because everybody should have a website...
Well, after much thought and prayer over the last 20 minutes, I’ve decided to change the name back to “Confessions of a 21st Century Priest”.
But I wholeheartedly reserve the right to change my mind again over the weekend. After I work on my Homily a lot, and take care of some important business matters of course.
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Ok, I changed the name of my blog again. From “Confessions”, to “The Confessional Chronicles”.
I don’t know about this.
But we all know that being an INFP means that I like to take time making prayerful decisions about these kinds of things (or everything for that matter.) I’ve written about this before. Drives ENTJ’s crazy.
I’ll probably change it again. Before I start a Facebook Page, I thought it should have a decent name. There’s no way on earth I would change the whole site to a new domain! But typing into the Setting Dialogue Box… that I can handle.
Hit me up with any thoughts. Ciao.
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The Madonna of the Roses, by William Bouguereau.
Very fitting, as tomorrow is the Memorial of the Immaculate Heart of Mary.
That, and my roses need a Patroness. “My love, is like a red, red rose…”
They could seriously use the help.
Madonna of the Roses, Pray for Us.
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When I decided to take up photography, I was coming to terms with the fact that taking up cooking causes weight gain. However, the immediate result of having a camera was that I then took pictures of lots of food.
It’s a long story; it’s best left for another time.
Cleaning out old photos, I noticed a few stragglers I had meant to post but never got around to. And I hardly had time to post all 5,000 of them.
Here’s an auto that showed up on Easter Sunday; I was quite taken with it’s beauty and have about a thousand pictures of it.
Food is a lot easier to compose in a photo then is an antique car against the backdrop of a school building. I’ll have to consider that.
And here is the church steeple as twilight approaches. We have a very modern architecture here; and it works very well.
I took my shot at photographing a wedding, and decided to stick with playing the organ and, even better yet, presiding.
A beautiful statue of Mary was in the Sanctuary.
And for now, it’s off to sleep; only so much time in a day…
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Which I have apparently done, is that Pope Benedict XVI asked Priests back in January ‘ought Ten to Get Online and Spread the Gospel.
Sigh. I almost completely forgot about posting on my blog; I’m not very good at it.
In fact, I asked around to a variety of people whether I should keep the site or not, and the overwhelming response was “Yes! Absolutely! Please, please, PLEASE do! We couldn’t live without your blog!” (Not.) But, the general response was to keep it and post more often.
And spread the Gospel.
With that in mind, here is today’s Gospel:
Jesus said to his disciples:
“Stop judging, that you may not be judged.
For as you judge, so will you be judged,
and the measure with which you measure will be measured out to you.
Why do you notice the splinter in your brother’s eye,
but do not perceive the wooden beam in your own eye?
How can you say to your brother,
‘Let me remove that splinter from your eye,’
while the wooden beam is in your eye?
You hypocrite, remove the wooden beam from your eye first;
then you will see clearly
to remove the splinter from your brother’s eye.”
And here are some recent observations on blogging and myself:
To live, to adventure, to understand the will of God…
Our soul waits for the LORD,
who is our help and our shield.
May your kindness, O LORD, be upon us
who have put our hope in you.
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Before I forget, I wanted to post this picture of a brick. I don’t know why, and it’s a total non sequitur, and has nothing to do with much of anything that’s been going on lately. It’s a completely random update.
It’s from a memorial walk in Natchez, Mississippi, in a public park right next to the Cathedral. I was visiting with a family friend who had brought me to see the Cathedral, though it was closed.
Aside from liking the name, and thinking that Stokes must have been quite a character, I found myself wondering who on earth he was. What a great name. You can imagine the stories, “That ol’ Stokes!”…
So I googled it and realized it’s actually two surnames. I think. So disappointing… to me at least.
On the bright side, the garden is nearing a state of completion, although the cement pond has sprung a virulent leak. Also, I’m settling in and am almost living a box free life. (This is a good development.) The next project is my office.
