Big week big week big week.
Monday night, while Jess was beginning her return travel to Ireland (she’s a godmother now!), I stood in for her as programme coordinator for Scoil Mhuire’s You Shall Be My Witnesses confirmation program. I coordinate Kennedy Park’s program, and Jess takes care of Scoil Mhuire. Since she was gone, I stood in and prepped her leaders for the night and organized the team in her stead. We had a bit of dramatic tension before the session began: some RTÉ (the national news corporation) people were on hand to shoot footage for a documentary they’re doing on Scoil Mhuire. The work has been going on intermittently all year, in the school and in the homes of some families, but some of our parent leaders – who had no advance notice because we had only learned of the cameras earlier that day – were thoroughly uncomfortable even being in the same room as cameras and microphones. Luckily, they stuck it out, and the producers went around to many people to try to explain what was happening and allay their anxieties. It was only a bit obtrusive, and the people were friendly and respectful to us while they tried to capture some of what was going on in the programme. They interviewed the principal of the school, Fr. Sean, and even me (which I felt guilty about since I haven’t worked a day in that school all year!).
Wednesday was an action-packed day full of ashes. We arrived a bit earlier than usual to prepare some music and sang for the 10am mass. Afterwards, Kurt and Jess went with Fr. Sean and a bunch of ashes to Scoil Mhuire for an all-school ashes service; they also stayed on a few minutes longer to visit the autistic unit of the school and administer ashes to those children, too. Molly and I grabbed our bowls of ashes and headed to the different classrooms of Kennedy Park’s Junior and Senior Infants. A few kids refused the ashes out of nervousness, but most of them were very solemn and proper as they looked up tentatively, with big precious eyes, to receive their ashes. We took a little lunch break and had some soup that Fr. Denis made for everyone, and then we returned to Kennedy Park with Fr. Sean to lead two larger ashes services for the older kids at school. It was busy and hectic, but administering the ashes to so many children was a humbling and fun pastoral experience. Plus, by the end of it, my clothes had dried from the buckets of rain that soaked them on the walk into work.
Thursday morning, we led our first school-day confirmation retreat. We hosted 40 5th- and 6th-class students from Cushinstown at Ballyvaloo for their preparatory retreat. It was our first of more than a dozen for the season (though I’ll be missing a few while I’m in the States next week), and it went off very smoothly. The kids were really enthusiastic, and they took strongly to our ice-breakers and activities. It seems like they had a good time, and we felt good about our work for the day. We arrived home to beaming sunshine and temperatures near 60ºF, so I took a stroll into town to soak in the sun.
Wexford Town under the Thursday sunshine
This afternoon, we have to rehearse the music that we’ll be presenting on Sunday at our second music workshop. We’ll be hosting people in Ballyvaloo again, but this time, we’ll be sharing some song ideas for Eucharistic music, inspired by the upcoming International Eucharistic Congress in Dublin this summer – which I’m planning on attending for a few days! Also, after lunch, Kurt and Jess will follow in the footsteps of Molly and I over to the Christian Media Trust recording studios to lay down the tracks and reflections for their Lenten programmes. We premiere our Lenten reflection series this Sunday with my programme for the First Sunday of Lent. Tune in through the online feed at 3:30pm eastern/2:30pm central time to hear my program, and keep that time slot open for the rest of Lent to hear from all of Teach Bhride.
