The World Ahaze

Six Flags Ahaze

So anyway, we’ve been having these huge Marsh Fires here the past few days, that have been burning like crazy and sending smoke billowing across the landscape like nobody’s business. It’s bananas.

The Marsh Fire

You can see the fires clearly in this stunningly over processed photo.

Which brings up an excellent point about shooting during the middle of the day. The contrast, well, …hmmm, how does one say this when one is a Priest with some amount of dignity. … Well, the contrast just sucks in the middle of the day.

And without overprocessing it looks like just another cloudy day. But it’s not another cloudy, it’s this amazing marsh fire.

Williams Boulevard

I’m still pondering yesterday’s Gospel about being children of light. There’s something to be said for that in this forlorn picture taken in nearby Kenner. The tattered American flags, the desolation, …the haze.

The fruits of the Spirit are “love, joy, peace, forbearance, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control.” [Galatians 5:22-23.]

Given such spiritual splendor, we need to observe the signs of the times. And so often today, the times appear uncertain, hesitant, divisive, confused, mean, unfaithful and even hazy.

Jet Plane in the Haze

But we are at peace, knowing the fullness of truth awaits us.

Still, it’ll be great when the rains swell, and the breeze blows, and this baby’s history.

Katrina Anniversary

Yesterday was the Sixth Anniversary of Katrina, and it’s a sign of great improvement that I didn’t get around to posting about it until well, until today.

But, I’ve never gotten around to doing anything with these photos, so I decided to start posting them here. I know you’ll love them!

Er.. Hello? Helllooo…?

They’ll make it into a separate page, because why be maudlin? But it’s definitely a part of my early Priesthood, and a part of history. And I have things to say about that experience.

I have things to say about a lot of things that have happened along the way, as a matter of fact. Just you wait, I’m telling you.

Read more

Guest Bloggers

I’ve been pondering the subject of Guest Bloggers.

Sarah Rienhard, over at the Catholic Writer’s Guild, makes some excellent points on Guest Blogging:

Benefits of Guest Posting (whether or not you blog)

1. It gets you exposed to a different audience, or, if you’re not a blogger, to an online audience.

2. It’s a win-win, in many ways. The blogger gets good content; you get a chance to tap into their audience.

3. It might stretch you to write in a different way, for a new subject, or for a set of people you might not have a chance to connect with otherwise.

And, she offers great advice on whether or not to blog at all:

To keep that brief, I can handle blogging, despite the fact that I don’t overly edit my writing. (Unless I completely edit it almost out of existence, such as this once lengthy post.)

Point being! I’ve started inviting Guest Bloggers to post. So. We’ll see how this goes… should be fun!

A Time for Living.

Well it’s been a long and beautiful weekend here. Here’s what I was up to:

  1. At Masses this weekend the Deacons preached. We’re blessed with some great Deacons: Deacon Angelus and Deacon Henry both give Homilies which are very insightful, informative, and challenging.

    That does make the weekend somewhat easier for us Priests, for the obvious reason that we don’t have to give a Homily. (I usually work on one anyway, though am terribly remiss about publishing them.)

  2. Tomorrow is the anniversary of Hurricane Katrina, and hence the anniversary of my dad’s death. It’s still difficult to think that he died that awful day. It was one of the last things I could have possibly foreseen with that storm.

  3. The heat’s got me somewhat down; quite a few projects without a time frame are easily postponed until October, like, cleaning the garage, upping my cycling mileage, redoing some of the garden.

    I am officially going to start planing vacations in the August/September time frame. That will render my ministry much more effective, and everyone will be pleased with that. Especially me.

  4. I prepared a vegetable dish for lunch after the 11:00 a.m. Mass. It consisted if many peppers and onions which I cleaned out of the vegetable bin, cooked down with some other things and some spinach, then made into a curry and had with quinoa.

    It’s the kind of thing that’s great to eat alone, very nourishing with good flavors. But if anyone were around I’d probably deny having any part in making it.

  5. I got a lot of reading done this weekend, a bit of research I’m undertaking for yet another project that’s entered my mind for scheduling.

    Sometimes it’s best to have a ten year plan amidst all the other plans of life.

    Especially since, well… argh… well, since blogging’s not my forte! The truth hurts, but we must always face it squarely.

  6. Monday is my alleged day off, and I actually have a free day tomorrow. So I can sleep in, in air conditioned splendor, while the whole world starts turning around a new work week.

    If that makes anyone jealous, I’m not incredibly upset about it. I’ll probably be up at 5AM anyway.

  7. God, grant us peace of days and teach as in all things to glorify you. Teach us to pray as we ought, and to live according to your will for our lives.

    In you alone is our hope O Lord, and we know that we shall never hope in vain. Amen.

Towards the End of the Road

olde house

Way down the river, dow past Point a La Hache, lies this old house.

The painting on the front reads “I’m back!“, and “Need Water“, “Need Food.”

It was a long time before help came down that way, and a lot just never came back. Of course, even many who came back after Katrina, never really ‘came back’ all the way.

Well, we’re finally getting to the end of the End of the Road series, which I had started naively one day thinking it would be a kind of long post.

That’s an understatement. But, we’re getting there.

The Rev. Kenneth Allen