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๐—ก๐—ฎ๐˜ƒ๐—ถ๐—ด๐—ฎ๐˜๐—ถ๐—ป๐—ด ๐—›๐—ผ๐—น๐—ถ๐—ฑ๐—ฎ๐˜† ๐—š๐—ฟ๐—ถ๐—ฒ๐—ณ: ๐—Ÿ๐—ผ๐˜ƒ๐—ถ๐—ป๐—ด ๐—ง๐—ต๐—ผ๐˜€๐—ฒ ๐—ช๐—ฒ’๐˜ƒ๐—ฒ ๐—Ÿ๐—ผ๐˜€๐˜ ๐—ฎ๐—ป๐—ฑ ๐—ง๐—ต๐—ผ๐˜€๐—ฒ ๐—ช๐—ต๐—ผ ๐—™๐—ฒ๐—ฒ๐—น ๐—™๐—ฎ๐—ฟ ๐—”๐˜„๐—ฎ๐˜†

โ€œ๐˜ผ๐™ฃ๐™™ ๐™จ๐™ค, ๐™ž๐™ฉ ๐™ž๐™จ ๐™ฉ๐™๐™ค๐™จ๐™š ๐™ฌ๐™š ๐™ก๐™ž๐™ซ๐™š ๐™ฌ๐™ž๐™ฉ๐™ ๐™–๐™ฃ๐™™ ๐™จ๐™๐™ค๐™ช๐™ก๐™™ ๐™ ๐™ฃ๐™ค๐™ฌ ๐™ฌ๐™๐™ค ๐™š๐™ก๐™ช๐™™๐™š ๐™ช๐™จ. ๐˜ฝ๐™ช๐™ฉ ๐™ฌ๐™š ๐™˜๐™–๐™ฃ ๐™จ๐™ฉ๐™ž๐™ก๐™ก ๐™ก๐™ค๐™ซ๐™š ๐™ฉ๐™๐™š๐™ข. ๐™’๐™š ๐™˜๐™–๐™ฃ ๐™ก๐™ค๐™ซ๐™š ๐™˜๐™ค๐™ข๐™ฅ๐™ก๐™š๐™ฉ๐™š๐™ก๐™ฎ ๐™ฌ๐™ž๐™ฉ๐™๐™ค๐™ช๐™ฉ ๐™˜๐™ค๐™ข๐™ฅ๐™ก๐™š๐™ฉ๐™š ๐™ช๐™ฃ๐™™๐™š๐™ง๐™จ๐™ฉ๐™–๐™ฃ๐™™๐™ž๐™ฃ๐™œ.โ€ ๐™๐™š๐™ซ๐™š๐™ง๐™š๐™ฃ๐™™ ๐™…๐™ค๐™๐™ฃ ๐™ˆ๐™–๐™˜๐™ก๐™š๐™–๐™ฃ ๐™ž๐™ฃ ๐™ฉ๐™๐™š ๐™ข๐™ค๐™ซ๐™ž๐™š, ๐˜ผ ๐™๐™ž๐™ซ๐™š๐™ง ๐™๐™ช๐™ฃ๐™จ ๐™๐™๐™ง๐™ค๐™ช๐™œ๐™ ๐™„๐™ฉ (๐Ÿญ๐Ÿต๐Ÿต๐Ÿฎ), ๐™ง๐™š๐™›๐™ก๐™š๐™˜๐™ฉ๐™ž๐™ฃ๐™œ ๐™ค๐™ฃ ๐™๐™ž๐™จ ๐™จ๐™ค๐™ฃโ€™๐™จ ๐™ฉ๐™ง๐™–๐™œ๐™ž๐™˜ ๐™™๐™š๐™–๐™ฉ๐™ Holidays can be an especially tender and painful time for …

๐‘๐ž๐ฆ๐ž๐ฆ๐›๐ž๐ซ๐ข๐ง๐  ๐Ž๐ฎ๐ซ ๐„๐ฆ๐ฉ๐ญ๐ฒ ๐‚๐ก๐š๐ข๐ซ๐ฌ ๐š๐ญ ๐“๐ก๐š๐ง๐ค๐ฌ๐ ๐ข๐ฏ๐ข๐ง๐ 

