Weekend wedding

Well the last two weekends I was in Minnesota. The first one was up in Brainard at Gull lake for Noah's Bachelor Party. The top picture we rented a pontoon boat and cruised around for the day. It was a very pretty lake. Then the following weekend was Noah's wedding up in Grand Superior. Which is 11 miles north of two harbors. The picture of me golfing at Lakeview national in two harbors. It is hard to see but lake superior in the background at a distance. We then stopped by Split rock light house which is a historic state park in Minnesota. Lots of ship wrecks had occurred up there before it was built in 1905. Then the outdoor wedding ceremony began. It was a very nice wedding. The weather passed. It was raining about an hour before the wedding. The wedding picture is of Noah, mike helm, and Noah's brother Aaron waiting for the ceremony to begin. The next picture is Emily's grandmother and me. I had the pleasure of walking her down the aisle at the beginning of the ceremony. The next picture is of Lake superior just behind the lodge. I took a morning dip. It was 62 degrees so not to cold this time of year. Then the last picture is of Noah and Myself. I was a great time and a beautiful wedding. Then I drove over 7 hours back to Milwaukee through the heart of Wisconsin passing through a lot of the small towns and lakes.
Classes have begun. They are easing us into it. Some people it has been over 40 yrs since they have been back in school. So the homework load hasn't been bad at all so far. They have me taking
 Liturgical music and worship, which the first chapter was about the changes in the church from 1962.
Ancient Philosophy- the first chapter was Thales and he said, "Everything is water" and bunch of other people said he was really smart. I guess Thales is considered the first philosopher from that one statement.
Interpersonal Communication skills- I haven't read the first chapter but I will do that next. It sounds like it is a class that is going to teach me how to listen.
Intro to scripture- Which were some how going to go through the entire bible in a semester. Not sure how that is going to work.
I'm glad classes have finally begun. I have already gained weight eating breakfast and lunches in the school cafeteria. The food is very good and they have some variety. I guess my saving grace is a couple of us have started the insanity workout. It is very difficult. I can't keep up with the guy on the video. We are in are third week of that. Right now I am working on getting onto a soccer team and there trying to find a ministry for my to volunteer at on Wednesdays because I have no class that day. It sounds like I might do hospital chaplaincy, youth ministry, soup kitchen or prison ministry. I'm leaning towards prison ministry because that is something I haven't done before.  I hope everyone is well.

Irish fest and Brainard

So the first picture is Abbey. That is my friend Cathy's dog. I visited her and her mom in Schaumburg at there place after I dropped Fr Joe off at the airport.
The second picture is Irish fest with Carlos who is from Mexico. I guess milwaukee has the biggest Irish fest in North America. Lots of bands and I learned some celtic dances.
The last picture I was in Minnesota and just got off the Mega bus from Milwaukee next to the Metrodome. My friend picked me up and it was a weekend Bachelor party in Brainard.
I had orientation this week. It seemed a bit over whelming. I'm excited to finally begin though. Everyone is very welcoming and nice at the university. It is going to be an interesting year.

Polish Pilgrimage

So last Friday I headed down to Merryville Indiana to help set up for the polish pilgrimage. Saturday we were dropped off at St. Michael's Church in the Southside of Chicago. This is a huge deal for the Polish community. The Polish have been doing pilgrimages fro about 800 years. Supposedly in one of the Church's in Poland there is a picture of Mary drawn by the gospel writer Luke. No proff it is true or not. So the Polish have made pilgrimage fro weather whatever town or city they come from and walk to this church in Poland. SO everyone is walking from where ever they came from. The Polish started this tradition here in Chicago. This was the 25^th year they have done this walk from Chicago to Merryville Indiana. A Pilgrimage is a journey or search of moral or spiritual significance. It is typically a journey to a shrine or other importance of location to a person’s belief or faith.

At S.t Michael’s Church the Provincial from the US Salvatorians which is Father Joe , Provincial of Poland from the Salvatorians was there and Arch Bishop Mokrzycki from Poland who worked for John Paul the 2 was there. A provincial is a person who is like an elected president for and order and serves 3 years for there order which in my case is the Salvatorians. The mass was pact. We were crammed in the pews and all the aisles and in front of the altar was filled with people. There was no room to spare in the massive church. At mass they ran out of hosts because there was so many people.  After that the walk started. Today was a 20 mile walk to Hammond Indiana. My job was to follow Van 3 and make sure everything went smoothly. They had 5 vans that had hug speakers on top. In Van three someone was always singing in the microphone or giving a talk. Everything was in Polish. People were coming up to me and asking me questions in Polish but I couldn’t answer. I did learn goo day, how are you, I’m very good, and Thank you pretty quickly. Of course I don’t know how to spell it correctly so I’m not even going to try. I can’t believe how many people were walking. They first day there was some 6,000-7,000 people walking. It was Incredible. Old and young who made the walk. Many were singing at the top of there lungs in polish. It was quit impressive.

