Alone and On My Knees' - John DeCoste

I've just finished reading this stark autobiography of John DeCoste (a.k.a 'Father John'), our Assistant Priest at St. Ignatius Parish, in Bedford.
Most of our parishioners had already come to know that he had served as a member of the 'White Fathers' -- a missionary order -- in many parts of equatorial Africa.
How could they have missed it?
In his Mass Homilies and one-on-one chats, he often relates hilarious stories of his experiences among his beloved African families.
Although we share a Cape Breton Acadian heritage (our hometowns were only 40 kilometres apart), and he has often been our guest at family suppers, my reading of his adventures revealed the astonishing breadth of his experience.

From the title chapter, to the tumultuous last chapter, this story is not for the faint-hearted!
It opens at a noisy, crowded, rickety airport hut, as Father John is trying desperately to get his four (adopted) children to accompany him on an evacuation plane.
He has to convince a group of heavily-armed guards / border officials that he has all the valid passports and travel documents.
The tense situation is ramped up all the more because two of the youth are of mixed tribal birth, Hutu and Tutsi, sworn enemies.
He is fully aware that they could all be shot dead on the spot.

Close to the Mass - 3

Presentations
I found a another way to stay 'Close to the Mass,' or perhaps ... it found me!
'St. Ignatius Mass at Ivany Place' is a weekly Saturday morning event for residents and guests, celebrated in the 'Great Room.'

Seven years ago, Parish and Ivany staff met to plan a weekly Mass for a newly-designed residence, already under construction.
We advertized for volunteers to escort residents to / from Mass, and to help with bringing Communion to individuals confined to their room.
More than a dozen parishioners answered the 'recruiting' call!
When checking the proposed site, the first floor 'Great Room,' we found it had a lecturn, p.a. system, tables, piano, plenty of space to deploy stacked chairs and place wheelchairs ... AND a ceiling-mounted projection screen.
A staff member (a divinity student who had worked in depth with all aspects of computers) was designing a TV presentation for weekend Masses in the church, so he set up a parallel Mass program for the residence.
(It gave him a chance to work out some of the glitches. Two distinct programs were required, to work on the vastly-different screen sizes.)
The experimental Apple 'Keynote' program -- of about 100 slides on a 'MacBook Air' -- was shown on the projector screen in the Centre, between the altar table on the right, lecturn on the left.
It contained all of the customary elements of the Mass, including:
-- words to all prayers needing responses,
-- words of hymns (Opening, Communion, Closing),
-- clip art for intro, Gospel text scenes, and
-- a seasonal scenic photo at end of Mass.
It looked great and was well received, so I paid close attention, asked a lot of questions