Where’s the Fire?

Before this week, I didn’t pay much attention when people from the parish would say, “Ah sure, it’s winter today!” To me it felt pretty much like fall. This week I will concede that it is winter! It’s not that much cooler, and we don’t have any snow (thankfully), but we’ve surely felt a cold snap. In our house, that means an evening fire and even more grateful acceptance of tea breaks.

Much of what we’ve been planning for the last two months has seen completion in the last week. Dan and Jess hosted the third and last Conversation on Being Christian Today on Monday, this time on the topic “Tough Stuff.” The group expressed interest in further conversations like that, so hopefully we will see the beginning of a regular adult faith formation group this year. Scoil Mhuire’s first class Mass, prepared by Jess and Kurt, went very well on Wednesday. Dan and I rehearsed the Kennedy Park 5^th class who will participate in their first class Mass of the year on Monday. We have prepared materials for Kennedy Park’s confirmation class’ Enrolment Mass on Saturday. We also spent time reviewing the workshop and arranging things for next week, when three of us will be on holiday walking part of the Camino de Santiago. This is the busiest we’ve been since arriving in Wexford. It seems we have successfully acclimated to an Irish pace: even though this would be a light week in a college atmosphere, we are tired after all this running around!

At our fall workshop, 2011: And With Our Spirits!

Of course, there was also room in the week for some fun. A friend from my Irish dance class joined us for dinner on Tuesday. We also saw Fr. Denis for the first time since we’ve been here! We ate lunch with him on Wednesday, and he was in great spirits. Dan and Katherine took a trip to Galway at the end of the week. On Thursday, we saw many of our friends at the last dress rehearsal for the Wexford Opera Festival, which began on Friday. (We attended the lightest of the three operas, Gianni di Parigi by Donizetti. It was a 19^th-century romantic comedy with princes, princesses, and their endlessly entertaining entourages.) It was fun to get all dressed up for the evening, and then to go out to a pub with some of Kurt’s friends from the Menapians club afterward. On Friday, we all met in Dublin for Mass with the ACE community there. It has indeed been a busy week – busy but good!