Also, praying the Holy Spirit Novena again, which I had posted in January. Wonderful prayer. Here’s to a grand Feast of Pentecost.
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Because people continually ask this, and because I typed up a long response to an e-mail the other day, here, for some future Googler’s delight, is a brief synopsis of the three Catholic Churches close to the main hotels and action down in the CBD and the French Quarter.
There are three places down in that area, all of which are great for Mass.
“Jesuit on Baronne”, as we say here (it’s actually Immaculate Conception Church), can be found on Baronne Street, and also has a home on the web.
They are (obviously) Jesuit, and across from the Roosevelt, which is a great place to grab coffee or brunch after Mass. The Mass is ordinary form. The preaching is more often than not, wonderful. I only add ‘more often than not’ as it might be an off day when you go and .. you know how it goes… You’ll be blaming me for the rest of your life! The current Pastor is a friend I grew up with, Fr. Stephen Sauer and is a great Priest. They have a vibrant outreach to the community in regard to the Church’s teachings on helping the poor.
Through a fluke in timing I’ve been able to help out here recently with their music needs, playing piano and organ. The Steinway is a work of art, and the organ is a lovely late model Pheonix. It’s been a sheer pleasure.
Closer to the river is St. Patrick’s, which I love and go to from time to time when I am able (which is obviously not often.)
The Church is located on Camp Street.
The Mass is more traditional as it is celebrated ad orientem. The extraordinary form is celebrated twice on weekends, with Eucharistic Adoration also on Sunday afternoons. The Pastor is one of my favorite seminary professors, and a wonderful Priest, Fr. Stan Klores. You’ll usually see him walking around in a cassock prior to Mass if he is not the Priest saying the Mass.
Some of my friends cherish the 9:30am Extraordinary Form High Mass ~~~ others cherish the 5:30pm vigil which has no music and which is pretty quick. Something for everyone.
Also impressive is the St. Patrick’s You Tube Channel, which offers a glimpse into liturgical life there…
And last but never least, they have a spectacular new organ, Opus 53 of Patrick Murphy. 
Can you tell I was an organist prior to ordination?
Then of course, there’s The Cathedral Basillica of St. Louis, King of France. (We say that all the time.) I love going when I can because it’s down on Jackson Square, and is the iconic symbol of New Orleans. The Archbishop says Mass on Sundays at 11, the vigil is usually (lately) said by Fr. William Maestri, who gives a good Homily.
There is an internist position for the organist, whereby a spectacular organ student from Paris comes to play Masses and give recitals on the recently restored organ, which was newly installed a year before Katrina and then had a few years of recovery and tlc after wind driven rains poured over it and the plaster above it for hours.
It’s always a bit alway exciting if you like organ music, and if the organist is playing.
They are right down on Jackson Square, you can’t miss it.
There are some other notable Churches in the area, but are farther away walks. One is Our Lady of Guadalupe, which is home to the National Shrine of St. Jude. I’m not as familiar with it as I should be, though I have visited several times, it is just outside the French Quarter.
I hope this helps you enjoy your trip to New Orleans a bit more. If you have any question, or if you want to take me to Galatoire’s while you’re here, feel free to e-mail me!
Pax Christi,
Fr. KA
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This is one of the coolest images I’ve found of pelicans of late.
Pelicans feed their young by feeding them regurgitated fish from their long beak which is pulled down onto it’s breast. This was often seen as the pelican tearing into it’s breast to feed it’s young, which led to it being a symbol of self sacrifice — and a symbol of Christ feeding His Church. It’s a beautiful bird, coming back from the near extinction list, and you can read a thoroughly interesting article upon them from the Cornell Lab of Ornithology.
Still, the image of nourishing from sacrifice is profoundly Christlike. 
It’s also the image on the Louisiana state seal (and flag of course,) and , of course, the state bird of Louisiana.