โ€œ๐‘บ๐’ ๐’๐’๐’๐’ˆ ๐’‚๐’” ๐’˜๐’† ๐’๐’Š๐’—๐’†, ๐’•๐’‰๐’†๐’š ๐’•๐’๐’ ๐’”๐’‰๐’‚๐’๐’ ๐’๐’Š๐’—๐’†, ๐’‡๐’๐’“ ๐’•๐’‰๐’†๐’š ๐’‚๐’“๐’† ๐’๐’๐’˜ ๐’‚ ๐’‘๐’‚๐’“๐’• ๐’๐’‡ ๐’–๐’”, ๐’‚๐’” ๐’˜๐’† ๐’“๐’†๐’Ž๐’†๐’Ž๐’ƒ๐’†๐’“ ๐’•๐’‰๐’†๐’Ž.โ€, ๐‘ญ๐’“๐’๐’Ž ๐’•๐’‰๐’† ๐‘ฑ๐’†๐’˜๐’Š๐’”๐’‰ ๐‘ท๐’“๐’‚๐’š๐’†๐’“, โ€œ๐‘จ ๐‘ณ๐’Š๐’•๐’‚๐’๐’š ๐’๐’‡ ๐‘น๐’†๐’Ž๐’†๐’Ž๐’ƒ๐’“๐’‚๐’๐’„๐’†: ๐‘พ๐’† ๐‘น๐’†๐’Ž๐’†๐’Ž๐’ƒ๐’†๐’“ ๐‘ป๐’‰๐’†๐’Žโ€, ๐’ƒ๐’š ๐‘น๐’‚๐’ƒ๐’ƒ๐’Š ๐‘บ๐’š๐’๐’—๐’‚๐’ ๐‘ฒ๐’‚๐’Ž๐’†๐’๐’” ๐’‚๐’๐’… ๐‘น๐’‚๐’ƒ๐’ƒ๐’Š ๐‘ฑ๐’‚๐’„๐’Œ ๐‘น๐’Š๐’†๐’Ž๐’†๐’“ (๐Ÿ๐Ÿ—๐Ÿ–๐Ÿ–) As Thanksgiving approaches, I find myself spending more time reflecting on the growing number …

๐—™๐—ถ๐—ป๐—ฑ๐—ถ๐—ป๐—ด ๐—ง๐—ต๐—ผ๐˜€๐—ฒ “๐—ง๐—ต๐—ถ๐—ป ๐—ฃ๐—น๐—ฎ๐—ฐ๐—ฒ๐˜€” ๐—ผ๐—ป ๐—ฎ ๐—›๐—ถ๐—ธ๐—ฒ ๐˜„๐—ถ๐˜๐—ต ๐—ฅ๐—ถ๐—น๐—ฒ๐˜†

