After the blessing of our post-Christmas break, we resumed most of our liturgical duties at Masses this past weekend. We also had a full day in the office today, beginning to prepare for the abundance of good stuff we have coming up in the next few weeks. Just to give you a taste of what’s on our plate (see what I did there?), here are some of the things we discussed today:

  • Liturgy planning for upcoming weeks.
  • The parish’s celebration of St. Brigid, coming up on January 29.
  • School programming for the rest of the year, including St. Brigid liturgies, Lenten penance services, Church tours, Class Masses, and visits with the Folk Choir while they’re here in May!
  • The Confirmation program “You Shall Be My Witnesses.” We begin training parent leaders next week, and the program starts three weeks from today.
  • The Confirmation retreats we’ll help run for many other schools throughout the diocese.
  • The upcoming journey of Molly, Sr. Mary, and Fr. Sean to the States to interview candidates for next year’s team.
  • Our music workshop in February, themed around Eucharistic music to help congregations prepare for the Eucharistic Congress in June.
…and that’s just the first day of this week! As you can see, we’re going in about a billion directions at once, and we have our hands full just trying to make sure we don’t forget anything! It definitely feels good to be back, though, and to be able to contribute to the parish’s life in so many concrete ways in the near future. I think we’re all enjoying being able to dive back into life and work in Clonard, which, after spending Christmas here, feels ever more like it’s truly home.