Monterrey Today

Padre Tomas sporting his Camino headgear.
Padre Tomas sporting his Camino headgear.

What a full day today. It started out with Esther giving us a tour of Cannery Row, remember the Steinbeck novels. Yea, she used to be a professional tour guide there so we got the full meal deal. Then off to Mass with Padre Tomas at 1100. What a nice job he did. This was at the Chapel at Fort Ord. Then lunch with the Knights of Columbus.

So, our work began at 1300 with a showing of Phil’s Camino and an almost hour long question and answer session. This audience was really great and had all sorts of questions mostly of the religious kind. Annie said it well when she said that she was way more comfortable when she could talk to an audience where she could mention God. I am with her on that and she drove home the point with the folks there how important it was for my success that I had not only assembled a great medical support team but also a great spiritual support team as well. True true.

It was such a great day to be with the Padre today not only to see him serve Mass but also to receive some of the Church’s major blessings. Of course Mass includes participating in the Eucharist which was may first Sacrament of the day. Then in the privacy of Padre’s office I had the privilege of participating in the second Sacrament by receiving Reconciliation which used to be called Confession. And if that wasn’t enough Father Tom Anointed me with Oil at the end of the QandA me being held up by one of the parishioners on one side and a major Caminohead Dave on the other just in case I swooned. It will be a very memorable day for Felipe.

A funny thing happened after we left the church that is worth relating. Since we couldn’t sell anything at the church due to federal government regulations we met with all the folks that wanted to purchase the new DVD and other gear down the road off of the property. There was a big empty parking lot next to an abandoned burger joint that we pulled into. We were selling stuff out of the truck of the rental car with all these buyers coming and going. It looked like some kind of big drug deal going down. We were all laughing waiting to be surrounded by the local cops. But in the end we escaped with the money and were on our way down the highway to Berkeley.

After an hour and a half drive we got to the Jesuit housing and got settled in before meeting Catalina and her family for dinner. They treated us to a hearty Mexican feed and we played with Electra their three year old daughter and hammered out the details for tomorrow’s work. And that is being with Catalina’s class on Pilgrimage Art that she teaches at the Jesuit School of Theology.

Pretty darn heady day and I at this very moment am exhausted. And on top of that the Seahawks are winning with a few minutes to go. OK, enough, time to curl up with my fat book. Thanks so much for being here with us, love, Felipe and company.