"I feel the earth move under my feet; I feel the sky tumbling down..." Carole King's lyric has certainly been the theme song for recent events ... other than your arrival on campus, that is. An earthquake and a tropical storm both announced and impeded your arrival.
The campus has seen significant changes in paving and parking. The Science Center construction is underway and, although I haven't seen them myself, I heard the food lines in Harris have been reorganized. Through all of this the celebration about the college's Centennial continues as a leitmotif.
There are messages in all this, I'm sure. Flexibility, about which we have perhaps heard too much, is really indispensible as a habit and even desirable as a character trait. Change, while it is inevitable, may be both an advantage or a disadvantage ... or even both at the same time. And there is really nothing to get you back on your feet like a good celebration.
The schedule of weekly Masses for the fall semester has been somewhat revised to accommodate the changes wrought by the delayed opening of the college. This weekend there will be no Mass on Saturday evening (September 3rd) at 5 but there will be a Mass on Sunday morning, September 4th, at 10:30 a.m. in the Harkness Chapel. I hope you will plan to attend and meet new friends and renew old friendships. I've got a great story I can't wait to tell you about two students who met at this Mass in their first year at Conn.
Beginning next Saturday, September 10th, Mass will return to its usual time 5 p.m. every Saturday during the fall semester.
Despite meteorological appearances to the contrary, it was a "fair wind" that brought you to a great place to learn and seek. Please make the Catholic Community here at Conn a resource in that enterprise. Come and invite your friends to join you for the Vigil Masses on Saturdays at 5 and for community suppers. (The first is Saturday the 17th in the Hood Dining Room in Blaustein after Mass.) Join the choir. Become a Eucharistic Minister or Lector. Catch up on the sacraments by preparing for First Communion or Confirmation. Stop by to visit me for a chat at the chapel or invite me to dinner chez Harris. It won't cost you anything but the time. Visit our website, www.conncatholics.com, for the latest on the Catholic Community's activities and events.
I look forward to getting to know you better. I hope to offer you an opportunity to get to know more about the Church and your faith as a resource to the many important choices you make every week. And I hope this will be a spectacular Centennial semester for us all.
Devotedly Yours in Christ,
Fr. Larry
