Duties, uniform, and a silver Jubilee
Today was a pretty long day for me and most of it away from the keyboard. As I’ve mentioned here before, I am a member of the Knights of Columbus, a Knight of the 4th Order (a.k.a. “a 4th Degree Knight”) in Council 12791 Our Lady of Hope and the 4th Degree Assembly 2814 Pope John Paul II. Today, a mass was held honoring the silver jubilee, or 25th anniversary, of the ordination of our Pastor, Father William Saunders. The Bishop of Arlington, Bishop Paul Loverde, attended the 12:15 Mass today in honor of the occasion and the Sir Knights of the Color Corps. were asked to participate.
I missed the last opportunity to muster with the rest of the Color Corps due to my recent… “medical mishap.” I wasn’t going to miss this one. However, I was also on the schedule to usher at the 9:00 Mass, the one my family and I usually attend. So, I did both. I made sure to actually sit down during the sermon which is something I usually don’t do. That helped a lot. I just didn’t want to miss my duty turn and it’s a very good thing I didn’t. There were only 3 of 6 ushers (counting me) that showed up. Any less and it couldn’t have been done.
After coming home and getting something to eat, I changed over into my uniform and headed over to the church again. For those who haven’t seen the formal Color Corps of the K of C, here’s a picture taken of me during last year’s Christmas parade in Leesburg, VA.
We preceded the priests into the church and set up “salute tunnel” down the main aisle, holding our swords at a vertical salute until Bishop Loverde had passed by. We then folded in behind him and peeled off down the side aisles to head into the back of the main section of pews. The last pew was reserved for us on both sides and that’s where we were for the remainder of Mass up until the recession out of Mass. We preceded the priests again, this time just marching out in a column of two’s. Our parishioners like to see us at the Mass and Bishop Loverde stopped to thank us and offer us blessings.
After the Mass there was a reception and we joined with the rest of the parish in wishing Father congrats. It took up most of the day, these duties and celebrations, but it was well worth it and a welcome reprieve from any work-related stuff.
