I'm sorry that I haven't been able to post anything for Monday and Tuesday of this week. Both days I was over at the Catholic Center (we used to call it the Chancery) working as part of the team that is beginning to analyze the data coming in from the "prayer and listening sessions" of the synod. We're done with about half of those sessions, so some trends are starting to emerge, although the numbers attending the sessions are increasing, and the locations of the remaining sessions are closer to the center of the Twin Cities, so the results as finally in might vary somewhat from what we're seeing so far. Nevertheless, it makes sense to getting started with the work, and that's what 9 or 10 of us are doing. It is good and usefull work, but it has left me with no time to post things-- especially since there has been some "homework" to do. But we're off today (Wednesday) so I took a look at the Gospel (Mk 6: 1-6) and was surprised to see that it contains a comment from Jesus that has been quoted back to me a lot in the last few days-- "no prophet is without honor except in his native place." If course Jesus is talking about His reception at Nazareth, where things obviously do not go well and people "took offense" at Jesus. But the idea-- that folks are perceived in one way in their communities and it is hard to change that perception-- applies more broadly. So, when it was announced that the Archbishop has given me a new assignment and I will be leaving St. Richard's and going to my home parish of St. Patrick's, a lot of people mentioned this Gospel passage to me. I have loved being at St. Richard's but, as I have told people, change isn't necessarily a bad thing and I have been at St. Richard's for more than 15 years. As St. John Henry Newman said: "To live is to change, and to be perfect is to have changed often." Obviously I haven't changed often, at least in terms of my assignment, so perhaps it is time. But I do worry a bit about the "native place" problem. I might need your prayers in that regard, and certainly ask for them as I prepare to leave St. Richard's and start my new assignment. I'm planning to keep doing the blog as often as I can during February, and we'll see after that what people want me to do, and what makes sense. More to come on that, I think. But please pray for me as I go to my "native place."