As I stepped out of the church, Our Lady of Good Counsel, after the Friday meeting, I was fortunate to be staring directly at a shooting star. I said, "Wow" or something, so everyone looked at me, instead of what I was looking at. It was brief, so everyone else missed it.

Here's a much more spectacular display from a day earlier in Canada,

Happy Thanksgiving!

Some of you may not be aware that the Church's liturgical year starts with the season of Advent. Tomorrow, on Sunday, will be the Feast of Christ the King, the last Sunday of the liturgical year. And it works out that this year, Thanksgiving falls nearly between the two years. So it seems appropriate to give thanks. At last night's meeting, we were blessed by the visit of three new faces. Two of them managed to come in late after the Bible study, but it was nice to have them join in on the after dinner discussion, which has been the best sort of dessert for some people. God has been very gracious with our Catholic young adult group, and I'd like to thank God for the wonderful friendships that have been formed through our meetings together. May the Peace of Christ be with you all in the coming new year!

For where two or three are gathered together in my name,...

For where two or three are gathered together in my name,     there am I in the midst of them.     -- Matthew 18:20 Last Friday's Bible study and social gathering was a memorable one. A new member came to visit, and this introduced an interesting new dynamic to the discussion. Praise be to God. The discussion about scripture was lively, and then later, we met at PJ's where "father" Skip, the new owner, warmly greeted us (as he always does). The discussion over dinner turned to very interesting philosophical/theological topics such as our relationship to God, and how we might use our intellect and will to follow God's will. It was also a discussion about how to know and to love God. Lest outsiders think this was purely an intellectual discussion, a large part of discussion centered about differences in spiritual approaches, which unfortunately are beyond this author's capability to summarize accurately. It went so well that a last minute part II was held for Saturday at the Abbey in Still River. We joined the Benedictines in watching a movie (a Miss Marple mystery) and we joined them for evening prayer. The abbey was gracious in allowing us to continue this discussion until the wee hours of the morning. I apologize if I left anyone out of the invite list who may have enjoyed or profited from the discussion on Saturday. As I pointed out earlier, it was last minute get together. I'm sure there will future discussions of this nature on future Fridays, and I'm sure we'll learn to pace ourselves, if only so we can get up at a reasonable hour the next morning. And thanks be to God for being present there for us.

The Trip to Boston

We all had a good time at St. Leonard's in Boston's North End. They did a good job in gathering in a bunch of young adults for the night. It was nice of Mike's Pastries to provide the treats this Hallowed Eve night. Fr. Hennessey didn't need to mention "Mike's Pastries" twice except for comedic effect, and so he did. The Mass was tastefully done, musically and liturgically, and of course, Cardinal Sean gave a great homily. We also wandered about on Hanover Street after they kicked us out of the church (well, it was running close to midnight after all), and there were some nice costumes with people in them also wandering about. It was a delightful evening, with a delicious late night pizza to top it off. Now it has nothing to do with costumes, except perhaps the magic of that night's air overheated my imagination, but I did get to meet Santa Claus's head elf. Apparently his main job for the evening was to make sure that Santa Claus got to bed on time. A head elf's job seems pretty tiring. And later, unbeknownst to the gentlemen of the group and while we were eating pizza, I wandered off to Sesame Street in order to meet Bert and Ernie, Big Bird, the Cookie Monster and Oscar the Grouch. Fortune smiled upon me, since I found Oscar's trash can. No, I did not wake Oscar, because at that time of night, grouches can be, well, grouchy. I returned to the group without the gentlemen noticing that I had disappeared for a moment. But I do have a witness! Apparently, the magic of fairie land still holds sway for people. And it was a night of magic. Not of the pagan sort, but that instilled wonder about the world that the Creator has given each and every one of us. As Jesus pointed out, we must be as children, in order to accept the message and meaning of the Gospel. Take that to heart.