The Year of Living Covidly

In my last post, I wrote some about my work as the Director of Advancement at St. Mark's. Today, I remember why I do it.  We had Fr. William Miller, the pastor of the Heart of Peoria parishes, (the Cathedral, Sacred Heart, St. Bernard's, St. Joseph's) for a visit to the school.  Fr. William Miller, Pastor Msgr. Brian Brownsey, Principal Dr. Noreen Dillon At one time, there were seven Catholic grade schools that covered the territory of these parishes. Now, there is just St. Mark's and we consider ourselves the school for this parishes. Plus, more than a quarter of our students, most of them Hispanic, come from the Cathedral.  As part of Fr. Miller's visit, we gave him a tour of the school.  Seeing the students and the teachers, even in these COVID-restricted times, is such a boost.  The vitality of the students comes beaming out of them, not stopped by the masks.  Some of the teachers were interacting with their students both in the classroom an online....

January 4 is the Feast Day of St. Elizabeth Ann Seton, the patroness of Catholic schools and the first American born citizen to become a saint. She came from a well to do family and married a well-to-do gentleman, who died young. After this, she focused on raising their five children. She and two other women started the first free Catholic school in the United States in Maryland in 1809. You can read more about St. Elizabeth Ann Seton here. And on January 5, we celebrate the feast day of St. John Newman, an naturalized-American bishop of Philadelphia, who founded the first parochial school system. Here is some more information about his life, courtesy as above, from Faith ND,  put out by the University of Notre Dame. I mention these two great patrons of Catholic education because as the Director of Advancement at St. Mark's School, I spend a lot of time working for Catholic education, even, or especially, during this time of COVID. This is not a job that I would have predicted for ...

  If you've ever heard St. Mark's pastor Msgr. Brian Brownsey preach at Christmas time, you know that he doesn't stop celebrating early. If someone asks him on December 27 how his Christmas was, he responds, "I'm having a wonderful Christmas." The octave of Christmas goes until January 1.  As today is January 1, I will post some photos I've taken over the past several days. The church photos are of St. Mark's, which I think looks especially stunning at Christmas. Even after Christmas ends, the Christmas season goes until the Baptism of the Lord, which is on January 10 this year. Last Sunday was the Feast of the Holy Family, all part of Christmas. The day after tomorrow we will celebrate Epiphany when the Wise Men visited Jesus. Above is the window in St. Mark's depicting the scene. The Wise Men followed a star to find the newborn king. In the olden days, the Christmas season used to stretch until February 2, Candlemas, when the Presentation of the ...

Harry Hopkins and Winston Churchill This year, for the first time, I sent out a Christmas reflection. I always love getting these from others and I thought, given the restrictions on our interaction, it would be a good year to start.  Christmas 2020 Reflection   I just finished the excellent book, The Splendid and the Vile: A Saga of Churchill, Family, and Defiance During the Blitz by Erik Larson. Throughout the book, set in 1940-41, Great Britain famously displays its “Keep calm and carry on,” philosophy as Germany tries to bomb the country into surrender. But despite the British stiff upper lip, times are desperate. Thousands of people have died in the Luftwaffe air raids, and there is fear of a German invasion. The prime minister, Winston Churchill, is urgently courting President Franklin Roosevelt. He needs U.S. financial support and ultimately U.S. involvement in the war for Great Britain to have a chance. Roosevelt sends his closest advisor, Harry Hopkins, over to Engla...

Maybe in this year of COVID we should be happy for reasons beyond the days starting to get longer tomorrow that today is the winter solstice. Who wants long days during a pandemic?  But there is beauty at all times of the year, even during a pandemic. Today it was sunny and windy with the high reaching 50. The clouds were dark and wild looking. Above is White School, where my mom used to teach. I took these photos from the top of the OSF St. Francis parking deck. When I would visit my brother Jim in the hospital, I would always drive to the top of the deck because I loved the views (and the exercise walking up and down the stairs). To the far right are the double spires of St. Mary's Cathedral. A panoramic shot. I had forgotten about the Jupiter-Saturn Conjunction AKA the Christmas Star that was to be visible in the sky after sunset, but I think I got a photo of it as I traveled west on Washington St. daylight shrinking nights increasing pinnacle of darkness in the doom we shiver i...