I am on vacation as you read these words. If you read my column last week, you may expect me to return like Ernest. I like to have a rather frenetic vacation, with a whole lot of baseball (six games in Tampa Bay, followed by minor league games on my drive back north), and with other activities and tours in the various cities I visit. As someone once told me, “It sounds like you need a vacation from your vacation.” That’s what my second week usually ends up being. I’m not crazy about the idea of sitting around and doing nothing, but I do like to take something of a restful time.
For years I would come back from my baseball trip and spend a week or so at my father’s apartment. He and I would go out to eat each day and maybe go to a movie or go play miniature golf. I would also work on organizing the photos I took during my trip, which is a lot more fun now that all my photos are digital and kept on my hard drive. After Dad’s death in 2011, I had to find a new way to approach that second week. This year I am heading back to my alma mater, Mount St. Mary Seminary in Emmitsburg, Maryland. They always welcome alumni who want to spend some time. I can still do some interesting things; Gettysburg is very close, and it is not very far to get to Baltimore or even Washington. And the campus there is a great place just to go for a walk and spend some time in prayer. As I like to say, the seminary can be a very relaxing place when you don’t have classes, tests, papers and so forth. The nice thing is that I can go to bed each night without any specific plans on what to do the next day. I can decide at any moment what I feel like doing and can relax when the mood strikes.
Our faith teaches us that we live as part of a community, and that we should be willing to give of ourselves for others. To make that gift, though, we occasionally need to recharge our batteries. It can be a priest on vacation, or it can be a couple leaving their kids with a sitter while they go out to a fancy restaurant. But we are never completely alone. God is with us, and He never takes a vacation. For me, Emmitsburg is a very prayerful place, and a visit at this stage of vacation is a chance for me to give thanks for all that I have experienced. It is also a chance for me to remember that I am getting refreshed to serve St. Malachy Parish for another year.
So I when you see me next, I hope you won’t say, “You must have had a great vacation, Father H. You look terrible.” But I will warn you that if you see me walking around with my laptop computer, run. Otherwise I might catch you and say, “You want to see my vacation pictures?”
Father H
