Well, I have been remiss. This is my first blog for several months, but since it is my 81st birthday, I thought I had better get my act together and stop all the other hyper activity and sit down and update you.
I picked you, because I just can’t have a personal contact with all the 2,887 on my Gmail contact list, and regretfully I have not looked at the Hotmail and Yahoo lists for a long time (not to mention my Facebook). And I already appreciate the advance birthday greetings from so many.
Uppermost on my mind is the surgery that my dear daughter Jane (who lives with her loving husband in Pontiac, Michigan) will be having on November 12, my 81st birthday. She will be having a non malignant tumor removed. At the same time, her youngest sister, my Mary, who lives with her husband in Palm Springs, is battling breast cancer. I indeed implore your prayers for these beloved ones of mine.
You wonder what hyperactivity keeps me so busy (ain’t I supposed to be at least semi-retired?). Well the work goes on, to my great delight, in several areas.
People keep coming to me from all over the archipelago for their wedding. Sometimes the wedding is in my little chapel; sometimes locally, sometimes in a far away city or resort in Luzon, and then sometimes in Mindanao. A Holy Union is a sacrament, so I consider it and deal with it as an important ministry of the church. It is not just a simple, “I pronounce + you…” It is an opportunity to discuss many important issues related to their relationship and commitment and the expression of their love in fitting ways. Some of my protégés and seminarians are equally enthusiastic about this ministry, and preparing to let me retire in the next 20 years.
Hospital work, bereavement, and counseling never ends, and it is indeed another joy to be there when being there is important to the individual.
Prayer time, wonderful refreshing prayer time with prayer companions, especially with my prayer companion, Argel, with members of the Order of St. Aelred, prayer and spiritual reading can never be neglected. I can’t brag about it, and wish there were more.
Meetings and tutorial sessions with seminarians in St. Aelred Seminary are always looked forward to. Their enthusiasm for learning, their eagerness for ministry is a joy to participate in. Some are attending other seminaries as well, and text or email me often to share new theological or scriptural insights they have experienced.
Because of our website, copious email comes in everyday, contacts, inquiries, questions, requests for prayers and counselling. (By the way, check my new domain, below, since Yahoo suddenly closed down Geocities.)
I am proud to be an Amicus (contact member) of the Precious Blood Missionaries with whom I gratefully remember spending so many years of my formation and early religious life, and I receive all their mailings and information about their vibrant ministry in today’s world and about my contemporaries in advanced ages. [So long ago the superiors did not understand about sexuality and they, suspecting that I was gay, that mysterious “thing” in those days, suggested I go back to the world and find a lovely wife, which I did. Nowadays, that same religious society has priests assigned to LGBT ministry, not as outcasts, but as Catholic men and women deserving Catholic ministry.]
I am proud to be associated with Bishop Jim Burch, presiding bishop of the Catholic Diocese of One Spirit, (who lives in Virginia) who has a vibrant heterosexual wedding ministry (especially for people who have been shunned or refused church weddings elsewhere).
I appreciate the ministerial support and friendship of my long time friend, Fr. Paul Breton in San Bernardino, CA. He not only sends us frequent updates on LGBT news from around the world, but is my personal advisor, in his wisdom and experience, on so many matters theological and pastoral.
I try every chance I get to worship, on Sunday, with my MCC friends in Manila, Quezon City, and now a new MCC in Cavite. Praise the Lord! Maybe when I was empowered by the Almighty Spirit of God to plant the first MCC in Manila on September 7, 1991, I did not have far reaching vision yet, but today when I see what the Lord is doing through vibrant young pastors in Manila, Quezon City, Dasmariñas, Cavite, and Baguio, I praise God that more or more of God’s beloved LGBT people are basking in God’s unconditional love and growing beautifully spiritually. I even take a little (hopefully not sinful) pride in the fact that three of the four young pastors were in one way or another protégés of mine.
I indulge, when I can, in watching Larry King Live. I do indeed attend, shall I say religiously, the daily mass on EWTN (either at 9 PM here or 6 AM). I have to listen to some sex-negative stuff all too often, but the beauty of the Mass, and even the parts they offer in Latin (I spent a dozen years of my life teaching Latin, and of course, love the language), is far more wonderful than worrying about the negative stuff.
Then there is time, hopefully every day, with my faithful partner of almost eleven years, always attentive to my needs and watchful of my excesses, although he is the one who is so devoted to his professional teaching career (preparation, etc), and his commendable regularity in yoga classes at the gym, that his “time together” is often more limited than mine, but that’s a good trade for having one of the best teachers anywhere. And his dear mother who lives with us three-fourths of the time, who is always praying when she is not cooking (and maybe while she is cooking). (I give her all the credit for my oversized stomach.)
Thanks to my wonderful ten years younger than I brother, Lon (Colonel Lon), who keeps me regularly in contact with my brothers and sisters by email. By the way, thanks to all who prayed for my brother Jim (four years younger) who is recovering nicely from his recent heart attack. Please keep my sister Marilyn, with her pacemaker, in your prayers.
In addition to the wonderful email contact from my dear Jane, the coach son, Rick, also keeps me posted on his life in Michigan and the athletic prowess of his sons, John and Jake.
If I ever entertain a thought about retiring, it’s to get more writing done. When I was in the Society of the Precious Blood (59 years ago), I published a mini biographical “novel” on the life of the founder, St. Gaspar del Bufalo. Now I want to finish in my lifetime a biographical novel on Dr. Jose Rizal, our national hero, my Filipino idol. And I want to write a biographical novel on the life of our beloved patron, St. Aelred of Rievaulx. All that’s in addition to more and more sex-positive material to enhance the 200 or so pieces I have already published.
God bless, in Friendship,
Richard
Our new website and information:
Fr. Richard R. Mickley, O.S.Ae., Ph.D.
Abbot
The Order of St. Aelred
St. Aelred Friendship Society
82-D Masikap Extension
Barangay Central, Quezon City
1100 Metro Manila, Philippines
Landline: 63 2 921 8273
Mobile: 63 920 9034909
E-mail: saintaelred@gmail.com
Website: http://webspace.webring.com/people/ms/saintaelred/index.html
E-group: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/saeffriends
Fr. Richard’s personal blog: http://richardrmickley.blogspot.com
Facebook
Plaxo
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Catholic Diocese of One Spirit (CDOS), Bishop Jim Burch, website: http://www.onespiritcatholic.org
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