I was pretty exhausted from the walk. We did take a break in the middle and at Kielbasas kraut , cabbage and other various polish dishes.Once we reached  Hammond. Everyone spend the night there. Incredible there was not a single spot being unused. They probably have about 4 acres and tents crammed next to each other. No floor space inside either. Every hallway nook and cranny someone was sleeping in. I could not believe. It Then they woke up to walk 13 miles to Merryville which they have a Shrine of Mary. It is a Huge painting that they have in the back of the church. However I didn’t walk that day. My job was to set up in Merryville at the Salvatorian center with the Shrine. All morning I spent unloading a semi truck filled with pop, beer, kielbasa, blood sausage, hot dogs, pork chops, chicken, kraut, cabbage, and many desserts. I can’t believe how much food and drink was there. Every time I walked the the kitchen the old Polish ladies said, “try this try that”. They fed me the whole time. It was a complete day of eating and carrying food.There was never a moment where I wasn’t full. The Polish cooks were sweet old ladies. Very very nice.

Buy the time everyone arrived it was crazy. About 8,000 people they think were there. Everyone eating drinking celebrating. Then they had a huge mass outside. It was a sight to see. I felt I was in the Vatican when the Bishop was holding up the Eucharist and some 8,000 people were on there knees looking up intently. Communion took about an hour because there was so many people. I have never seen anything like it.

Oh I also had trash duty as soon as I would empty a trash container and put a new bag in it would be filled up with in 15 minutes. So I was running from trash can to trash can trying to keep up. After mass. I was invented to have dinner with all the religious. The Bishop of Chicago made a speech then the bishop of Poland made a speech and then we had this incredible meal. White borsch soup. Red and green cabbage, tripe soup, mash potatoes, green beans, peacan chicken. Chicken stuffed with rice, and pork stuffed with mushrooms. Very tasty.   There was 30 of us at the dinner. Sister Angela from Poland flew over here just to cook for this event. She is the head nun in charge of the Salvatorian sisters in Poland. Amazing cook. I asked her if she will marry me. She laughed. I’m guessing she is about 75 years old. She was written 4 cook books. In Poland. I asked her if I could get one but she said it is only written in Polish.  That night we finished clean up and crash. The next morning had breakfast with the polish group and got ready to leave. I helped Mario out by carrying his stuff out of his room and closing the door. He panicked because the door was locked and his car keys were in the room and father Lukas had the spare keys in Chicago. Mario was staying on the second floor of the building. I tried using a paper clip to open the door but no luck. I saw this old maintenance man on a tractor. I stopped him and asked him if he could help he said with a very thick polish accent. “No problem. I get knife and open doo”. I said. Well do you have a ladder because the window is open. He said ok. No problem 5 minutes. Well he drove his tractor up tot the building and raised the bucket. Their wasn’t a ladder tall enough. This 70 something year old man climbs up the tractor and into the bucket. Then he asked me to hand him the ladder. I handed it to him. I’m thinking this guy is flipping nuts at his age might I add it was raining. He stand the Ladder in the bucket of the dumpster and climbs up the ladder to the window and knocks out the screen and climbs into the room. He was 2 stories high when he did this. Nuts. He did do it in 5 minutes. He acted like it was no big deal, Do was locked and he knew he was going to open it. No problem.

Well Mario couldn’t even watch when he was climbing the ladder. He was scared fro his life. Well that is enough adventure for now. Until next time.

The Drive

 Had a great time at the Middle school rights of Passage in Flagstaff AZ, Did a hike on My. Humphreys with Fernando, Alberto and his son. It was a fun weekend of camping and doing some drumming. We also made rattles or shakers.

 This is Natural Bridges National Monument in Southern Utah

 This is Lake Powell in Southern utah. The lake seemed fairly muddy

 Capitol Reefs National Park where I camped out that night and did two hikes that day.

 This is on top of one of the hikes in Capitol reef. Visitor center is down below

 We hiked in Big Cottonwood canyon in Utah. I believe the Mill D trail

This is Red Pine lake where Noah and I camped out at 9,600ft elevation in Little Cottonwood

Hiked to the top of one of the lakes in Rocky Mountain National park

 The Johnsons at Bo's 60th Birthday Party

Kayaking on the St.Croix in Franconia.
It was a great drive up frm Tucson. I saw a LOT of friends and Family. I didn't get pictures of everything but I feel this is a good summary. I just got back from a 3 day retreat in Racine Wisconsin at the Dekoven center. It was a great time to get to meet the others and start my transition for this year. Im' very sorry to hear abou the shooting at the Sikh community. I was not that far away from it. I hope everyone is doing well. I'll try to keep everyone updated once a week.