Some Nice Things I Missed

The title of a Sinatra Album, c. 1973. Not his best, but still better than anything else put out that year. Anyway, I take "some nice things I missed" as a title for a post with a few pictures highlighting some events that I have been graced to take part in this summer. As my posting has been a bit sparce of late, I thought I would wrap some shots into one.

On July 21 I was able to go up to Rio Grande City to visit the Monastery of the Good Shepherd. I spent some time with some extraordinary young women from the Valley who were participating in a in a religious vocation discernment weekend. We had Mass, and meals together that day, and I was able to give a few thoughts to them about how to discern the call to the Consectated Life.

On July 18, I had a great time with about 500 of our middle-school age young people from the Valley who gathered on the campus of the Basilica of Our Lady of San Juan del Valley, at the Diocesan Pastoral Center . We had a "Catechesis on the 10 Commandments with the Bishop" day. Our young people came from all sections of the Rio Grande Valley, and I was able to share a cathecesis with them on the decalogue. Boy was I impressed with how well prepared they were! They practically taught the sessions themselves, because they knew all the answers to the questions I was asking! We also had lunch outside, pictured above. We made Rosaries together, and at the end of the day we all prayed the Rosary together.

We had a tent set up outside for music and snacks, and it served its purpose for about half the day. Then we had a little drama, and got hit pretty hard with a thunder storm, so we all had to run inside. Most of us got soaked, but it turned out that we were better able to pray the Rosary, knowing that the Blessed Mother was protecting us from the storm.

And, around July 10, I went to a place west of Uvalde, Texas, to participate in a retreat. The terrain was beautiful, and made for a nice setting to pray.