{"id":234,"date":"2025-08-02T10:41:51","date_gmt":"2025-08-02T15:41:51","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.trask.co\/wordpress\/?page_id=234"},"modified":"2025-08-02T10:42:13","modified_gmt":"2025-08-02T15:42:13","slug":"are-you-excited","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/www.trask.co\/wordpress\/videos\/are-you-excited\/","title":{"rendered":"Are you excited?"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>A rather frequent question asked of me since I first announced my sabbatical last May is <em>\u201cAre you getting excited?\u201d<\/em> Most are surprised by my answer \u2013 but find that they completely understand my rationale.<\/p>\n<p>I equated the time between May and September to be a lot like the last semester of one\u2019s academic career (which is often about four months).\u00a0 Should one contract a serious case of <em>senioritus <\/em>early in that final semester, it\u2019s quite possible that they\u2019ll do poorly in classes \u2013 and, perhaps, fall short of the requisite credits to graduate.\u00a0 But, if one remains focused on ones studies throughout that final semester, the celebration at its completion is well-earned and deserved.<\/p>\n<p>While the above analogy limps, it does convey the point that I\u2019ve found it vitally important to remain focused on ministry to, and the needs of, the people of OLG.\u00a0 Since May I\u2019ve been whittling away at a lengthy \u201cto-do\u201d list \u2026 preparing for things that will take place while I\u2019m on sabbatical.\u00a0 One of the biggest tasks over the last several months was preparing a <em>Book of Continuity <\/em>for Fr. Karg.\u00a0 In that book I tried to document for Fr. Karg some many of the things, in addition to priestly responsibilities, that would be helpful for him to know \u2026 including<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>How do you restart the air-conditioner\/heat after the power has gone out?<\/li>\n<li>What are the steps to silencing and resetting the fire alarm, once a pull-station has been activated?<\/li>\n<li>When it comes to setting up for Mass, how many hosts do we set out for each Mass?\u00a0 What are the procedures for Extraordinary Ministers of Holy Communion (both those distributing Eucharist at Mass and those bringing Eucharist to the homebound)?<\/li>\n<li>What are the particulars about the annual October <em>Anointing of the Sick <\/em>Masses \u2013 and the annual <em>All Souls Day <\/em>Mass for those who\u2019ve been buried from the parish over the last two years?<\/li>\n<li>What are the OLG procedures for scheduling a funeral, wedding, or baptism?<\/li>\n<li>Where are the extra keys kept, how do I track who has what key (yes, they\u2019re all assigned by key-code and serial number), and how to determine which key works what door?<\/li>\n<li>Issues of finances \u2013 including a detail of all our parish accounts<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>When I gave the book to Fr. Karg, I think he was a bit overwhelmed.\u00a0\u00a0 I assured him it was intended to be an <em>indexed resource <\/em>rather than something he needed to read and study.\u00a0 That being said, I\u2019m sure I\u2019ve omitted many things that should have been included \u2013 but that\u2019s where the staff and you the parishioner come into play.\u00a0 I have every confidence that you will all \u201cchip in\u201d to help Fr. Karg during the three months that I\u2019ll be studying abroad.<\/p>\n<p>Now that I\u2019m down to a bit less than three-weeks until my departure, <em>\u201cYES, I am getting excited!\u201d <\/em>With most of the parish needs tended to, I have a lot of personal stuff to accomplish before my 6pm Labor Day flight.\u00a0 In addition to some serious packing (twelve weeks worth of stuff into one-or-two 50-pound-or-less suitcases could be a challenge) I\u2019ll be trying to tie up any loose ends.\u00a0 Your understanding is appreciated if I\u2019m not able to fit in that \u201clast minute appointment\u201d or return a phone call<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>A rather frequent question asked of me since I first announced my sabbatical last May is \u201cAre you getting excited?\u201d Most are surprised by my answer \u2013 but find that they completely understand my rationale. I equated the time between May and September to be a lot like the last semester of one\u2019s academic career [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"parent":68,"menu_order":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"footnotes":""},"class_list":["post-234","page","type-page","status-publish","hentry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.trask.co\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/234","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.trask.co\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.trask.co\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/page"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.trask.co\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.trask.co\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=234"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.trask.co\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/234\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":235,"href":"https:\/\/www.trask.co\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/234\/revisions\/235"}],"up":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.trask.co\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/68"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.trask.co\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=234"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}