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| Duccio, "Descent" |
Today’s the feast of Saint John Francis Regis. According to the wikipedia page, though, 10 September is also listed. I’m not sure what the difference is between the two dates. We’ve got a local parish, here, named for him so we’ll be heading over there today to visit the parish Church, pray there, greet the pastor and get ourselves a plenary indulgence.
This visiting the local parishes on their feast days, I hope, can become a popular thing if we put our minds to it. Here in mid-June we’ve got four local feasts within a few weeks of each other: Sacred Heart, IHM, Regis, Gonzaga. If we’re not all the way to point of each parish having a blowout bash, full festival, bishop coming to say Mass, etc, for their feast, then in the meantime a reasonable way to observe the day might, at least, be to rendezvous for visit and then grab some lunch nearby.
Lunch, maybe better than dinner to mark the day since we already have the custom of meeting regularly for dinner and doing so yet again might not carry with it the sense of a particularly special significance. Lunch—or, imagine it, breakfast—on the other hand, would be a great way to mark the day. We’d have to make sure our schedules were clear and we’d take time away from the parish—even if just for a couple of hours, and we’d pray and celebrate.
Today is Regis, the next one, Monday, is Gonzaga. Key to getting these set up is the advance notice. That’s where I definitely need some help. I’m not a planner, temperamentally. I’m way better thinking on my feet, spontaneously. Planning is plodding, that’s how it feels to me anyway. Still, I can appreciate it’s value, even if only theoretically, and I do know that a decent heads-up is practically quite considerate of the other guys.
Image: Duccio, "Descent"
