Whoop!

Katie and I spent a truly re-creational weekend in College Station.  Just before we left Austin on Saturday, we planted our front yard plants after many weeks of digging up the weeds and ground:

The drive to good ol’ College Station was beautiful, full of vibrantly green grass and trees.  We went directly to Messina Hof for the wine tasting and tour and had a great time.  We talked with an old Aggie, class of 1949, who was visiting from Houston with his “RV group” (no, not Ross Volunteers, but Recreational Vehicle, for you die-hard cadets).

Then we checked into our lovely Bed and Breakfast, Murphy’s, where we were hosted graciously by Barbara.  She has lived in this old house since 1952 and reared here 4 children in it.  She renovated it after her husband, Oscar, whom she dearly loved, died not too many years ago.

Here was a picture of the outside and of our bedroom wall (in the “Western Room”):

We dropped off our overnight bag and headed to St. Mary’s Catholic Church for Confession.  My friend, Father David Konderla, heard our confessions, and I surprised him by coming from behind the screen afterwards and saying hello.

That evening, we went out to dinner and then walked around the sprawling Texas A&M campus.  I showed Katie the Century Tree, which had rose petals strewn about it–perhaps someone proposed to their girlfriend that day? I also pointed out the various statues and explained who the men were they represented (Rudder, Sul Ross, 12th man, etc.).

Finally we came back to the B&B and called it a (very blessed and full) day.

We woke up and Barbara had made us a big breakfast!  I ate most of it, but Katie got her fill, too.  Then we went to Mass and Father Brian McMaster was the celebrant! He is a young priest whom I met while discerning the priesthood.  He was a seminarian at that time and a great example of the joy that a man feels when he is called by God to be a priest and embraces that vocation.

He gave a great homily about the parable of the prodigal son and reverently celebrated Mass.  When Mass was over, we said hello to him, and I introduced “my wife, Katie” to him.  We also got to see Father David again, wearing a cassock(!), and I introduced Katie to him as well.  It was neat because Fr. David was the vocation director for the diocese while I was discerning the priesthood for two years.   So I would meet with him regularly and me and other men discerning would get together at his vocations house and talk about the priesthood and what God was doing in our lives.

So it was cool to get to introduce him to Katie, as he knew several years ago that I had realized that God was calling me to the marriage vocation.  They have some very good things going on at St. Mary’s in College Station (daily Mass and Confession, adoration, vespers, compline, lauds, campus evangelization, vocations discernment talks, dorms, etc.).

After Mass, we went to the Coffee Station, my old haunt, then to Freebirds, and then we drove home! It was a very blessed weekend, and Katie and I both felt our Lord give us great joy and rest throughout it.