Part X: Thanksgiving! Tuna Fish Turkey?

 Part X: Thanksgiving!

Today, you get to look inside part of the convent. Don’t worry, I won’t be revealing any secrets. The Sisters deserve their privacy. But you need to see this particular photo to see how the Sisters feast on Thanksgiving. As a form of mortification for the salvation and sanctification of priests, Religious, and others for whom they pray, they practice abstinence from meat all year long. All life long, actually. That is how much they love you!

I asked if I could take this one photo as the meal was being brought in, in order to share it with you. Permission granted. If you happen to recognize the thumb of the Sister holding the tray, please keep it to yourself!

If you are viewing this on your phone, you may have to enlarge the photo a bit to see it clearly. This is one of the two tuna fish turkeys they baked for the main course! It is tuna fish somethingorother shaped into the form of a tukey’s body, legs, and wings, covered in bread dough, sprinkled with sage and maybe a few other turkey friendly spices, and baked until golden brown. These Sisters are a hoot!

There were also many other non-meat dishes, various vegetables, dressing, fruit, and things that I never thought to note and never got a photo of. There was one really cute edible turkey at each place setting. I took this photo of her, along with her big brother cardboard decoration in the background. At least I think she’s a she and he’s a he. They didn’t give me their pronouns, so I can’t be certain. You know how that goes.

This was the cutest little turkey! Made of a peanut butter and oatmeal concoction for the body, a cookie tail, and candy corn head, and a little bit of frosting for the eyes and neck waddle, and voilà, an edible decoration for everyone! As I said, these Sisters are a hoot. Or a gobble. Or just plain fun and creative as well as holy.

I also went to Fr. McElwee’s house to meet about 30 of his children and grandchildren. He is a retired Catholic priest who, years ago, before it was a “normal” thing, converted to Catholicism and was ordained as a Catholic priest. When I arrived, he was celebrating Mass in his garage, which he converted into a very nice chapel, with about a dozen family members. A nice Thanksgiving for all of them!

The day was, of course, a great one. Many hours of prayer, both silent and chanted. The Holy Sacrifice of the Mass. Silent holy hours, one with the Blessed Sacrament in the tabernacle and one with Him exposed in a monstrance. Two celebrations of the most religious of all of our nation’s secular holidays, one with the Sisters, one with the good Father. If only all of you reading this could have been there, it would have been perfect!

With prayers for your holiness,

Rev. Fr. Edwin Palka

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For those who wish to ask for prayers, discern a Vocation, or make donations:

This blog is not monetized, since, as a Catholic Priest, I don’t need much money. But if you wish to support the Filiae Laboris Mariae Sisters under my spiritual care, feel free to send them a note to: St. Joseph Convent, 1250 Hackberry Road, Redfield, KS 66769. They constantly pray, and their benefactors will get great spiritual rewards! That is also the address you can send snail mail to me. I suppose you already know or can guess my gmail address with the F*****P**** in front of it!