Moving On

 It has been quite awhile since I last wrote about my so called exploits. Well a few things have happened to warrant an update.
 First off as many of you know I attend mass at two parishes. One regular english (well actually it is an English/Polish parish) and the Hungarian Parish. At the Hungarian parish my wife and I did a lot of volunteering and helping out whether it was keep the church clean and ready just before mass and running the power point accompaniment to the mass to selling tickets and helping set up the hall for church functions. Well we have left that parish and the reasons were a plenty. The first and foremost reason was the politics had taken a turn for the worse and had become ugly and too open. Too open to the point where the visiting Hungarian Bishop even commented in the Hungarian Catholic News that this parish had to air out their differences and find peace to keep the parish alive. Also the Father who is young and good but also brash and at times unwise with his plans was almost regularly in his homily bring up the politics and defending himself from attacks and of course counter attacking and also because he trained in Rome he had started to assist and hold mass at one of the Italian parishes. This would be okay also if the Hungarian parish that he was responsible for was first and foremost which I thought it was not.
 In some ways it was almost as he was rubbing it in our face that he was going to help the Italians and preform mass there. many times people would be waiting for confession at out parish only to have Father running in at 11:00am to start mass as he took longer at the Italian parish.
 So basically I became fed up as my thinking was take care of your assigned parish first and then go about and do what you please but basically it was open warfare on the parish he was supposed to take care of.
 Other issues were also creeping up such as time of the mass at 11:00am by the time mass ended and we did what we thought should be done such as cleaning up the left over papers in the pews, turning of lights putting away fathers stoles etc. turning off lights and locking up well it was about 1:30 to 2:00pm when we arrived home. Usually meaning Sunday was shot. We had always yearned for an earlier mass but it never came back as truthfully numbers dwindled in the parish mainly due to many people becoming fed up.
 Lastly my father in law is sick as he suffered a heart attack and as he approaches his 80th birthday he is at best times struggling so we spend a lot of time there now on Sundays. To compensate we have joined back up at the Hungarian parish in Toronto which is about a 35-40 minute drive as opposed to the 20 we were used to but there is a mass at 9:00am in the morning. We can technically be home before 11:00 but generally spend the day with the in laws helping out etc. It has been a struggle for me internally as I loved helping out and understood the mass and what was required from me to help father do his job so I felt good after every mass that in some small way our Lord has seen that I have helped because I love God and Jesus and the church.
 It was wonderful to hear a homily that was religious and not based on responding to an attack and becoming a counter attack. At the end of the day I go to church to pray and here the readings and hear the teachings from my priest so I can forward in the world and be a better person to other people and to God.
 We are at home at the parish where we were married our kids were baptized and actually the only church I knew as a young kid. The Hungarian culture in my life is important and that I do not want to lose. That is why we have mixed in the Hungarian aspect into out religious lives.
 As for my regular parish Father Aleks is great and has been wonderful in my learning about my faith and helping me become deeper in my spirituality. Low and behold my wife now has a teaching position within our parish here which thrilled Father Aleks.
 So things are like this now. Always a new journey with God but usually as we know he has a reason for everything that happens to us and I wonder what journey awaits us now.