โ€œ๐™Š๐™ช๐™ง ๐™ฌ๐™๐™ค๐™ก๐™š ๐™ก๐™ž๐™›๐™š ๐™ž๐™จ ๐™›๐™ž๐™ก๐™ก๐™š๐™™ ๐™ฌ๐™ž๐™ฉ๐™ ๐™ข๐™š๐™š๐™ฉ๐™ž๐™ฃ๐™œ๐™จ ๐™ค๐™› ๐™ƒ๐™š๐™–๐™ซ๐™š๐™ฃ ๐™–๐™ฃ๐™™ ๐™€๐™–๐™ง๐™ฉ๐™โ€ฆ ๐™’๐™š ๐™ข๐™–๐™ฎ ๐™ž๐™œ๐™ฃ๐™ค๐™ง๐™š, ๐™—๐™ช๐™ฉ ๐™ฌ๐™š ๐™˜๐™–๐™ฃ ๐™ฃ๐™ค๐™ฌ๐™๐™š๐™ง๐™š ๐™š๐™ซ๐™–๐™™๐™š, ๐™ฉ๐™๐™š ๐™ฅ๐™ง๐™š๐™จ๐™š๐™ฃ๐™˜๐™š ๐™ค๐™› ๐™‚๐™ค๐™™. ๐™๐™๐™š ๐™ฌ๐™ค๐™ง๐™ก๐™™ ๐™ž๐™จ ๐™˜๐™ง๐™ค๐™ฌ๐™™๐™š๐™™ ๐™ฌ๐™ž๐™ฉ๐™ ๐™ƒ๐™ž๐™ข.โ€ ๐˜พ.๐™Ž. ๐™‡๐™š๐™ฌ๐™ž๐™จ, ๐™‡๐™š๐™ฉ๐™ฉ๐™š๐™ง๐™จ ๐™ฉ๐™ค ๐™ˆ๐™–๐™ก๐™˜๐™ค๐™ก๐™ข: ๐˜พ๐™๐™ž๐™š๐™›๐™ก๐™ฎ ๐™ค๐™ฃ ๐™‹๐™ง๐™–๐™ฎ๐™š๐™ง (๐Ÿญ๐Ÿต๐Ÿฒ๐Ÿฐ) I was supposed to be walking the Camino Portuguese these past few weeks but had to reschedule …

๐—ช๐—ฒ๐—น๐—ฐ๐—ผ๐—บ๐—ฒ ๐˜๐—ผ ๐—Ÿ๐—ผ๐—ป๐—ด ๐—•๐—ฟ๐—ฎ๐—ป๐—ฐ๐—ต: ๐—™๐—ถ๐—ป๐—ฑ๐—ถ๐—ป๐—ด ๐—š๐—ผ๐—ฑโ€™๐˜€ ๐—š๐—ฟ๐—ฎ๐—ฐ๐—ฒ ๐—ช๐—ต๐—ฒ๐—ป ๐—ฌ๐—ผ๐˜‚๐—ฟ ๐—ฃ๐—น๐—ฎ๐—ป๐˜€ ๐—–๐—ต๐—ฎ๐—ป๐—ด๐—ฒ

Last week, I was getting ready to depart for my second Camino pilgrimage โ€” the Camino Portuguรฉs โ€” by walking the so-called Central Route from Porto, Portugal to Santiago de Compostela and then on to Finisterre, Spain, a place often referred to as โ€œthe end of the worldโ€. I had spent months training for this …

๐‹๐ž๐ฌ๐ฌ๐จ๐ง๐ฌ ๐Ÿ๐ซ๐จ๐ฆ ๐Œ๐ญ. ๐–๐š๐ฌ๐ก๐ข๐ง๐ ๐ญ๐จ๐ง: ๐‚๐ฅ๐ข๐ฆ๐›๐ข๐ง๐  ๐ฐ๐ข๐ญ๐ก ๐€๐ง๐ฑ๐ข๐ž๐ญ๐ฒ ๐š๐ง๐ ๐…๐š๐ข๐ญ๐ก

