I'm Sure God is Laughing . . .

January 16, 2012 – I’m Sure God is Laughing . . .

God’s imagination and sense of humor will ALWAYS be greater than mine. One of my biggest concerns about taking this four month contract was that I would not have a guaranteed way to get to weekly mass or church services of any kind. As I have jumped into the work rhythms around here, it even seemed like the opportunity to get off at a port to attend a weekday mass might be more limited than I expected.

As Sunday dawned, I realized that the day would unfold like any other workday. Except for the NFL playoff game that was on the big screen in the crew mess as we ate our lunch, it could easily have been a Wednesday. Late in the day I began to wonder if I might be able to sneak away from my desk to attend the mass in the guest area that I saw listed on the schedule. When I approached my boss, she checked with the hotel director who said that crew was not allowed to attend with guests, if there was a separate option available for the crew. That was when I found out that the priest onboard was willing to come down at the end of the evening to offer mass for any crew interested. At 10:15pm, Dwight, our Crew Welfare Admin, came by my office to see if I would be interested in accompanying him to pick up Fr. Chris at Guest Relations and escort him down the crew area. I jumped at the chance.

Our first surprise was that there was not one, but two priest waiting for us. The second, for me, was to see them holding vestments, large candles and crucifix, Roman Missal, and a full set of sacred vessels, which we found were provisioned by the ship. We introduced ourselves to Fr. Chris and Fr. Mike, and escorted them six decks down to the room in which our mass would be held. Since the announcement had gone out so late to the crew, Dwight got on the phone to call friends on the crew to get the local grapevine started. I helped Fr. Chris and Fr. Mike setup in the process sharing that I was a Catholic Deacon. When I mentioned my interest in perhaps finding a way to offer communion services once a cruise for crew members, if I could get the permission from the Archbishop of Newark, NJ, the ‘home’ diocese of the ship, Fr. Mike stopped what he was doing and shared my next surprise of the night . . .

Fr. Mike Andraede is the secretary for the Archbishop of Newark! On my sixth day on ship, I find that the very person I needed to connect with in Newark was actually vacationing with his friend, Fr. Chris, on my very ship! If you want to know the odds, I’m figuring that the way God is playing His hand right now; it was a 100% stone cold lock. As the mass commenced, I relaxed comfortably into the flow of the mass in this unusual venue, for the room was indeed comfortable to me. You see, the mass was offered in the Crew Training Room, the veritable extension of my office.

The mass, itself, showed a wonderful blend of cultures. We ended up with about 30 crew members in attendance, not bad for a last minute announcement. I was the only Anglo present, with about half of the attendees from the Catholic parts of India, and the other appeared to be from the Philippines and Hispanic cultures. The integration of these cultures had a blend of relaxed and formal, old and new. A keyboard was quickly set up and music was played. I did stand out as the only Anglo, the only officer, and the only one still in uniform. But by the end of the liturgy, a sense of comfort and family among us had begun to grow. As I escorted the priests back up to the guest areas, Monsignor Andraede promised to offer me his contact information so that we might begin the discussion on how I could accomplish the desired communion services.

Seriously, God is laughing and all delusions I’ve had that I’m in control of my life have been cast aside.

The adventure continues . . .