"Priceless."

Today is a happy day, warranting notice. This morning I was officially initiated into the Ministry of Lector. It’s an old tradition, dating back from the day when you had to have some sort of Minor Orders to set foot inside the sanctuary. Today, it is much looser and most anyone who can read is asked to serve as a lector. But here at seminary we can afford being archaic and formal about these things.

“Receive this book of the Scripture. Study and proclaim the word of God faithfully so that it may grow strong in the hearts of his people.” (approx. quote. I’m going from my memory though.) These are the words that bishop Grohman pronounced as I accepted this ministry. It was a beautiful mass with lots of music and all of us in our cassocks and roman collars. Most significantly this is a milestone, a checkpoint, or a planned layover. Something to prove that I’m getting closer, nearing the goal. Even when you’re a long way off, it is nice to know that you’re still making some progress.

Mom, Aunt Theresa, and the Grandparents were here last night and today, principally for the mass. But we also got out on the town, pick up a meal and visit the Galleria, the big mall here in Houston. It struck me, as we were walking past the dozens of stores in the Galleria, that our American malls function largely the same as the public squares or market districts in old European towns. Shops with big windows all crammed with merchandise, a prominent place for creative architecture and fountains, a fusion of smells and sounds coming from each food vendor and a hundred speakers all playing different music, a thousand shoppers dressed in more colors, shapes, textures, combinations, and styles than a rainforest thick with flowers. Being more of a utilitarian shopper myself, I hadn’t noticed (till today) all the aesthetic effect that such shopping centers maintain.

Today has really been rich in aesthetic experiences: mass with the bishop, malling with the family, and today’s annual guy-ritual: Superbowl! Superbowl may in fact be the biggest non-liturgical social event here at St. Mary’s seminary. I, for one, do not care for professional football. But I stopped in for a beer and some nachos, and to laugh at the people laughing at the Superbowl commercials (the commercials were quite humorous. But watching a room full of buzzed seminarians and clergy laughing at them: Priceless. Some joys the laity will never really experience.)

To top it all of, this week the weather has turned into an early spring. Just step out into the sunshine and you can smell in the fresh breeze that things are growing again. I have a sneaking suspicion that it won’t last, and it will be colder again before it gets warmer. It is still only February.