MEMORIAL DAY AND THE HISTORY OF WAR AND PEACE IN OUR COUNTRY..........

7:15 AM - Today's Memorial Day holiday, which has become the three day weekend that marks the unofficial start of summer, the occasion for barbeques, a jazz festival, and other fun and recreational activities with families and friends, is primarily a day of commemoration. What we today know as Memorial Day, began shortly after the conclusion of the War Between the States, the American Civil War in the 1860's. It was originally called, "Decoration Day", for it was a day on which northern, Union families decorated the graves of their loved ones who died fighting in our Civil War. Now we observe it as a national, federal holiday in memory of all the men and women who have served our nation in the military, in the causes of peace and war. Community based commemorations, parades, picnics, barbeques, and church services comprise the day in localities throughout the United States..........
3:45 PM - My Memorial Day celebration thus far has included concelebrating the 10 am Mass at St. Mary's Cemetery in South Sacramento with Msgr. Kavanagh and then visits with him to several St. Rose parishioners, inclusing two of them in the UC Davis Medical Center. One of the patients, Brad Dahlberg, is a young man in his late thirties / early forties, who I trained as an altar server at St. Rose's some thirty years ago. For the past ten years he has endured a medical challenge caused by a brain tumor and unfortunately he is struggling with it again. Msgr. Kavanagh and I visited with him and his mother and father, Irene and Ted, and one of Brad's longtime friends, and celebrated the Anointing of the Sick with him. The Dahlbergs are a family I got to know well in my lay ministry and seminary years, as they are faithful St. Rose's parishioners, and among other activities we manned the parish fireworks booth together for a number of years. This evening I will be attending the Jubilarian Dinner with Msgr. Kavanagh and the other priests of the Sacramento as we pay tribute to the priests who are celebrating 25, 40, and 50, 60 years, of priestly ministry this year...........The Jubilarians being honored tonighthave served the Saceramento Diocese as priests for a combined 645 years..........Thank You to the for their milestone years in the Priesthood of Jesus Christ serving the People of God that are the Church of Sacramento. With 3 new priests ordained for service in these 20 counties of our Diocese, may they over the next 60 years follow the faithful example of the 2010 Jubilarians !!!!!!!!!!..........As We Pray And Work For Many More Native Vocations From And For The Sacramento Diocese, Fr. Troy