THE TRUE JOY OF A BROTHERLY FRIENDSHIP FOR LIFE.........

I am greatly blessed to have several dear and close friends. They are friendships forged over 20, 30, 40, or more years that have remained central in my life. Near the very top of all of these truly special interpersonal relationships is my 27 year fraternal friendship with my seminary classmate and brother priest, Reverend Father Oliver Desmond Maher. Earlier today I received a very gracious e-mail from Oliver celebrating the 27th anniversary of the day we met, September 13, 1982, the day we began at St. Kieran's Seminary. About two and a half hours ago, he called me and we discussed this and many things, including his 9 day visit here in Phoenix to me, starting next Monday night. For the third time in the past seven years, Oliver is making an extra speccial, medical visit to see me and help with my post transplant caregiving. That is the friend and brother he has been to me almost from the beginning. Yet, on the day we first encountered each other, he thought to himself, "This Yank, in the bold green with gold letters, Lambda Chi Alpha Fraternity jersey and brown, plaid, pants", was in the Irish term, a "daft" loud mouth, as he looked through his upstairs window down on me in the yard, introducing myself, " Hello, I am Troy David Powers, Sacramento California !", to the other "lads" (seminarians) I was meeting.
At that moment he rued the possibility of being stuck with me in St. Kieran's for the proceeding six years...The next day we first year seminarians were whisked off to the Peace in Christ Diocese of Ossory Retreat House, for three days of orientation and faculty introductions. And over those three days something almost magical happened as we came to really get to know one another and we bonded. From our return to St. Kieran's to start our classes that Friday - until this moment of time, we have become and remain, the closest of friends and brothers. Father Oliver describes these 27 years as a, "wow", we have and continue to experience. I am now and forever grateful to him for being such a friend and brother to me. I can only hope and pray that I reciprocate his magnanimity and presence to me. The new set of memories we will make to add to our great treasury of memories made already, for the nine days Fr. Oliver is here next week wets my anticipation for seeing him and sharing this portion of my life's journey with him. As I complete this blog column, Mary Hopkins, a Presentation parishioner in Sacramento, just called me to me inform me of fellow parishioner, Angie Pugliese's death at age 89. Mary has led prayers for me at Presentation for the past seven years, five years before she met me personally, that being the faithful and caring woman of prayer she is.........Love, Prayers, + Gratitude, Fr. Troy