Christmas Update
-
December 26, 2024Carmina’s new job at St. Charles Borromeo Seminary has kept her quite busy. Coupled with some additional travel this fall (including to Rome), our ability to host volunteers and visitors was diminished a bit. Still, God was good to us (as always!). We had other opportunities to see old friends, as well as a good harvest.
The tomatoes, cucumber, and peppers flourished this year! We even had some jalapeños, good for Hank’s salsa. Surprisingly, the zucchini did not do so well, which is quite a change from the norm. We skipped the potatoes this year, but Larry is determined to bring them back next year, along with adding some raised beds.
In October, the two fiber artists headed up to Rhinebeck, N.Y. to enjoy one of the largest fiber festivals of the year, and on the way stopped by Mercurial Coffee, owned by Harry, one of Carmina’s former students. So good to see Catholic social teaching in action at Harry’s small business.
October too
k us back to the Eternal City, where Larry wrote on the Synod on Synodality taking place there. We saw old friends and made new ones, including Robert Williams, a new transitional deacon from the Diocese of Tulsa who invited us to the diaconate ordination of the North American College men at St. Peter’s. What a beautiful experience! Please pray for Robert, and all seminarians, as they prepare for Holy Orders.
We took time to pray at all our favorite spots - St. Peter's, St. Paul Outside the Walls, Sant' Andrea Della Valle, the Gesu, plus the tombs of St. Monica and St. Catherine of Siena. We always pray for people to come to know Jesus.
Move traveling for Carmina, as she gave a talk on the ecclesial vocation of the theologian in a lecture series sponsored by the McDaniel-Yoder Center for Theology of the North American Lutheran Church (NALC) in Charlotte, N.C. Beautiful ecumenical fellowship! It was also a great opportunity to visit with friends from Our Lady of Lourdes in Monroe.
Very impulsively, Larry and Carmina drove out to South Bend for the deNicola Center for Ethics and Culture annual fall conference at Notre Dame. Msgr. Michael Heintz graciously hosted us at his rectory for the weekend. He has been a strong supporter of Larry’s work. The conference enabled us to meet up with so many of our academic friends. We were especially blessed to be with fellow Catholic Worker Michael Baxter, who is now working on some interesting projects for the McGrath Institute for Church Life, including promotion of the canonization cause for Dorothy Day. 
Larry continues his podcasts and writing projects, which are flourishing. Unfortunately, his computer crashed recently and needed to be replaced. That, along with other needs and exciting projects, will be included in a fundraiser we will be launching in the New Year (stay tuned!). You were all very supportive this year and we hope you will consider helping us reach our goal again in 2025.
Know that each and every one of you are in our daily prayers. Please send us your intentions. May the birth of the Christ Child bring us all new hope in the power of God’s grace.
Merry Christmas!
