Returning from Vacation - Hitting the ground running!

Thursday evening I "hit the ground running" as I got back from Holiday checking in at one of the retreats for Confirmation, and then going to the Funeral Home to do prayers with the family of Domenico Vendetti.
The Funeral was Friday - and then we had our LifeTeen youth on retreat for the weekend!  That meant that there were fewer team members around for Edge and Rooted (Friday and Saturday).
It also meant Fr. Damian and I were there for confessions Saturday Evening, and the closing prayer on Sunday after noon!
We also had a wedding on Saturday afternoon, and I was preaching last Sunday.  Here is the text of the story I used: Cocoon

A Student on the way to School found a cocoon.  Brought is to his  home room - a Biology lab. Teacher put it in an unused Aquarium. Lamp installed to keep warm.
Week went by, when there appeared a small opening - on the underside of the Cocoon. Students watched as it began to began to shake. Suddenly tiny Antennae emerged, followed by head & tiny front feet. Students would go back to lab - to check check on the progress. By lunch - struggled to free listless wings, and the colours revealing it to be a monarch butterfly.
It wriggled, shook, and struggled, but now appeared stuck.
Try as it might - it couldn't - get through the small opening.
Finally one student decided to help the butterfly. He took scissors and cut off the restrictive covering - and \out plopped an insect like thing. Top Half: Butterfly- listless wings, bottom half out of cocoon large& swollen. "Butter -Piller" or "Cater-Fly" never flew.
It just crawled around dragging the listless wings and the swollen body. The next day the Biology Teacher explained that the Butterfly's struggle to get through the tiny opening in the cocoon was necessary in order to force the fluids from the swollen body
into the wings so they would be strong enough to fly.
Without the struggle - the wings never developed and the butterfly could never fly. So too with us - It is in the struggles that we develop and are given the strength to fly - like the early Christian Community.

Monday I met with the Governance Committe for St. Michael's Choir School Advisory Board, of which I am a member - and we began the process of Strategic Planning for the Choir School in light of the Archdiocese of Toronto Pastoral Plan.
Monday I learned the sad news that the North American Forum on the Catechumenate will be closing its doors in less than 2 months! This is a group that I have been a team member since 2002 - and the reason I know my group of friends we call the "Chicago 6".
Here is a good article annalizing the situation.

Monday afternoon we had another Confirmation Retreat, and Tuesday I had School Masses at Pope John Paul II - Easter Season Masses.  Yesterday was a gentle day - my 20th Anniversary of Ordination, and I spent some time with friends, and I saw part of the St. Michael's - R.F. Hall Baseball game before Mass with the CWL and the crowning of Mary !  (St. Mike's won!)

My Dad has no sympathy - I told him I have to work twice as hard the week after being on holidays!!!
Peace