Today marks the beginning of another busy week for us. It started yesterday was the First Communion enrolment Mass for Scoil Mhuire, where students who will make their First Communion this year are called by name and bring forward their registration forms. We sent their parents home with another newsletter-type resource, which you can see here if you’d like. This was a great joint effort for the four of us; I left instructions for it last Monday, and it was nearly finished by the time I returned to the office on Wednesday after my day off.

We’re hard at work in the schools, preparing a class Mass in each as well as busily teaching Christmas carols for the carol services coming up in just about four weeks. Kurt and I just returned from nearly three hours of drilling “Wexford Carol” and “Night of Silence/Silent Night” with fourth and fifth classes. Our voices are exhausted, but they sound adorable, so it’s well worth it. We’re also getting ready for the penance services for each school.

We’ve begun work on a revised Confirmation retreat for another parish in the diocese; the parish priest there was very keen to have some sort of program for the parents, so we’re designing side-along evening retreats for parents and children that will end with both groups coming together for a Holy Spirit-centered prayer service.

We’re also re-planning our Thanksgiving celebration, which has in the past been hosted at Fr. Lennon’s home. Since he is still recovering from a surgery, we want to leave him his space for that, so we’ll host a very small dinner at our house on the actual day, and a desserts reception for all our Irish friends after the Vigil Mass the next weekend.

(Whew! I’ve also just bought an additional whiteboard for our office to help us keep track of all this!)

Unrelatedly, I’ve also spent some time over the last few weeks cleaning up the photos page on this website and adding pictures from the last couple of months. Click here to be taken to that page and explore the exploits of the last two-plus years in photographic form!