๐‹๐ž๐ฌ๐ฌ๐จ๐ง๐ฌ ๐Ÿ๐ซ๐จ๐ฆ ๐Œ๐ญ. ๐–๐š๐ฌ๐ก๐ข๐ง๐ ๐ญ๐จ๐ง: ๐‚๐ฅ๐ข๐ฆ๐›๐ข๐ง๐  ๐ฐ๐ข๐ญ๐ก ๐€๐ง๐ฑ๐ข๐ž๐ญ๐ฒ ๐š๐ง๐ ๐…๐š๐ข๐ญ๐ก โ€œ๐‘ซ๐’ ๐’๐’๐’• ๐’ƒ๐’† ๐’‚๐’๐’™๐’Š๐’๐’–๐’” ๐’‚๐’ƒ๐’๐’–๐’• ๐’‚๐’๐’š๐’•๐’‰๐’Š๐’๐’ˆ, ๐’ƒ๐’–๐’• ๐’Š๐’ ๐’†๐’—๐’†๐’“๐’š ๐’”๐’Š๐’•๐’–๐’‚๐’•๐’Š๐’๐’, ๐’ƒ๐’š ๐’‘๐’“๐’‚๐’š๐’†๐’“ ๐’‚๐’๐’… ๐’‘๐’†๐’•๐’Š๐’•๐’Š๐’๐’, ๐’˜๐’Š๐’•๐’‰ ๐’•๐’‰๐’‚๐’๐’Œ๐’”๐’ˆ๐’Š๐’—๐’Š๐’๐’ˆ, ๐’‘๐’“๐’†๐’”๐’†๐’๐’• ๐’š๐’๐’–๐’“ ๐’“๐’†๐’’๐’–๐’†๐’”๐’•๐’” ๐’•๐’ ๐‘ฎ๐’๐’….โ€ (๐‘ท๐’‰๐’Š๐’๐’Š๐’‘๐’‘๐’Š๐’‚๐’๐’” ๐Ÿ’:๐Ÿ”โ€“๐Ÿ•) Last week I had the great experience of climbing Mount Washington in New Hampshire. Itโ€™s been on my bucket list and something I …

The Giving Tree and the Gift of Grandparenting

Once there was a tree….and she loved a little boy…The boy loved the tree and the tree was very happyโ€, The Giving Tree by Shel Silverstein Yesterday was Grandparents Day and an opportunity to celebrate one of the great blessings in my life: the gift of becoming โ€œPapa Bearโ€ to my four grandchildren โ€” Aurora, Redding, …

๐Œ๐จ๐ซ๐ž ๐“๐ก๐š๐ง ๐‰๐ฎ๐ฌ๐ญ ๐š ๐“๐š๐›๐ฅ๐ž: ๐ˆ๐ญโ€™๐ฌ ๐š ๐๐ฅ๐š๐œ๐ž ๐ญ๐จ ๐‡๐ž๐š๐ฅ ๐Ÿ๐ซ๐จ๐ฆ ๐‹๐จ๐ฌ๐ฌ

โ€œ๐‘ฎ๐’๐’… ๐’˜๐’Š๐’๐’ ๐’‘๐’“๐’๐’—๐’Š๐’…๐’† ๐’‡๐’๐’“ ๐’‚๐’๐’ ๐’•๐’‰๐’‚๐’• ๐’˜๐’† ๐’๐’†๐’†๐’… ๐’‰๐’†๐’“๐’† ๐’‚๐’• ๐’•๐’‰๐’† ๐’•๐’‚๐’ƒ๐’๐’† ๐’๐’‡ ๐’‘๐’๐’†๐’๐’•๐’š.โ€ ๐‘ณ๐’š๐’“๐’Š๐’„๐’” ๐’‡๐’“๐’๐’Ž ๐’•๐’‰๐’† ๐’”๐’๐’๐’ˆ ๐‘ป๐’‚๐’ƒ๐’๐’† ๐’๐’‡ ๐‘ท๐’๐’†๐’๐’•๐’š, ๐‘ซ๐’‚๐’ ๐‘บ๐’„๐’‰๐’–๐’•๐’•๐’† (๐Ÿ๐Ÿ—๐Ÿ—๐Ÿ) Can you remember the experience of sitting at the kitchen or dining room table growing up? At first glance you might say, โ€œWhatโ€™s so memorable about that oak table?โ€ After all, …

๐ˆ๐ญโ€™๐ฌ ๐๐จ๐ญ ๐‘๐ž๐š๐ฅ๐ฅ๐ฒ ๐€๐›๐จ๐ฎ๐ญ ๐ญ๐ก๐ž ๐๐ข๐ค๐ž: ๐ˆ๐ญโ€™๐ฌ ๐ญ๐ก๐ž ๐’๐ฉ๐ข๐ซ๐ข๐ญ๐ฎ๐š๐ฅ ๐„๐ฑ๐ฉ๐ž๐ซ๐ข๐ž๐ง๐œ๐ž ๐€๐ฅ๐จ๐ง๐  ๐ญ๐ก๐ž ๐–๐š๐ฒ