And, it’s good to keep pelicans in mind during this oil ‘spill’… it continues to be a heart rending tragedy.
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Well it’s time for a vacation and time for a spiritual renewal.
I’m looking forward to a bit of travel and some visits with great friends. (I won’t be storming the city of Tyre, I just liked that picture for my archives.)
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Given that St. Louis is the Patron Saint of New Orleans, and the Cathedral there is named after him, it seemed fitting to make a pilgrimage to his resting place. He’s at the Basilica of St. Denis, which contains the Royal Necropolis. It’s built over the grave of St. Denis, early Bishop of Paris.
Come to find out, there’s only a little bit of him left — part of a finger to be exact, and it’s in a beautiful reliquary in a special chapel which predominates the upper Sanctuary at the very crown of the church.
Almost all of the Catholic French monarchs are buried there including everyone’s favorite, Marie Antoinette. She’s in the middle, on the left.
Many of the tombs were originally decorated with these funereal statues. During the revolution they were saved by a savvy statesman who claimed them as national art treasures. The family remains were all removed, and the funereal statues / coffins were removed to a museum. Later, everything was moved back, but most of the monarchs’ remains have been placed in a large common ossuary, except for those who could be identified. For instance, the monarchs after Napoleon, and Marie Antionette and her husband Louis XVI, who were moved from the grave they were placed in quite unceremoniously after they were murdered, had their remains placed in their own graves here.
Here is a cape worn by Louis VII during some of the royal ceremonies of St. Denis, back in his day.
And below is from a print, showing how the Church was draped and made ready for the funeral of a Queen of France.
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Gulls can really make or break a place. These help set the pace for a relaxing time in St. Malo.
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The next time anyone bashes the Church, I am going to point out Le Mont Ste. Michel.
Catholic all the way.
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When in France… not surprisingly, no one speaks English here! Oh well, nothing like learning a new language.
My first meal and first Church in France. Wow.
This was at La Couronne, and every bite of every dish was a marvelous new experience.
Having a GPS is great except for the fact that it’s entirely possible to get to your destination without really knowing where you are in the meantime. Hence the fact I’m not quite sure which Church this is. But it’s tres jolie, and the point is, the organ looked rather old, but sounded magnificent while the organist was doodling around.
Well, I will have to post it later, the file is too big. Off into the day!
Update
The brief (yet large) video inside the Normandy Abbey.
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Well things have been pretty so so of late. No inspired thoughts to jot down, and no newsy things to bring up. Guess I could just keep to an old fashioned weblog, sort of like tumblr. I.e., an easy way to get back to web history via tags and classes, of things you might actually want to see again.
We’ll see. For now I am busy learning bookkeeping 101 (Always comes in handy!) and well, just moving along.
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Well one thing has finally led to another and I have a new, very stable computer. No more crashes every hour!
It’s taking some getting used to, but in a good way. It’s a Mac.
At any rate, this is a great development.
Peace, out.
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Calumny is defined by the Catholic Encylopedia (1917) as “Etymologically any form of ruse or fraud employed to deceive another, particularly in judicial proceedings. In its more commonly accepted signification it means the unjust damaging of the good name of another by imputing to him a crime or fault of which he is not guilty. The sin thus committed is in a general sense mortal, just as is detraction.
That means that if, say for instance, a Pastor spreads false rumors about his associate he is guilty of calumny. If one spreads any type of false rumors about another, they are guilty of calumny.
Unfortunately, it’s one of the most common forms of manipulation in religious life.
Coming up later… Detraction.
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Putting the weblog on a leave of absence while I take vacation. After that I will redo it and put it up somewhere else.
Until then it’s always a wonderful resource for friends and family to be able to keep in touch, so… it’s still up.
Peace.
Update: I had asked for a bit of time off to settle my parents’ estate, which went very well, and during that time the site automatically renewed. So… it’s back to BAU.
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