The World’s Cutest Bun-bun gives us all the Big Raspberry Of Love

Well, I apologise for not posting for the past few days, but some time life interferes with one’s best laid plans. Before I started this blog, I used to feel a bit cheated if certain bloggers didn’t post something everyday. Now I wonder, “How do they do it?” Madpriest manages to post several posts a day, and they are all witty and wonderful and worth reading. I’ve noticed that there are a few of you who check this site several times a day, so I feel as if I have let you down by not posting. But, stuff happens, ya know? It is November in Panamá, the rainiest month of the year, and, even though it rains almost nine months of the year, the telephone lines tend to go out during hard rains. And when the telephone line is out, the DSL line is out. So that explains Monday. Yesterday I spent the day with the clergy of the Diocese of Panamá at Clericus. I love my colleagues, but I hate sitting in meetings, and five hour meetings in español really put my Christian Love to the test. I don’t even like hour and a half meetings in english, so this stuff really stretches my tolerance. It seems to me that sometimes it takes a lot longer to say something in español than it does in english. And when you have a bunch of priests together, especially Central American priests, there is a lot of repetition. Y Padre Mickey no se gusta mucho repetición en todas idiomas. So, when I finally got home (through a torrential rain with thunder and lightening) late yesterday afternoon, I was in no mood to post Cute Stories About Sacerdotal Activities Here In Panamá.

On Wednesday we have our Holy Eucharist with Healing service. I usually chose one of the saints whose feasts appear during the week and talk about them. Today is the feast of Albert the Great, Bishop of Ratisbon and Friar, but since he’s a saint from the Middle Ages, I spoke about Hild of Whitby, because she’s from the era in which I have an interest (50 through 800 CE) and she’s a woman AND a Celt, so she wins. After Communion, people come up for Anointing with Oil and Laying on of Hands. It is really a very holy and wonderful time in the service. After the service and my breakfast, I go to visit the Sick and Shut-in with three ladies of the Visitation Committee. Today we visited the Katalina Brown Home, a care home supported by the British Aid Society. Visits like this remind me why I am blessed to be a priest. We sang and prayed and shared the Reserved Sacrament and it was beautifully intimate and holy. I spent the rest of the day working on our Bilingual Thanksgiving Service for Sunday. For the past three years we gather together to ask the Lord’s blessing and have our Harvest Thanksgiving Service (it’s always Harvest Time in Panamá!) and then go across the street to Instituto Episcopal San Cristóbal (the school started at our parish by the Rev. Clarence W. Hayes, Rector of St. Christopher’s at the time and later Bishop of the Diocese of Panamá) and have our parish family Thanksgiving Dinner. We have a great time! I will roast a turkey as I have for the past three years. I love to roast poultry. And I get to do it again on Thanksgiving Day when our extended Panamanian Family gathers at La Rectoría for our Thanksgiving Dinner as we have for the past seven years.

The cute bun-bun above represents my feelings about posting every day.