โ€œ๐‘ด๐’‚๐’š๐’ƒ๐’† ๐’•๐’‰๐’† ๐’‹๐’๐’–๐’“๐’๐’†๐’š ๐’Š๐’”๐’โ€™๐’• ๐’”๐’ ๐’Ž๐’–๐’„๐’‰ ๐’‚๐’ƒ๐’๐’–๐’• ๐’ƒ๐’†๐’„๐’๐’Ž๐’Š๐’๐’ˆ ๐’‚๐’๐’š๐’•๐’‰๐’Š๐’๐’ˆ. ๐‘ด๐’‚๐’š๐’ƒ๐’† ๐’Š๐’•โ€™๐’” ๐’‚๐’ƒ๐’๐’–๐’• ๐’–๐’-๐’ƒ๐’†๐’„๐’๐’Ž๐’Š๐’๐’ˆ ๐’†๐’—๐’†๐’“๐’š๐’•๐’‰๐’Š๐’๐’ˆ ๐’•๐’‰๐’‚๐’• ๐’Š๐’”๐’โ€™๐’• ๐’“๐’†๐’‚๐’๐’๐’š ๐’š๐’๐’–, ๐’”๐’ ๐’š๐’๐’– ๐’„๐’‚๐’ ๐’ƒ๐’† ๐’˜๐’‰๐’ ๐’š๐’๐’– ๐’˜๐’†๐’“๐’† ๐’Ž๐’†๐’‚๐’๐’• ๐’•๐’ ๐’ƒ๐’† ๐’Š๐’ ๐’•๐’‰๐’† ๐’‡๐’Š๐’“๐’”๐’• ๐’‘๐’๐’‚๐’„๐’†.โ€ ๐‘ท๐’‚๐’–๐’๐’ ๐‘ช๐’๐’†๐’๐’‰๐’, ๐’‚๐’–๐’•๐’‰๐’๐’“ ๐’๐’‡ ๐‘ป๐’‰๐’† ๐‘จ๐’๐’„๐’‰๐’†๐’Ž๐’Š๐’”๐’• ๐’‚๐’๐’… ๐‘ป๐’‰๐’† ๐‘ท๐’Š๐’๐’ˆ๐’“๐’Š๐’Ž๐’‚๐’ˆ๐’† One of the joys of living here at the Jersey Shore is heading out …

๐ˆ ๐“๐ก๐ข๐ง๐ค ๐˜๐จ๐ฎ’๐ ๐›๐ž ๐†๐จ๐จ๐ ๐š๐ญ ๐“๐ก๐š๐ญ: ๐‚๐ž๐ฅ๐ž๐›๐ซ๐š๐ญ๐ข๐ง๐  ๐ญ๐ก๐ž ๐๐ž๐จ๐ฉ๐ฅ๐ž ๐–๐ก๐จ ๐๐ฅ๐š๐ง๐ญ ๐Ž๐ฎ๐ซ ๐’๐ž๐ž๐๐ฌ ๐จ๐Ÿ ๐‚๐ก๐š๐ง๐ ๐ž

“๐™Ž๐™ฅ๐™š๐™–๐™  ๐™‡๐™ค๐™ง๐™™, ๐™›๐™ค๐™ง ๐™ฎ๐™ค๐™ช๐™ง ๐™จ๐™š๐™ง๐™ซ๐™–๐™ฃ๐™ฉ ๐™ž๐™จ ๐™ก๐™ž๐™จ๐™ฉ๐™š๐™ฃ๐™ž๐™ฃ๐™œ.” ๐Ÿญ ๐—ฆ๐—ฎ๐—บ๐˜‚๐—ฒ๐—น ๐Ÿฏ:๐Ÿญ๐Ÿฌ This past weekend, I was deeply humbled and grateful to be honored by St. Catharineโ€“St. Margaret Parish in Spring Lake, NJ, for my contributions as Trustee, Pastoral Council President, Finance Council member, and for leading our Bereavement Ministry. In reflecting on this chapter of my …