Villanova Veterans

Iowa falls to Illinois in Houston, and with that, now FORTY ONE years and counting, the 1985 Villanova Wildcats are STILL, the lowest seeded team to win a National Championship. The legacy of the greatest underdog story in college basketball history continues.

I was ordained in 1998. I took a group of sophomores on retreat at a retreat center. We had a hard leave time because we needed to take the bus to get back to school before the buses left. So, it was time to pray mass and when I went to the sacristy to vest, I could not get in: a priest was in there hearing confessions from another retreat. In the end, I got a stole from my truck and explained to the students I was not able to wear vestments because of a weird situation. I told them this shouldn’t happen but I couldn’t figure out another way. During mass, the Bishop (Karl) came in to see the mass. The next day, he called and tore me a new one for 20 minutes. He was furious. I explained the situation and he told me in the future to not pray mass if I was not able to vest properly. I asked his forgiveness and learned my lesson. I say this because priests are normal people. We make mistakes and learn and grow. Somewhere out there is a picture of me praying mass in my clerics and a stole. You can post it and condemn me or rejoice that I learned something. The outrage machine is consuming people like this poster I’m replying to and it’s a tragedy. Jesus promises us that the measure we use to measure others will be measured back to us. I think of that every day.

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The look of a stadium that will be hosting a final four football game next week.