The side trip

I write to you this morning from Olive Branch, Mississippi. It's a nice area just a tad southeast of Memphis. And I'll have you know I drove here, all 800 miles, yesterday. I intend to drive the entire 800 miles home later today. I like driving; I don't see why so many bemoan it.

Anyways, on the way through Kentucky I got to thinking that maybe I was close to the Dominican Priory where many of the old pastors of St. Dominic, the Church I grew up in here in the D, had trained, so I thought maybe I'd check it out. The Internet being the wonderful thing it (generally) is, I pulled into a rest area and behold, Springfield, Kentucky was the next exit. The Priory itself was about thirty miles off the freeway. But I had time, so I took the side trip.

St. Rose of Lima is a beautiful little country church on a tall hillside outside of Springfield. It has an unusual octagonal tower which makes it rather unique, causing the Church to stand even higher on the hill. Behind it was a small cemetery where a few of the priests I knew are interred. Fr. Thomas Smith, he was the one who came out and shagged flies with my brother and I and me Pops that summer Sunday ages ago. Fr. Thomas Hennessey; he baptized my daughter, and in so doing gave one of the most beautiful little sermons I've heard. Father James Murray was a small, nervous preacher. But if you got him mad, well, there's a couple soon to be blogs there, good ones both. Fr. Ralph Townsend, Fr. Ballard, Fr. Sibila; it was sad but it was sublime to see such names of such folk whom I haven't seen in years on the granite markers behind the Church.

The building was open so I went inside. I lit a couple candles and said a few prayers for those deceased priests who have meant so much to me. The Dominican fathers individually and as a group have influenced me in such profound manners that I can't begin to express how grateful I am that they were a part of my life. I'm truly happy the Holy Spirit spoke to me yesterday morning. It was Him who inspired me to actually go, because I almost did not. Business, making time on the road and all that rot, you know.

But that's one of the reasons I like to drive. It can give you time to do stuff you could not otherwise do, and I have from time to time thought I would like to see that Priory.

Maybe I do have a bucket list after all. Maybe it just presents itself as things go along.