CELEBRATING MY FIRST WEEKEND AS PASTOR OF OLOL.....DPH / RL..........

Today my first Saturday as Pastor in Our Lady of Lourdes Parish, Del Paso Heights Rio Linda, I arose at 8:30 am, and had a breakfast of scrambled eggs sausages, toast, coffee, and cranberry apple juice, at my kitchen table, and then made and received several phone calls, including a mutual congratulatory / welcome home conversation with my priestly colleague and very valued friend, Reverend Father Steven Avella, another native Sacramentan, who is a Professor of History at Marquette University, and Priest of the Archdiocese of Milwaukee, who is home for the summer. After catching up with Fr. Steve on the phone, I returned to my desk to finalize preparations for Sunday Masses, particularly the General Intercessions and Pulpit Announcements. My introductory Homily as Pastor is completed and ready to be preached and is a 5-7 minute message of scriptural exegesis and application of Sunday's Readings for this 14th Sunday of Ordinary Time, and this weekend including a pastoral overview of the ministry and servant leadership I bring to the parishioners of Our Lady of Lourdes Parish, Del Paso Heights / Rio Linda, as their new and sixth Pastor......I heard Confessions at 4pm and Fr. Tony concelebrated the 5 pm Mass Mass with me after which he and I had dinner. I then went to my previous northeast Sacramento watering hole of the past several years, La Rosa Blanca Mexican Avenue on Fulton Avenue for a visit for the first time in six months with my friend and post transplant 24 /7 caregiver, Jeremy Lipp. I am especially grateful tonight for the warm welcome I am receiving from the parishioners of OLOL..........In The Peace And Prayers Of Being God's Priestly People, Fr. Troy