Relief….

For almost a month now my computer has been acting erratically, becoming increasingly unusable. Particularly hard hit was my e-mail and I haven’t been able to respond to messages coming in. I have tried all sorts of troubleshooting, watched repair videos, done re-installs–everything. And still things got worse.

Then an hour ago the PC itself decided it had had enough. I got a BSOD (Blue Screen of Death) and an announcement that the system was collecting information about the error(s) and would reboot. No asking if that is what I wanted, just telling me it was in the process of shutting down.

And then when it rebooted, the major difficulties had disappeared and things were back to a normal I had previously known. Deo Gratias!

[For those of you waiting for replies, I hope they will now be quickly forthcoming!]

Biking Together

The Charlie Dittmeier (my father) sons and daughters love to get together and last night’s gathering was about more than food. A bunch of us are cyclists and Mary (L) and her husband Mike had a chance to show off their wheels to all of us. Mary’s bike (pink?, lavender?) is the same model as mine. The black cycle is one of Mike’s. He rides about 200 miles a week now that he is retired, including three or four 50+ mile rides. He also did the Triple Bypass in Colorado last year–three 10,000+ foot peaks in one day in a 120-mile race!

St. Meinrad Assembly

Thursday

Today was an abbreviated day: a session with the archbishop, a closing liturgy, and then lunch and departure.

The Monte Casino chapel about a mile from the archabbey. It’s used for seasonal celebrations and for events with visiting church groups.
At each gathering with the priests, Archbishop Shelton always has an open session in which anyone can ask anything or comment on current issues. The archbishop is a good listener and promises an answer soon if he can’t provide one off the top of his head.
Karen Shadle is head of the Office of Worship for the archdiocese and she attended the assembly to provide really wonderful music each day, in addition to liturgical materials prepared in advance. For each of the liturgies she was assisted by a choir of seminarians.
On flat land near the highway, the archabbey has created a solar farm more than an acre in size.

St. Meinrad Assembly

Tuesday
Morning prayer
David Shellenberger giving a wonderful presentation on priests’ physical, mental, emotional, and spiritual health.
Discussing the Shellenberger talk during the break.

At the liturgy before lunch, Archbishop Shelton offered the sacrament of the sick to those who sought healing.
For the afternoon session, Fr. Eugene Hensell, OSB, a noted scripture scholar from St. Meinrad, spoke about the different pictures of St. Paul that appear in his writings.

St. Meinrad Assembly

Monday

The first official act of the assembly was the group photo, always taken on the front steps of the seminary building.

Before supper there was a social gathering where the guys could reunite with friends and meet the new clergy in the diocese.
A special part of the social was the introduction of the seminarians of the diocese, those who are studying to replace us older priests.
I ate dinner with Thomas, one of the seminarians I had not met before. He is studying at St. Meinrad.
The first business session of the assembly was an update on the diocesan reorganization by Mr. Brian Reynolds, the chancellor of the archdiocese.

St. Meinrad Assembly

Monday

Every year the priests of Louisville have an assembly at St. Meinrad Seminary in Indiana, 90 miles from Louisville. Today Fr. Roy Stiles and I drove there after lunch, with our bicycles in the back of his truck.

The last half of the trip is through the Hoosier National Forest and it was a special delight for me to experience the woodlands again. I missed the forests when I was in Cambodia.

The first task on arrival was to register and get our room keys.