Sunday was what was becoming the norm – with 4 masses happening between 7.30 and 1230pm. The 0930 was really wonderful beginning with the children anticipating All Saints in a procession of Saints. Several children turned up dressed as bishops which was a bit worrying for the Pastor! His sermon was wonderful and focussed on memory. The Jews had always recalled their history and we needed to do the same. He asked me to briefly mention Fr Gerry Hughes SJ who had remarked that parents and grand-parents needed to create positive memories for children so that their default was positive rather than negative. Gerry Hughes is near death at the moment and facing cancer. He had just published another spiritual book.

The 9,30am Mass ended much later and the Pastor apologised but explained that every minute of overrun would amount to a minute reduced from time in purgatory!

The next mass was a rush to change over which was a demand on me and the choir but we got through it all OK.

I went home and had a meal at a Chinese restaurant but decided I would not go there again as I reacted to the food badly and went to bed early.

On Monday I had a day off and had arranged to meet up with the woman from whom I had bought a digital piano for home. I met her at her office which was close to my apartment and she supplied some crockery, a lamp and the power cord for the keyboard. Then I went to the beach to relax until the afternoon. I also sorted out some bills for internet, TV and mobile phone. These are so much more expensive in USA than UK and I later decided to make more of this by subscribing to Netflix.

Tuesday started early with preparing an arrangement of a song by Marty Haugen for the visit of the National Association of Pastoral Musicians. This was the first time they had ever been to St Lawrence so I was quite excited to have to design the Evening Prayer and Blessing of Musicians. By 10am I had to direct my attention to the celebration of All Souls on Sunday. Happily there was agreement with my proposals and new ideas were accepted. The rest of the day continued with further work on the Evening Prayer but also included a musicians rehearsal for a later Holy Hour of adoration by the school. After 12.5 hours I returned home for a well deserved rest and bed.