Father P -- Child Number Three

  Then

(About 5 years old. I think he was St. Aloysius Gonzaga this All Saints' Day.)

And Now

Still on the run! Good heavens! He's here; he's there; he's everywhere! 

On mission for God always. Fr. Philip Marie, CMRI

He's an organist, choir director, high
school teacher during the week
 and a mission priest in Idaho on
weekends

Baptizing his niece, Claudia. (I got to be proxy Godmother.) The Sacraments
are in his daily toolbox. He's been ordained for about two and a half years now,
but I'm sure he's already lost track of the baptisms, Confessions,
Holy Communions, and Last Rites he's been able to confer.
He probably remembers the weddings, though! He officiated at the weddings
of his brother, Kevin, and his sister, Cathy, for instance, and served at the 
weddings of his sister, Michelle and his brother, Dominic! (Can't tell you, as
a Mom, how awesome that is. Who ever would have thought?)

John Madden-style depiction of what will
be going on the altar at one of the weddings
or ordinations (not sure which). He is a master
flower arranger!

With a fan -- at his happy place.

With Fr. Gronenthal, former teacher of all three younger priests here: Fr. Borja and Fr. Geckle (L & R on the ends), high school classmates and friends through the seminary years, now -- and on to eternity.

Fr. Philip is an extremely talented artist. Here
he's helping us repair and repaint our traditional
family nativity figures.

Not everyone knows this, but he's always been
a Baby Whisperer -- from childhood.

Always in for Nerf gun wars! Take no prisoners. (Except maybe this stuffed monkey.) Like his
brothers (maybe because he has five brothers!), he's a great athlete. I'm told he starts out the
school year in his PE classes by beating his kids in a footrace. He knows how to get boys to listen up!

With three of his sisters -- and me.
Father knows where all the best
 restaurants are. It's a gift.

Repairing a rosary here. He's good for that, too.

An Excellent woodworker, he's pictured here,
in the middle of rebuilding one of our book-
cases to fit out for the large statue of St. Patrick
he repaired and repainted for us.

Walking up the hill to Mount St. Michael, Spokane
with his brothers during one of the Fatima Con-
ferences, I think he spoke that year.

Baden, Germany, 2018

The best thing Fr. Philip does. Nothing else matters much.

 We love this man of God we've been so blessed with and are so proud of him, but we never stop praying for him. No other vocation is so targeted by the devil. This admonition we've heard most of our lives has been driven home in reality by having a son ordained to the priesthood. It's true. Our priests are on the frontlines on the war against evil and receive precious little support from the world -- when they are doing the one *real* thing that can even come close to satisfying for the sins of mankind. Please keep all our hard-working and under-appreciated priests in your prayers, and do everything you can toward their moral support, too. They are so vital in the grand scheme of things; we have a grave responsibility to take good care of all of our priests. They do so much for us! They stand between us and damnation -- individually and as a society. And there are so few of them. Pray for vocations!

The harvest, indeed, is great but the laborers are few. (Matthew 9:37)