It did clear up ...

A little.

Today's Mass was really very lovely; Bishop Conlon had an excellent sermon on "Love the Lord your God with all your heart and all your soul and all your mind" and "Love your neighbor as you love yourself" and how that fits in with the Eucharist. I was amused and pleased by the (priest?) fellow in cassock and surplice who stood off to the side, watching the congregation (and the altar servers) with an eagle eye. He was either the bishop's secretary or a master of ceremonies or some other kind of aide-de-camp, and he was very good at his job. The procession went pretty well, also; no rain! The Knights of Columbus looked very much like knights, the monstrance looked like a proper monstrance, etc. etc. We even had the Athens police blocking traffic for our little parade! I think the press was there, too ...

And although the sky was very gray, there was no wet stuff during the actual walk. The Blessed Sacrament was brought into Christ the King Church, and we were invited to have lunch or Adore the Sacred Host. I just knelt in prayer before the Host for about half an hour; out of the corner of my eye I saw the bishop himself - out of his vestments and back in clerical black and pectoral cross - kneeling in prayer, too. There were also an awful lot of priests there. The pastor of CTK was grinning from ear to ear when he saw everybody arriving, you can be sure!

I suppose you are supposed to stay very quiet during the procession - I wouldn't really know, I've never done one of these before - but I talked to my friend from the Women's Club, Rebecca, on the way. She told me that on Friday they only had 8 children show up for the Halloween party! Although I had to work that evening, I did come early to help set up. Then I had to duck out. But only 8! Ugh! And I utilized all my valuable parish hall decorating skills, too ;) Yeah, right. The part I did looked like a Court Street lush had gotten into the posters-and-streamers cabinet.

Ah, well. At least not too many kiddos had to deal with the consequences of my handiwork ;)