We are rounding the clubhouse turn. We are opening up our stance. We can see the finish line growing closer and closer with every gallop along the way. Welcome to Palm Sunday!

What is mission? How does the adventure of working for the good of people and perhaps making some converts in a minority-Christian country play out in the Apostolic Prefecture of Battambang, the second city of Buddhist Cambodia?

Being shepherded through the silent majesty of the Last Frontier made me think of our personal journeys with the Lord. In many ways, we are the lead husky. We each have a pack in tow … who rely on our steadfastness and decision-making.

“Before the bishop blesses the people, I ask that you would pray to the Lord to bless me — the prayer of the people for their bishop.”

The bishop’s vocation retreat is a wonderful opportunity to bond with others and find your vocation. I have been on this retreat three times now, and each experience has been amazing.

At a recent meeting at the Vatican, Pope Francis praised the social aspects of bocce and emphasized that, unlike other sports dominated by billionaire stars, bocce allows “normal people” to excel. “It is a sport that I associate
with a certain type of sociality, of social friendship,” he said.

I had my throat blessed on Feb. 2. I’ll have ashes placed on my forehead on March 5 — both are sacramentals I first learned about at St. Raymond school in East Rockaway, which was then a part of the Diocese of Brooklyn. Sacramentals are usually religious symbols.

Frassati Missions, a volunteer run non-profit dedicated to serving the poor and vulnerable through short-term international and domestic missions, has visited and served the area of Annotto Bay, Jamaica, for seven years. This is our eighth mission trip. Each mission, we tell the new missionaries that it’s not strangers that we will meet. We’re visiting friends.

Feb. 18 is the feast of Blessed Fra Angelico, a Dominican friar and painter of the early Italian Renaissance. When Pope John Paul II beatified him in 1982, he was asked about Fra Angelico’s miracles; he pointed to his paintings, and said, “These are his miracles.”

In these past few weeks, I, like so many others, saw the first snowfall of winter. Since the weather is a perennially popular topic for small talk, it did not take long to realize snowfall receives very different receptions from all those on whom it falls.