middlechildcatholicpriest

14 July 2010

South to Albany WA, Back to Perth & Fremantle … and Venezia for Dinner

On Sunday afternoon, we headed south to Albany on the southern coast of Western Australia, a 4 and a half hour trip, rain intermittently all the way down. We were staying at the home of Jack B., age 91, father of former parishioners of Fr. Kerry in Caringbah, Dot & John. The Perth-Albany Highway, a […]
10 July 2010

New Norcia, St. Mary’s Cathedral & Dinner @ Venezia

Downtown Perth on St. George’s Terrace Downtown Perth across from the Somerset Hotel. The Somerset Hotel at St. George’s Terrace, Perth, Western Australia Perth is 12 hours ahead of Waynesboro, so I don’t need to adjust my watch. And I am right about the farthest I can get from home without leaving the planet. Tomorrow, […]
7 July 2010

Between Yesterday & Tomorrow

The White Australian Cockatoo. I saw a whole playing field full of them the other day, gnawing at the lawn. Pretty, exotic elsewhere in the world, protected by law, but sometimes more of a pest. Many trees on the church property looked badly mangled at the roots. Imagine what a whole flock of them can […]
1 July 2010

There Once Was a Jolly Swag Camped by a Billabong …

The countdown has begun. I fly out of Norfolk on Saturday afternoon, out of Los Angeles later that evening, spending the 4th of July (Independence Day) somewhere above the Pacific Ocean … well, only about 6 hours of it. I touch down in Sydney by 10 am Monday after a stop in Auckland. And once […]
8 February 2010

Winter in the Shenandoah Valley Part 2

We had a much smaller snowstorm in January, but the second major snowstorm this season came Thursday evening, 4 February 2010. And again the landscape was shrouded in white. I had not yet shoveled the walk when I took this photograph. By the time it was over, there was under 2 feet on the ground. […]
19 December 2009

Winter in the Shenandoah Valley Part 1

It was the second storm of December 2009 that made us notice. 25 inches in my yard. That weekend the town was paralyzed … well, most of the east coast was as well. The lowest hinges on the church’s front doors are about a foot from the ground. But the drifts along the rest of the […]
13 December 2009

Wedding in the Big Easy

Jill & Jeff on the Big Day at the Roosevelt in New Orleans LA I flew down to New Orleans the day after the Feast of the Immaculate Conception. I caught a 5:30 a.m. out of Charlottesville to Charlotte, then a connecting flight to New Orleans. It was delayed only a half hour. But I […]
24 August 2009

And God Saw That It Was Good … eh?

I arrived back home at 10:30 pm Saturday night after a two day drive from Thunder Bay. The Beginnings and Beyond Institute has definitely helped me focus on the work of Christian Initiation … an apprenticeship of adults into our Christian way of life. There is much to rethink and reformulate, how we invite and […]
6 August 2009

Goodbye West Coast … Hello East Coast

I arrived at the Golden Gate Bridge on Wednesday after having lunch with Michael earlier at the Coast Guard Training Center in Petaluma. At the north head of the bay, I was almost midway up the height of the north tower. Breath-taking view. It was a clear day, but as I was crossing the bridge […]