This Sunday morning I woke up feeling queasy and tired. We had planned to split mass times so that someone could stay home with my sick daughter who kept us up much of the night throwing up. I had planned to go to mass at 9:00 am but could not get up in time (and get the boys ready). Instead my wife and the little one stayed home while I took the other 3 to 11:00 am mass.

The first scripture reading was about Moses keeping his staff raised while the armies of Joshua battled those of Amalek in defense of the kingdom of Israel. As the story goes, when Moses tired and lowered his arms, the army faltered but when they were raised, they prevailed.

I thought that the lesson here was about spiritual perseverance. I also thought about how I have not been going to meetings where I can be helpful to others. I wondered if I have not persevered enough lately. I have been thinking a lot lately about whether personal spiritual work (prayer, self-examination, meditation, amends, etc.) were the higher priority than meetings. I have kept these activities up for the most part.

The second reading from second Timothy was about the scriptures as giving wisdom, training, and teaching, through faith. I thought that this was like the staff that moses held, the necessary tool, but it was the means to access faith which was the real power (motivational force).

The Gospel reading was about a widow who persisted in asking a irreverent judge to render a just decision against her adversary. The reading actually stated that this was about the necessity to pray always without becoming weary. This seemed reaffirm to me that cultivation of personal faith and wellness takes priority is paramount.

Our priest, Fr. Barry gave a presentation today about Fr. Andre Besset who was being canonized today by the Pope in Rome. After mass I told Fr. Barry that I had caught a movie about Fr. Andre this week and had gotten a real sense of his trials and adversity through which he had to persevere in faith. Fr. Barry got real excited and said he had not seen the movie. He said that it was the Holy Cross brothers that were the most accusatory of Fr. Andre. He had and almost apologetic tone. I felt bad, almost as if he were over sensitive to this. I thought about how this is a problem of human nature that arises from a right motives but that people overreact. I thought of how I would have reacted if thousands of people were claiming cures and making a circus of the rectory. I thought of my own pragmatic nature and skepticism.

Interestingly, in the afternoon I read an article (http://www.abc.net.au/unleashed/40170.html) from one of my blog feeds of writer in Australia commenting on the circus in the media over the canonization of Sister Mary Mckillop. He said that he was taken aback by the extreme and irrational reactions by some of his atheist peers. I thought that this was a problem of all groups of people in any argument, that we go wrong when we characterize the other side by it's worst examples and lose our rationality.

In the afternoon I was very busy with the children. My wife had to go to school all afternoon. My younger daughter was better in the morning but then got sick again once at mid day.

I was kept very busy and had to resist feelings of worry over not being able to work on finances, school, home maintenance, and other matters.

In the afternoon the kids that were well all got lots of outdoor play time.

In the evening we had a potluck dinner scheduled that was a good thing for us to attend as a family. But by this time my spirits were flagging and I gave up on trying to make it. Thankfully my wife came home and encouraged us to make it. We had a great time and got to support our community.

Thanks be to God.