Flying High

Well I took my first flight today in a small Cessna. I am hoping to get my pilots license but am unsure if it will happen because I have Type II Diabetes. I will have to see if I can pass the flight physical for that. I don’t think it is a problem since they let me drive. I am hyperglcemic rather than hypoglycemic. The FAA regs state you can’t be insulin dependent or taking hypoglycemic drugs. That seems to make me think I have a pretty good chance. Please pray for it if you don’t mind.

Now today was just supposed to be a brief joy ride but the instructor told me as long as your here we will let you do some things. Now it was a bit like a 6 year old whose dad is teaching him to drive. I wasn’t sitting on his lap mind you but there were definitely two sets of controls. But I did sit in the main seat and it was quite fantastic. We took off and landed twice. I am pretty sure that I did most of the second take off without him doing too much. This little baby can take off at 50mph. It is weird though because you steer with your feet while your on the ground.

The second landing I did a bunch with as well but I am not kidding myself. Landing really is a controlled fall and your glad you got the instructor there. I bet the first solo is a real nerve wracker.

Anyway it was fun. In the future I will get some photos.

We have a flight club here in Faulkton and a lot of my parishioners are in it. The plane rent is fairly cheap and I look forward to getting to know some people better.

gmail account

Thank you to the many people who sent me a gmail account invitation. I got signed up. I have heard great things about them so I was curious to look around. If anyone cares to comment, I would love to hear what you like and dislike about your experience with gmail.

Homily – 22nd Sunday in Ordinary Time (Year A)

Major Score

Howdy,
I really am loving my new assignment so far. When I was here 8 years ago as a seminarian I went to the little movie theatre every week. It is owned by a local parishioner and she very kindly treated me. I have always loved the movies. I worked in a movie theatre and it was one of my favorite jobs. I was hoping to own theatres one day but you now how those plans go. So as a seminarian it was fun to talk with her about her theatre. When I was ordained she gave me a lifetime pass to the theatre. Little did she know I would be her pastor one day…

So far it has been great. One of the questions I asked her within about 2 weeks of being here is: Would you be willing to show a film on the life of Therese of Lisieux. She said she was interested. I contacted Luke Films via email. When I sent back the initial info I didn’t hear from them again.

I asked my parishioner if she had heard anything and she said she called them twice and they didn’t return the phone call. So… I got on the phone and called them.

The seemed a little hesitant because we were so small and the costs of distributing the film and sending us a print were high. I asked “What if I pay for the shipping and promotional costs”… well he asked for the phone number of the theatre which I gave him.. A few hours later we had the film booked. Praise be to Jesus Christ.

Now the film is going to be shown here in Early November I believe. I will confirm that later. But for all you South Dakota types that read my blog…. I think you should plan on coming to see it and bringing your youth groups if possible.

As more information becomes available I will post it.. including where you can call to reserve tickets. I am hoping to sell out all four shows we get here. I would ask your prayers and the intercession of St. Therese for the successful showing and conversion of hearts in our little corner of the world.

Podcasting

The audio files from my website are now available as podcasts via Apple itunes. You can find and subscribe via the itunes music store under podcasts / religion and spirituality / christianity / …. then look for A Son becomes a Father and you can subscribe for new updates.

I am having a bit of trouble with the artists tag. I tried what I could find on the subject to insert it in the RSS feed but had no luck. If someone out there knows how to do this I would greatly appreciate a tip or two from one of you who know more about it than I. Please email me at toddreit at juno dot com (I sure hope someone hasn’t programmed a spider to decipher email addresses printed that way).

One other small note…. if there are any gmail users out there I would like to ask if you would consider sending me an invitation. I would like to try out one of those accounts.

Thanks in advance.

Msgr. Charles Mangan

Well I just received a phone call from Msgr. Mangan at the airport. He is on his way back to Rome where he works in the Congregation for Institutes of Consecrated Life and Societies of Apostolic Life.

When I first came to South Dakota, I was stationed at the parish I am not pastor at. Msgr. Mangan was just down the road in a neighboring parish and he served as my confessor during my time here.

He came to work in Rome while I was there in the seminary so we saw each other frequently. Upon my returning to the diocese that now only happens about once a year when he gets vacation.

It was a treat to see him and I would ask your prayers for his safe return. He told me he would check the website in Amsterdam so I thought it would be fun to put a little hello blurb up here that he could read when he arrives.

Buon Viaggio Padre and safe travels.

Daily Homily August 26, 2005

I am going to try to figure out how to podcast here. Mostly homilies but who knows what the future may bring. Right now I am posting the link for this mornings homilies. I hope to be able to play out a few more ideas in the near future. It will take some hardware upgrades though.

Back

Well I am back in the parish and slowly recovering. What a stack of mail. I have a lot to do ahead of me which is exciting and daunting at the same time.

The trip home was quite the challenge. More on that later. I have some things that are time sensitive so I will blog once I get those out of the way a bit. Maybe tomorrow night.

Greetings Again

The Pope arrived yesterday and it was a zoo. I watched most of it from the Hotel Room. I went to everything in Paris and could barely see anything because I was so far from a television screen.

It is great meeting pilgrims from all over. It is suprising how often you run into people you know.

Our tour of the Cathedral is today. We are slotted for a 4pm entrance which means I am going to miss the one session I really wanted to go to which is a session with Jim Caviezel (sp).

We also have mass with our Apostolic Administrator tomorrow, Bishop Samuel Aquila. It will be nice to see him. Then tomorrow is the big Vigil… I think I will watch that from the hotel room as well. Paris looked like a million puppies piled on each other. I don´t think I am up for that and especially not a wise thing to have kids piling on a priest. I will make it out for the Mass.

We leave at 3am Monday morning to catch our flight in Amsterdam. I am hoping to get a lot done. Need to free up the computer.

Greetings again

The free internet sites are busy and the pay ones cost quite a bit so the posts are brief at the moment. I am writing a few topics down for comment later.

So far so good. We just had Mass (which yesterday was almost invalid for a bunch of priests..I will explain that later). Right before Mass the Pope landed and it was shown on the jumbo screens. The crowd went wild. I don´t think Benedict is going to have a hard time winning the youth.

Some tempers are getting to some people but as I predicted the kids are doing fine and fortunately most of it is invisible to them.

I am going back to the hotel room to watch this on tv. The Germans are creating a national embarassment for themselves logistically in the transportation and the food departments. More on that later as well.

I have run into a bunch of priests I know which is nice. I am going to have to get going here so the kids behind me don´t start cursing me.

More later….