Let me once again explain how it is that we are celebrating the confirmation at St. Patrick’s Parish this Sunday afternoon. In that most parishes enjoy celebrating their members’ completion of their baptism and increasing the role of the Holy Spirit in their lives during the Easter Season … and, that as a successor to the apostles, the Bishop is the ordinary minister of the sacrament … and that there are 160 parishes in the Diocese of La Crosse, something has to give. And what’s “given” is the practice of having the bishop come to each parish individually to celebrate the sacrament. Instead, we have been asked to double, triple, and quadruple up as parishes, gathering in whatever place has a large enough church to host the event. Between St. Mary Parish in Bangor, St. Leo Parish in West Salem, and St. Mary Parish in Coon Valley, and us, we will have fifty-some confirmandi … and with family and friends in attendance, none of us has a church large enough to handle the crowd (where is one of those Acme “Inflate-O-Churches” when you need one?) so we will be moving the whole affaire to St. Patrick’s. Pray for us all on Sunday afternoon … especially the nineteen 10^th graders and four adults who will stand and say, “I am beginning to take responsibility for my faith.”

I got a couple nibbles so far from folks entertaining the possibility of forming a group with me to continue nudging the parish with concern for the environment. We haven’t yet met critical mass, however, so I am hoping a few other folks will step out and up. I know I am very vague about where all of this might go, but that’s how it is with new ventures. Let me know if you are interested. By the way, a local organization called CouleeBikes is proclaiming May 3-9 “Coulee Bike to Work Week.” In that I live where I work, I probably won’t take out my bike for that, but (barring more snow) I hope many do.

And perhaps someone has already forwarded this to you, but to bring a somewhat humorous note (and a sense of balance) when we stand before the gasoline pump, someone has calculated the per gallon price of various items. For example, Lipton Iced Tea (@ $1.19 for a 16 oz. bottle would come to $9.52 a gallon), brake fluid (@ $3.15 for 12 oz. would be $33.60 a gallon), and Pepto-Bismol (@ $3.85 for a 4 oz. bottle would be $132.20 a gallon). And you don’t even want to know what a gallon of White-Out will cost you.