One year later….

Today marks my first anniversary of living at Nazareth Home Clifton. I moved in last year on August 20, 2025 as I returned from Maryknoll, New York where I had participated in the 50th anniversary celebration for the Maryknoll Lay Missioners.
This is Room 110 where I live in Cedar Hall. I have unpacked the two suitcases I brought with me from Cambodia but am still far removed from finally arranging my room. Most pressing is reconfiguring my computer set up, basically transferring everything from a failing laptop to a desktop with two big monitors.

A bike rack and a horse–kudos!

Here’s my ride (the bike, not the horse) at the Frazier Rehabilitation Institute today. I went there to follow up with a man who fell in his room at night and was on the floor there for 3 1/2 days until someone found him. Frazier is part of U of L (University of Louisville) Health, a major hospital system here. All of their centers I have been to have had a bike rack. Good on them! The horse is part of community participation in the Kentucky Derby. Hundreds of schools and businesses and organizations each decorate a full-size horse and display it permanently outside their establishments.

Here and There, Then and Now

After 42 years in Asia, I returned home to Kentucky. But it isn’t the home I left. Things I saw THEN are different NOW. Life HERE is different from life THERE. Here is another sample of the differences.

THEN

177 years ago, the German Catholics who came to Louisville needed an orphanage and St. Joseph’s Orphans Home was born and this statue of its patron was set up along the street.

NOW

Now St. Joseph (left) has been joined by a Shriner from Kosair Charities as orphanages went out of favor—and supporters of the now St. Joseph Children’s Development Center looked for additional funding to continue assisting children.
The Shriner enjoys a prominent place along with St. Joseph but maybe in a nod to the center’s Catholic origins, St. Joseph is lit up at night but not the Shriner!

Here and There, Then and Now

After 42 years in Asia, I returned home to Kentucky. But it isn’t the home I left. Things I saw THEN are different NOW. Life HERE is different from life THERE. Here is another sample of the differences.

THEN

45 years ago, the average parish wouldn’t have had much in the way of medical supplies or equipment available for Sunday mass. Maybe they would have had a simple generic first aid kit in a drawer somewhere.

NOW

Today at St. Augustine Church, a small black parish where I was substituting, I noticed in the back of the church there was an AED, an automated external defibrillator and a list of people trained to use it. Progress!

Something old, new to me…

One of the residents, Myra, in independent living at Nazareth Home is an aficionado of the dulcimer, a stringed instrument that was developed in Appalachia and is still much a part of the musical scene in Eastern Kentucky. At a gathering in one of our community rooms, Myra related the history of the dulcimer and showed us her collection of the instruments, explaining the different types and how to make them and play them. Quite interesting!

Kingfish Gathering

Periodically our STS alumni Chief Organizing Officer, Mo Byrne, gathers ex-seminarians from near and far for delightful gatherings. Last week we met at Kingfish and were blessed with the presence of some brothers who had not been to prior lunches.

Wayne Jenkins shares a phone call to Jim Graf (whom we thought was coming) with Donna and Jim Duffy. The Duffys got extra points–and extra thanks!—for making the trip from Owensboro.
We missed a few of the regulars who usually come but had a good group gathered around the table at Kingfish.
Back: Joe Graffis, Tom Mouser, Wayne Jenkins, Jim Duffy, Dennis West, Don Stosberg, Dave Dutschke. Front: Charlie Dittmeier, Mo Byrne