u2019s. [We don\u2019t have dalmatics at my parish that match the priests\u2019 chasubles.] Celebrant was Fr. Jan, from the Czech Republic. I wasn\u2019t scheduled to preach, but earlier in the week I offered my services to him for his two masses, the 5 Saturday and 8:30 Sunday. He was happy to accept. At 5, none of the scheduled altar servers had shown up, so I also ended up being the altar boy, too. I assisted Fr. Jan and preached. After mass, as I\u2019m leaving, I bumped into my pastor who asked me if I\u2019d like to do my homily again for him at the 10. \u201cSure,\u201d I said. \u201cI\u2019ll be here anyway for the 8:30. It\u2019ll be a double-header.\u201d<\/p>\n

SUNDAY<\/em><\/div>\n

8:15 \u2013 Arrived for the 8:30 mass. I assisted and preached for Fr. Jan, and then the did the same at the 10 for my pastor. After finishing the 10, I went into the rectory for a cup of coffee and found Msgr. O\u2019Toole, a visitor from Florida (and, so help me, a dead ringer for Barry Fitzgerald) poring over the Sunday Times at the kitchen table. \u00a0We were soon joined by Fr. Jan, who couldn\u2019t get over the fact that the communion meditation music was a Bach sonata heard in the movie \u201cMeet Joe Black.\u201d This led to a discussion of the thespian abilities of Anthony Hopkins and Brad Pitt. Msgr. O\u2019Toole was celebrating the 11:30, so after some trenchant analysis about tennis and the U.S Open (about which I know nothing) and New York weather, we headed into the sacristy.<\/p>\n

The scheduled lector didn\u2019t show up. I scanned the half-empty church for a substitute. No luck. Once again, I tossed on my dalmatic and headed out to assist Msgr. O\u2019Toole. After that, I hung out in the sacristy during the final mass, which began at 1 pm. My wife always attends the 1 on Sundays, so I caught up with her after mass and we walked home together. Once home, I checked the blog for comments or e-mails, then dragged myself into the bedroom for a long nap.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

I\u2019m sure other deacons can relate. \u00a0Sunday, for us, is hardly a day of rest.<\/p>\n

Sometimes, my Sunday stretches a couple of hours longer. \u00a0Every three months, I have baptisms, so those will extend my afternoon, and periodically I am pressed into handling a Sunday wake.<\/p>\n

But I\u2019m usually at the parish from about 10 to 2 every Sunday. \u00a0 With few exceptions, I preach every week, sometimes more than once (as I did just this weekend \u2014 long story). \u00a0More often than not, the two days between Friday and Monday are little more than a liturgical blur.<\/p>\n

Oh sure: I envy some of my colleagues who wander into work on Monday, tanned and rested from outings at the beach or barbecues by the bay. \u00a0What is that like, I wonder? \u00a0But at the same time, I wouldn\u2019t trade places for a minute. \u00a0The diaconate is the gift that keeps on giving, and I can\u2019t stop counting my blessings. Five years into this great journey, I continue to have my heart uplifted and energized by a kind of spiritual rocket fuel that is propelling me to places I never dreamed.<\/p>\n

Some might call it adrenalin.<\/p>\n

But I think it must be grace.<\/strong>\u00a0\u00a0<\/a><\/p>\n<\/body><\/html>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Periodically, people ask me what my Sundays are like. \u00a0 I answered that question a few years ago when my blog was at Beliefnet. \u00a0I re-read the post recently. \u00a0To my surprise, not much has changed. A snip: SATURDAY 4:45 \u2013 Arrived for 5 pm vigil mass. Looked over the gospel and the Prayers of […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":132,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[13,33],"tags":[11171],"class_list":["post-15868","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-deacons","category-my-world-and-welcome-to-it","tag-deacons"],"yoast_head":"\nMy day of rest<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Periodically, people ask me what my Sundays are like. \u00a0 I answered that question a few years ago when my blog was at Beliefnet. \u00a0I re-read the post\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/deaconsbench\/2012\/08\/my-day-of-rest\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" 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