Out walking the other day, I had the pleasure of witnessing something that both tickled my funny bone and darn near made my gray hair turn brown again. I spot this eight-year-old boy dressed in a red t-shirt and blue shorts tumbling down a hill as his mom watched and yelled encouragement. The little guy is going fast. All I can see is this blur of red and blue. All I can hear is a child’s laughter and a mom’s applause. What a moment! I stopped long enough to watch him dust off his pants and do a repeat performance and then follow with an encore tumble.

After breakfast the phone rang. It was my wife Marie. She had left earlier for a meeting, but after her meeting had a fender bender. No one was injured, but understandably unnerved she was waiting for the police. She had promised Susan my daughter in law to baby-sit three of our grandchildren so she could teach her college class. It was late. Would I alert Susan and go to Silver Creek and baby-sit? I said, No problem, not to worry. Glad she wasnt hurt. Id take care of it. Little did I know what was ahead.

Many years ago, my neighbors owned a basset hound with the unlikely name of Courtney. She was a wag-the-tail, people-friendly old pooch who seemed most content hanging out with kids and lying on her back getting her ample belly rubbed. With her distinctive physique (we never quite knew if she was sitting down or not) she was the kind of dog that made you smile just looking at her.

On a spring day in 1944,two seminarians chatted about ordination to the diaconate with its commitment to celibacy, scheduled for the following morning in the seminary chapel. I remarked, "For heaven's sake, John, if you can take the step, I certainly can. John's response was unnerving: "Well, Harry, I have news for you. I won't be here tomorrow. I'm out of here." I was the one who stayed, however much I questioned the rule of celibacy. I felt called to priestly ministry and trusted, perhaps naively, in the assurances of church authorities that celibacy enhanced one's spiritual life and ministry.

Karl Marx, the father of Communism wrote volumes of philosophy. The line, however, for which he is most famous is: “Religion is the opium of the people.” In 1843 when Marx made this comparison to religion, opium was a popular medicinal and recreational drug used both to relieve pain and escape reality -- much as cocaine is today. Some have misinterpreted Marx’s famous statement by implying that the bourgeois ruling classes deliberately used religion as a tool to quiet and control the workers. Marx’s meaning, however, was more complicated and nuanced.

My wife of 43 years died in January of 2005 after a long illness. During the many months preceding her death, I had diligently saved on my computer disk all of the wonderful Mirabile Dictu issues that David Gawlik produces-planning to read them when I got the time.

Just got word today that my oldest brother, Joe, was admitted to Mercy Hospital in