Another weekend

New diocesan deacon (C)
ordained yesterday

It's Saturday again ... another Sabbat. My final 4 students begin to leave for their homes and for their ordinations as priests. Javier flew back this morning to Puerto Rico, then tomorrow Romero to India and Monday JP and Anil also to India. One generation has completed it's formation course and will be priests. In 3 months, another generation will start its own journey. The cycle continues and we the teachers see the future move ahead ... passing through our hands. This year we had a bumper crop of vocations ... 5 Salesians, 3 diocesans, 14 franciscans, 3 neocatechumenates ... as far as I can remember. On Thursday evening an italian was ordained deacon for the Jerusalem diocese. It's been a long time since a foreigner was ordained for the local Church here. I guess they need new blood. Anyway always every 3 days there's an ordination in Jerusalem. Tomorrow the 14 franciscans will be ordained in Nazareth. The poor Archbishop is exhausted ... though very happy.

Refectory at 3.30am

It's Sabbath and I've spent the last few sabbaths sleeping mostly. Exhaustion has overtaken me and Like today, my eyes are burning and red. I just needed to rest ... and Sabbath is just great. So while I still have to work in the mornings, my afternoon schedule is changed ... mainly to catch up with sleep.  Last night because of the medicines I'm taking for my infection, my throat gets very very dry so I went down to the refectory to drink water. It looked very different at 3.30am ... very quiet and empty with the cold night wind blowing through the curtains. I liked that ... it feels very summer-vacation.

Light festival will start on Thursday 27th ... and the opening of our museum will also open on that day. I won't miss both, that's for sure ... so I'll need to rest a little more in order to conserve energy for both events. Sabbath rest is just right for me.