My four weeks in Australia were a wonderful experience, b= ut I’m happy to be home and thankful to you for your prayers. I attended the meeting of Societas Liturgica, which gathered about 200 people in the field of liturgy from 30 nations. The theme was the liturgical year,= which feels so different south of the equator where Christmas comes at the beginn= ing of summer and Easter marks the start of fall. Temperatures were in the low 40s m= ost of August; I started my trip in Tasmania, which isn’t that far from Antarctica. Several Australian dioceses asked me to speak on a variety of topics, such as the catechumenate and the forthcoming new English translation of the mass. I also got to visit a number of fr= iends, to eat some good food, and to meet some new people. Australia is about the size of the= US, but all that land is divided into 7 states; I set foot in 5 of them.

On the West coast I visited Gosnells= , where I was warmly greeted by the principal, staff, and children of St. Mun= chin Catholic School. Gosnells is 13 time zones ahead of us, so it’s = about as far away from here as you can get without going to the moon. As happened in Cameron many years = ago, visitors from Limerick, Ireland, established a parish named St. Munchin. Recently the members built a new c= hurch nearby, which they renamed Blessed Sacrament; the grade = school is still called St. Munchin. = An older woman there told me her parents had been married at the old St. Munch= in Church in Gosnells. Another woman remembers a St. Munc= hin Church in Brisbane, on the East coast of Australia. But nobody knew of a presently act= ive church there with the same name as ours.&n= bsp; I brought photographs of our kids for their kids to have. I also gave the school the DVD of = our recent construction and a cross made from the old maple tree in front of the churc= h; that will hang in the main office of St. Munchin Catholic School. Their kids are performing a play n= ext weekend; we have a poster of it over in St. Rita’s. They gave me some souvenirs, as we= ll as a shirt and a jersey with the school logo and the words “St. Munchin Staff.”

After the long flight home I was hoping for a long first = night in bed, but my sleep was interrupted when an intruder broke the glass in the back door of the rectory. It = was not the welcome home I was expecting. The Cameron police department responded promptly and professionally; they have a suspect in custody.

I am always taken aback by the service I get at home and = the hospitality I receive on the road. It is = not always convenient having guests; you have to feed them, clean up after them= , and take them places; give them your time, laugh at their jokes, and take care = of their many needs. It’s = not easy. In today’s gospel, there’s a little example of hospitality, but an important one. Before Jesus cures two ailments in= one man, Mark tells us this detail: “people brought to him a deaf man who= had a speech impediment.” T= he man did not approach Jesus on his own; people brough= t him there. Somebody had to care e= nough about the man to be inconvenienced and help him. It is not convenient to respond du= ring the night to the needy, or to host a traveler, but when we do, we bring peo= ple to Christ.