"I Mission You Martin Thomas Cletus Mauter Connell..."

Those were the words of Fr. Tim Kesicki, SJ, my provincial, last Saturday. I wasn't the only one missioned that morning. Fr. Joe Bracken --celebrating 60 years as a Jesuit this year!-- is headed to Nairobi to teach at Hekima College, Fr. Jerome Odbert is headed to Jerusalem to take care of the temporal needs of the Jesuits at the house of the Bibilical Institute there, and Bro. Jim Boynton, who's served adimarably as our vocation director is headed to Haiti to work with refugees at the border of the Dominican Republic.

For each of us, Fr. Kesicki provided the context of our missioning in his introduction. You'll find clips of my missioning below.

Also on Saturday two Jesuits were ordained: Cy Whitaker and Martin Schreiber. 15 years ago Martin Schreiber attended my ordination! What a wonderful occasion their ordination was.

I had a chance to talk to Joe Daoust. He, of course, is the one who coined the term "caught in the crosshairs of providence," He's a wise man, and it was good to talk with him.

Today I visited my mother. Those who know me have heard a lot of accounts of my growing up as Marcella's son. Below is a picture my sister Sheila took with my iPhone. (You'll note the puzzle at the bottom of the picture -- my mother can't do a lot of what she once could, but she's a whiz at jigsaws.)