So..When is St. Patrick's Day?

St. Patrick's Day, as most everybody knows, is March 17th. This year, however, that date is smack dab in the middle of Holy Week. Since Holy Week takes precidence over all other feast days in the Liturgical Calendar, St. Patrick's Day (as well as St. Joseph's Day) needed to be moved to a time outside of Holy Week. So this year, St. Patrick's day as been moved to March 14th, or the Friday before Holy Week. All the usual dispensations in heavily Irish dioceses have been removed as regards abstaining and fasting on Fridays during Lent.

Now...the question is, when will you be celebrating St. Patrick's Day this year? Most secular festivities honoring the beloved Saint's feast are going on as usual on March 17th, and the Church reiterates that only the liturgical observence of the feast has been moved. But that begs the question when will I be celebrating? I have more than half a mind to celebrate both days (why not?) but the remaining percent makes me think that I should observe March 14th in a prayful spirit of Thanksgiving in honor of the Saint that brought the light of Christ to my ancestors, and avoid the usual trappings and brohaha of the day, saving that for March 17th...so I don't know...I think it will some mixture of my better feelings and my love of a good craic!

Anyway...just so you are all aware of the effects of an early Easter, and food for thought! Oh and here is an aticle from the Ireland.com talking about the change of date.

Dia dhuit!

Qdoba

Hey everyone, after months of endless searching and countless applications....I finally have a JOB!!! I am very excited (if you can't tell already) to be working at Qdoba Mexican Grill. I just finished my first real day on the job (before I was just training...not that that wasn't work...just all the not so fun stuff). I would love to see a familiar face...so if any of you are ever around Knapp and the East Beltline (near Celebration! Cinema) in Grand Rapids, please come on over!

So what does "Qdoba" mean? Now don't go and get out those Spanish-English dictionaries! It is actually a made up word that means nothing but simple sounds Mexican! Sort of like the food there...its all inspired by traditional food South of the Border, but is created with the American palette in mind.

News one only hears out of Ireland...

I opened my Hotmail today and one of the news headlines read: "Irish cops bust beer thieves." The first thing that came to mind was "only out of Ireland" so I thought I would share some of the funnier parts...as well as a link to the Full Story.

"The Garda Siochana police force declined to specify how many kegs have been recovered following the Nov. 29 raid, when a lone man drove a truck into the brewery, hitched up a trailer loaded with 450 kegs and drove straight out through the security gate into rush-hour traffic. Guinness called it the biggest robbery in the 248-year history of the brewery."

-not very well planned...running into rush hour traffic (but then maybe they thought they were the Irish version of the Italian Job).

"The stolen trailer was loaded up with 180 kegs of Guinness stout, 180 kegs of brand Budweiser and 90 kegs of Danish brand Carlsberg."

-One wonders why they didn't just stick to taking the good beer?
-talk about a party...why didn't I get an invitation?

Ethan James Heffron

Esther holding her little brother Ethan for the first time (so cute!!!).Daddy and his little boy. My how tiny he is!
Family picture (Esther was a little upset over something).
Uncle Brendan holds Ethan...aww...so precious!
Rocking Baby Ethan while Jassica and James catch some rest.
Things are going great here at Andrews AFB. Thanksgiving dinner turned out wonderfully (I know...a bit of a pat on the back there...but I liked it). Esther loves the new baby and Ethan is such a good little boy...although he keeps his parents up more at night than his bigger sister did. Love you all see you back home soon!

Feast of All Souls

Lux Aeterna luceat eis Domine

cum Sanctis tuis in aeternum

quia pius es. Amen

May the Souls of the Faithful Departed

Through the mercy of God

Rest in Peace. Amen