Jubilate Deo

Yesterday I missed work for the first time in years for being sick. I must have eaten something bad on Thursday, because starting late that afternoon I started feeling bad and my stomach was a mess all evening, all night and much of Friday. Even Pepto-Bismol didn't do the trick.

Fortunately I was enough better today to be able to go to Holy Hill to celebrate with Steve Payne and Fred Alexander on the twenty-fifth anniversary of their ordination. Steve is in the States for just a few weeks before he heads back to Kenya, so I was grateful he was coming to Wisconsin and that I got to visit with him briefly. Steve is one of the few white Carmelite friars in Nairobi, and Fred is the only black one in Wisconsin. I also saw a bunch of Carmelites and other friends from the days when I was at the Hill. It was a nice Mass and a good time. Next weekend I hope to be there for Fred Hickey's ordination to the priesthood. He was deacon at today's Mass. When I told him he looked very diaconal, he said, "Yeah, I'm just getting the hang of it and I just have a week of it left."

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Jubilate Deo is the beginning of Psalm 100 in Latin: Make a joyful noise unto God. Diaconal means having to do with a deacon's role at Mass.