Tuesday, January 14, 2014

brother/deacon/father

during the consecration


Dear Family and Friends,


Friday was my first mass at the Catholic school I help out at, Royalmont Academy. Until now, the kids there have known me only as “Brother” or “Deacon” Kevin, so it was fun returning under a different alibi! Almost everyone did a double take – “Hello Deacon… I mean Father, Kevin”! To be honest, I still find myself calling myself Deacon Kevin.

with the servers after mass

I had the privilege of making one of the greatest end-of-mass announcements of all time: “There will be ice cream for everyone in the cafeteria!”


Truly a wonderful day. It sure is great being a priest! (and the ice cream helps!)


God bless,
Father Kevin

Tuesday, January 7, 2014

a healthy reminder

plowing!
Dear Family and Friends,

I’m on my way back to Cincinnati from Sacred Heart Apostolic School in Rolling Prairie, Indiana. It was wonderful spending the last week there in my old stomping grounds. On Sunday, the feast of the 3 Kings, we were inundated with snow, so I had a chance to help with the plowing. Great fun!
 
baby priest sign
Then today, I thought I’d try to make it back to Cincinnati. The roads were pretty bad, and there were several jams waiting for vehicles to be cleared. I got a little impatient at one, but then was helped by the friendly-reminder-scripture-verse on the back of the truck I sat behind for half an hour: “But my life is worth nothing to me unless I use it for finishing the work assigned me by the Lord Jesus – the work of telling others the news about the wonderful grace of God.” (Acts 20:24) That’s my life in a nutshell! It inspired me to go and talk to the people waiting in the other cars – turns out that truck in front of me was full of stuntmen and their portable stunt ramp!
 
a healthy reminder
The Holy Spirit worked things out so I stopped in Indianapolis for the night, and a kind friend is putting me up. Hopefully the roads will be better tomorrow so I’ll make it for the big first mass Friday at the school!

God bless you,
Father Kevin

Thursday, January 2, 2014

at the Apostolic School

snowy and cold day at Sacred Heart Apostolic School today
Dear Family and Friends,

The last few days I’ve been here at Sacred Heart Apostolic School in Rolling Prairie, Indiana. I gave my priestly memoirs (vocation story) to the boys on the 31st, and right now I’m helping out at the annual Christmas Games, when boys from around the Midwest come here to play and compete against each other along with the students here at the school.

telling the boys the story of my calling

Tomorrow I’m celebrating one of my first masses. It’s a big feastday – the anniversary of the foundation of my congregation – so it should be a beautiful mass.

posada procession
This evening we had a “posada”, a special meal that starts with a candlelight procession through the house. The idea is to accompany Mary and Joseph as they searched for a place for the first Christmas. The procession gets rejected at several stops, but is finally welcomed into the dining room where we have a huge meal. They put on the posada in honor of all of the new priests (though I was the only one present!). It was a lot of fun, and I even got to run the Bingo game!

I would like to reimburse the school for the costs of the posada, so if anyone would like to help, I think it probably cost them $400 or so for the food (cheeseburgers and French fries and ice cream) for the 60 of us. If you’d like to help, you could make a donation online through paypal, or send one, my address is 7196 Willowood Drive, Cincinnati, OH 45241.

It sure is tiring keeping up with 60 boys, but I love it! We played capture the flag today, and though we almost all froze solid, there’s nothing like it.

May God bless you all,
Father Kevin