September Round Up

It seems Face Book has replaced blogging for a while. Tonight I realized that it is more than three weeks since I posted a blog. "Mea culpa, mea culpa!" For those who follow my blog, please accept my apologies. I was on vacation for most of September. I spent much of my time enjoying the sights of rural Ohio and western Pennsylvania. I went to the Canfield Fair which looks much like it did when I was a teenage 4-H Club member. Now the 4-Hers sleep in other areas rather than at the Fairgrounds. In my day, we slept on cots in tents. There were bathrooms and showers a good hike away. Our tents were close to the large tents or barns that housed our horses. We didn't mind the simple arrangements. Thousands  of people would pass by our horse barns and admire our animals. Some would come to the judging areas where we rode our horses and ponies. This year there was a 4-H talent contest. Some played drums, such as my nephew,

John J M II on drum.

a talented 8th grader. Others sang. One young girl sang an acapella tune--a brave performance given the heat and the poor acoustics. Those gifted young people are signs of hope that life is to be celebrated and lived to the fullest. For folks who live in urban areas the Fair provided close-up encounters with farm animals: ducks, rabbits, pigs, cows, horses and ponies. There were lots of huge horses who competed in pulling iron wights. 

Another perk from vacation was the chance to see my great-niece Harleigh. Of course, we all think she is the smartest and the prettiest. She is a delight for her parents, grandparents, her many aunties and uncles, and for

the world at large. In our book and media center here in Alexandria, we enjoy seeing infants coming in with their proud parents. It's a pleasure to see so many infants whose parents desire that their offspring will begin  reading chapter books in no time! 

As I finished my vacation I attended the Triduum (3 day event/retreat) of the Holy Family Institute. Holy Family members are married or widowed persons. Some join as couples, others as individuals. In a future blog I will write more about them. Tonight a photo will suffice as an "appetizer." Have a blessed week. Tomorrow we begin the week with the feast of St. Jerome. Jerome was a rugged personality who was very good at languages. For that reason the Pope at the time entrusted Jerome with the task of translating the Scriptures from the many languages in which it was written: Hebrew, Greek, Aramaic and other languages in use when the Bible was compiled. We owe a debt of gratitude to Jerome whose love for Scripture gifted the world with the Bible in a sense under "one cover" in the language of the time: Latin. St. Jerome said that "ignorance of Scripture is ignorance of Christ." Jerome is pictured in art with a lion resting in front of his desk. The story goes that the lion had a sharp thorn in his paw. Jerome bravely removed the thorn and the lion became his companion in the long hours spent in translating the Holy Book. May we spend many hours praying the Scripture as Jerome did. After all, the Bible is God's letter to each of us. 

This is Durer's wood cut painting.