Catholic Ragemonkey

Wal-Mart Ground Zero
Well, some time ago a comment left by a Suzanne indicated some news in my life. I chose to not give attention to the comment because it was not time for me to blog about the news, since I wanted first to inform my parish staff and then the parish at large. Things were being kept under wraps nicely until Fr. Tharp, in a tactless move, posted a blog about some news I had to share, all but saying the matter of the news. Again, I had not yet had the opportunity to announce things in my parishes ... until now.

I learned late last week from the Archbishop that effective August 23, I will be the new Pastor of Sts. Peter & Paul Church in Kingfisher and the mission church of St. Rose of Lima in Watonga. So, I will be moving in the coming weeks to being new pastoral work elsewhere. Moving is always a mixed bag for me. I don't say goodbye well (read: it does a number on me emotionally) and I get rather anxious just about packing for vacation, all the more when it is packing up my life and moving to a new location. There is sadness at departing people I have come to know here; there is excitement about the new work to come. And there is plenty of anxiety about the time of transition. None of this should be taken as a reflection on either my current parishes or the parishes to come; it simply what I experience when being told I will be moving irrespective of the good things that have been and the good things that will, no doubt, be.

So, keep me in prayer, please. I don't like packing or saying goodbye, but a hefty dose of that will be occupying my life in the coming weeks. With all of that said, I look forward to my new assignment and to eventually getting to know the new parish, and to settling in to the new place for however long I am given.

God bless you all! Oh, the title of the post is because Kingfisher, Oklahoma, is the birthplace of Sam Walton, the founder of Wal-Mart. You would think that would guarantee the town a Super Center, but not yet. I will have to see what I can do about that!