We have been quite blessed over the
years to have with us good and generous priests who share their lives and faith
with us while they work toward degrees at Catholic University. There have been four such student priests
during my time as pastor, and all have contributed greatly to your lives and to
mine. But it is the time of year when new
assignments take effect and life changes for priests, and so it will change
here in the Holy House of Soubirous.
Father Markey is finishing the Philosophy
degree he came to earn. He just now just
came home from passing his comprehensive exam, much relieved at clearing that
major hurdle. He still has exams to pass
for his individual classes this week, but he is very close to that blessed land
called Being Finished. By the time you
see him this weekend, I think he will be there.
He has yet one more week here with
us before he returns home to Connecticut.
As always, he will be a big help with Masses during the week, then next
weekend, Mother’s Day, he will celebrate his last Sunday Mass here at
11:00. I hope you get a chance to speak
to him this weekend or next, to let him know how much we have all enjoyed
having him here with us.
Our past priests continue to be
important to us, too. This weekend,
you’ll probably know that Fr. Nick is back on campus. He has the 11:00 Mass this Sunday. Those of you who are more recent arrivals may
not know that Fr. Nick Zientarski was our student resident priest here for five
years, the longest of any we have enjoyed.
He started in 2006, shortly after I came as Pastor, and was here until
2011. He got all his academic
credentials, and has been Dean of the seminary up in New York. Because that is a particular sort of life, he
has enjoyed “parish vacations” here with us over that whole time. But that is about to change.
Fr. Nick will become a Pastor
himself this summer, at a parish in his own Diocese of Rockville Centre: Saint Christopher in Baldwin, New York. If you ask, he’ll tell you what he knows
about it; he is quite pleased. But it
means the weekend visits we have enjoyed will probably not continue. He will have a parish of his own to claim his
weekend attentions; holidays, too.
But you can join me in hoping he
will continue to visit, even if not on the weekends. I have also begun making discreet inquiries
about the guest accommodations at St. Christopher, since he has hosted me
several times at the seminary. We really
have a good time when we get together.
Usually, there is dining involved – he does happily live up to his
nickname of Father Food.
There certainly will be festive
meals with Fr. Markey before we send him off to home. Maybe he will come back for visits, since seminary
work does seem to be in his future, though not exclusively that. But we can’t count on it; these great priests
who are with us while studying are an extra, a bonus, gratia gratis data we receive gratefully and remind ourselves we
have no right to expect. So join me in
thanking them for their presence, and thanking God. Don’t forget to pray for them, and while
you’re at it, put in a word for their successors here, because we could always welcome
another blessing.
Monsignor
Smith
