I have received what we Franciscans call my obedience. It is a letter with my new assignment, and it assigns me to St. Anthony Shrine on Arch Street in Boston.
I have been living at our retirement house in Boston while recovering from my knee surgery. The retirement house is at 103 Arch Street, and the Shrine is across the street at 100 Arch Street. Easy move.
My initial assignment there will be to work on “IT” — that is, the computers, the servers, the internal network, the web site, etc. Once this is brought under control, I plan on branching out to things such as Hispanic Ministry and other ministries at the Shrine.
As I both was born in Boston and went to Boston College, I have a natural affinity to the city. Although the winters can be cold, the city is a really nice one. The mass transit system is robust and inexpensive. The city is steeped in history. The friars have a vacation house on Cape Cod, so I have a place to where I can get away for down time. There’s a large and diverse friar community at the Shrine — some 25 friars — which seem to function well. In short, I think it will be a good assignment and am quite pleased.
As regards the knee. I now have the brace set to allow for 60 degrees of movement. This allows me to walk fairly naturally — although, I do carry a cane for the rare times when I lose my balance. I do not want to fall or tear the tendon again! In other words, the knee is still healing but progress is being made.
Thanks for sharing. Continue to take care of yourself for your recovery.
Congratulations on your new assignment!
Is it to early to ask what your ministerial job will be?
Hi Paul. Initially, it will be taking care of the computer and network and that stuff. Once that gets straightened out, I’ll like to do Hispanic ministry and maybe help out in some others.
Jim, how lucky Arch Street is to get you. I am only sorry that I will be moving to AZ in August had will not have the pleasure of working with you….as you know I have been working in the Spiritiual Direction Dept. The shrine and community are a great bunch of people very diverse but all Frnaciscans at heart. Blessings to you and your ministries.
Sounds like a great assignment!
Maybe those of us on the East Coast of the US will be seeing more of you? Wouldn’t that be nice!