Summertime

I haven't been blogging as much as I would like for a number of reasons. One is my usual schedule of talks and retreats, work in the office, and creating daily reflections for the web site and radio/YouTube. The other reason is that I'm working on a book that I was asked to write by Ave Maria Press. The subject is the Sacred Heart and so this project is a labor of love, but there are some pressures because it is due September 1.

While I'm holding down the fort somewhat in Milwaukee, my assistant for youth and young adult ministry, Fr. Phil Hurley, is on the road with the Jesuit Mission Band. He has pulled together a new group of young Jesuit priests and seminarians and they are going to five cities on the East Coast before going to Madrid for World Youth Day in August. They've been to Washington and Philadelphia already and photos from those events can be found on our Facebook page.

Tomorrow, after getting some regular maintenance done on the car and renewing my driver's license (has it been 8 years already?!), I'm heading to the Jesuit Villa in Waupaca, Wisconsin for a few days of vacation before our July 7 board meeting in New York City. Several Jesuit friends of mine gather each year around the 4th of July holiday in order to golf at Foxfire Golf Course, just five minutes from the Villa. It's an interesting course which, because of the way I hit the ball, plays differently every time I play it. Every year I have two goals: 1) to not lose a ball in the water that is on both sides of the fairway and in front of the green on the 9th hole; 2) to not lose to Fr. Tom Gaunt, the Executive Director of the Center for Applied Research in the Apostolate and a good friend since we first met at St. Louis University in 1973, our first year of philosophy studies as young Jesuits.

Happy 4th of July Weekend!