Refreshment

R and I were able to get away for a weekend recently to attend our son’s graduation in Connecticut. As it turned out, we spent more time in church “on vacation” than usual. He had to find a pick-up choir to sing Mozart’s Mass in c minor for a funeral, so he recruited us as well as whatever students were still in town. It’s been a while since I had to sing long fugue runs on the fly, and it showed, but there’s nothing quite like singing for your son. I’m just glad that we were doubled by a small orchestra and that the other three basses had a better sense of what they were doing.

The break was good, and so was the day off on Memorial Day. One of my biggest adjustments right now is not having the summer open before me. Between being in school and teaching, I lived on the academic calendar for fifty years. I know how privileged that was, and I never complained about time (except to other teachers, of course). I don’t think I’m complaining now, either, just reflecting on how hard it is to adjust to how most people live their lives. And the life of a parish priest makes it even more difficult; the burdens of the people are always on one’s mind. On the other hand, the great joy I experience on Sundays tells me that I’m doing the right thing.

Time away prepares one for the time ahead. Being enveloped in clouds of incense and the triumph of form over feeling (our son is in a very high church) helps me appreciate even more a place that has very real people with very real issues, some of which I can only approach with the faith that God will provide. We are all inadequate for what we are asked to do, and that is good. It keeps us from thinking that it’s all about us, when it should be all about God. But it still would be nice to have a little more time off now and then.