Monday, August 11, 2008

Forse Si, Forse No, Terzo Edizione...

Did I travel this past weekend? Maybe yes, maybe no. If I did, then I traveled South to the great city of Great Barrington, MA, hometown of Fr. Gary Chamberland, CSC. Fr. Gary returned to his hometown for a family gathering and invited me to join them. It was a fun Saturday. We first visited the National Shrine of Divine Mercy. Located on a large beautiful piece of property, the shrine itself was handsome with a good number of people praying, confessing, adoring, as well as visiting the gift shop.

Afterwards, we had lunch and a local brew at the Red Lion Inn. Then we went to the Norman Rockwell Museum. This was a lot of fun. While I'm not an expert on Rockwell's work, I am an admirer. The museum had many of his original paintings on exhibit as well as prints of all of his Saturday Evening Post covers. The museum is intimate and allows visitors to be as close as possible to the thickly applied oil paint.




Sunday morning we concelebrated Mass at Fr. Gary's home parish of St. Peter. It's a beautiful church and everyone knew the hometown boy.

I then drove an hour and a half to Saratoga Springs, NY to meet up with my friends Jim and Katie Spillman and their son Ben. Katie and I were students at ND and in the Folk Choir together. Jim is a graduate of Boston College, but other than that is a great guy. Saratoga Springs was hosting a day of horse racing at what is one of the oldest tracks in North America. The atmosphere was great with an entire spectrum of people enjoying a day of picnicing, betting, and taking in the sights of the competitive and impressive horses. Did I bet? Maybe. If I did, I was up about $20 which will be turned in to my religious superior when I return to ND this weekend. Let's just say I have a knack for picking the winners.

I headed back to Middlebury that evening to study for a Monday morning final exam. Thanks to Gary, Jim, and Katie for being great hosts.

3 comments:

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Fr. Stephen M. Koeth, C.S.C. said...

Awesome! My parents recently visited the Norman Rockwell Museum in Stockbridge and very much enjoyed it. Hello to Gary and to Katie! SMK, csc

Anonymous said...

Sounds like a great time. Like you, I'm a Norman Rockwell admirer, too. Hopefully I can make it out there one day and check out the museum -- and visit the great James Taylor, who lives minutes away from where you were! Are you a fan?