Charlie Dittmeier's Home Page
I had a wonderful visit today with Judy and Dave Saumweber who stopped by in Louisville for a few hours on a trip to visit another friend on the East Coast. The Saumwebers, from Minnesota, were Maryknoll Lay Missioners in Cambodia when I arrived and are a wonderful couple and wonderful missioners and wonderful friends. I was honored and so happy that they adjusted their route to come through Louisville!
Fr. Nick Rice was three years ahead of me at St. Thomas Seminary in Louisville and was ordained in 1967 and assigned to St. Lawrence Parish. Three years later he was transferred and I, newly ordained, replaced him at St. Lawrence. He was an exceptionally good priest and I started my ministry in the afterglow of his time at St. Lawrence. Later when Nick started Mass of the Air I worked with him to get sign language interpreters for the televised liturgies. Later he set up the deacon program in Louisville and then took positions in national church organizations. In addition to that he was just my good friend. He died last week and today we celebrated his funeral.
I bicycled to work daily in Phnom Penh but cycling there was much different from what it is in Louisville. The cold is one big difference. I had a pair of leather gloves but on the really cold days here in Kentucky, after fifteen minutes my fingers were frozen. People at Nazareth Home and at St. Boniface Church heard me talking about how unpleasant it was, and then they started giving me gloves! But even gloves purpose-made for cycling didn’t work when the temps were below 35ยบ or so. Then some of my brothers and sisters got me a Christmas present of heated bike gloves–and they work! Riding with them in cold weather is heavenly!
I tried all sorts of gloves to keep my fingers warm and tried putting a thinner pair of gloves inside heavy gloves but that didn’t work either. The large gloves on the right, with the blue lights on the cuff, are the ones that gave me relief. They have USB-charged batteries in those large cuffs.
Saturday night, after some of the guys had their Saturday mass, a group of us met for dinner. For them it was a continuation of their monthly practice. For me it was another of my reconnecting experiences as I merge back into the church of Louisville. Good guys!
If you wish, take a few breaths and offer yourself this simple blessing:
May I carry forward what truly matters.
May I release what no longer serves.
May I walk into this new year with courage and care.
And then extend that light outward:
May we choose love again and again.
May our world remember its own goodness.
The light you seek for the year ahead is not waiting somewhere else.
It already lives in you—
in your capacity to begin again,
to forgive a little more
to open when it would be easier to close.
As this year turns, may you trust that something wise is moving you forward even when you cannot see the path.
With gratitude for you, and faith in what is unfolding!
~ Jack Komfield
This morning I finished an article for our diocesan newspaper about my return to Kentucky, and related the experience of reconnecting with family and friends. And then this afternoon I had the opportunity to actually do that.
I have lots of first cousins on the Dittmeier side of the family and today nine of us got together for lunch. These are some of the people who bought the e-bike for me.
Then I made a brief visit to Ruth, now 104 years old, and her daughter Peg. I have known, liked, and respected their family for more than 50 years.
Bishop Olivier of Phnom Penh is a very active player in the life of the kingdom and always reaches out to the Buddhists to address issues, celebrate events, etc. In the current conflict between the kingdoms of Cambodia and Thailand, Bishop Olivier has gone to the front lines with a Buddhist delegation and has engaged with Buddhist leadership in praying for peace.
The joint prayer events take on a form not so familiar to Christian groups. Literally hundreds of Buddhist monks came together for this joint prayer service.
Today the Dittmeier family had their Christmas gathering at Nazareth Home Clifton where I live. This was a first because always before we met at my sister Mary and husband Mike’s home. The out-of-state families with children came this year, though, so we moved to Nazareth Home where there was more room for the children to play. It was a delightful gathering.