Continued Appreciation for St. Brendan Parish Community and Experience
Greetings from Sausalito!! As I began my new assignment, I have renewed and improved appreciation for every aspect of my St. Brendan's Assignment experience. On my very first day, I called Fr. Dan and asked if he would mind dropping by so that I could reflect upon initial impressions with him. I missed my buddy and mentor!!!
Fr. Dan came right away, and I will be always grateful for that act of generosity.
As you might expect, it is a much smaller parish , serving 425 families with about 180 attendance at the weekend Masses. As with St. Brendan's, the people are the finest aspect of the assignment. Some people from St. Brendan's have been a surprising and welcome sight at Masses so far. I have yet to take up residence in the rectory, owing to my allergy of pet dander and the late July reassignment of the retired priest’s two dogs. Fr. Parenti left with his dog, Dante, on 6/30/2013.
Since it is a smaller parish there are fewer office staff and I confess to missing Flora and Michelle who knew my peculiarities and are such a well-functioning administrative effort at St. Brendan's. I have been blessed by visits from teachers from the school. I expect to prepare the rectory for living by mid- August. Fr. Dan has again been most generous allowing me to stay at St. Brendan's during the BART strike, ( thereby reducing my commute to 25 minutes one-way versus 1.0- 1.75 hours from Novato during that period).
I have also finally ended the "Victory Tour" of offered dinners from generous St. Brendan parishioners and have announced that I will make a contribution to the Star of the Sea parish AAA at the rate of $5.00 per pound lost, having already contributed to St. Brendan. I could become the biggest contributor in the new parish !!!
Thanks to all who made my St. Brendan experience so wonderful and to Fr. Dan and staff who are great!
Fr. Mike, aka "“the old guy"
