Did you say you’re leaving the parish dear? Why would you want to do that? Oh, I know Fr. O’Keefe is annoying sometimes, but I reckon if he puts up with us we ought to put with him don’t you? There, there dearie, let me get you a Kleenex. You know I think there might be something in what you say about Fr O’Keefe’s sermons, and I must admit I sometimes don’t know what he’s going on about when he talks about Gaia and our Mother the earth. Do you remember that old television program called My Mother the Car? I used to love that show. Along with the Beverly Hillbillies. Wasn’t it Dick VanDyke who starred in that show? No? Let me think. It was Garry Van Dyke wasn’t it? Was that Dick’s brother? Anyway dear, sometimes when Fr.O’Keefe talks about his mother the earth I think about that program. And Andy of Mayberry. That was a good one too wasn’t it? That Don Knotts did make me laugh. Come to think of it, Fr. O’Keefe looks a bit like Don Knotts doesn’t he? Anyway love, my point is, that I’ve learned to think of other things if the homily is not quite right. We do have to give Father the benefit of the doubt don’t we? He would do so for us after all. It could be that he wasn’t trained properly poor soul. The church is in a terrible state right now, and I suppose we should be grateful that we have a priest at all. Fr O’Keefe probably went to seminary when all the priests and nuns were leaving to become hippies and make tie dye vestments. I remember those. They were not very nice, but the good thing is that you don’t see them anymore. What’s that? Oh dear, you do make me laugh! I think you’re right in a way. Perhaps we had been better off if they had all left to become hippies rather then becoming hippies and staying put. But never mind. Things will be alright in the end. You’ll see. I’ve been in the parish long enough to see priests come and go. They all have good ideas, and they most of them have been hard workers and all of them have been unusual characters. You’d have to be to become a priest in the first place wouldn’t you? Sometimes their strong characters have got the better of them and they’ve fallen by the wayside, or had personal problems, but I’ve never let that bother me. Our Lord is there at the Mass, and I try to see through the priest and find Him. I suggest you just try to put up with it. Offer it up as my dear old mother used to say when I had a toothache. Even this will pass away, and you know, if I may say so dear, if you weren’t quite so certain that you knew better than Fr O’Keefe you might just learn something from him. I remember once we had an old uncle who was the most cantakerous soul you ever would hope to meet and everybody used to talk about how difficult he was, and then one day he came around our home for tea and cookies and I learned that he had lost his mother when he was a boy, and I guess that just made him grumpy and sad all the rest of his days, but he had a collection of stamps he showed me and I discovered that he was really rather sweet after all, so who knows what burdens Father O’Keefe is carrying? Do you see what I mean dear? If you got to know him a bit better you might understand. There, there. Are you feeling better? Look, I’ve got a whole batch of fresh peanut butter cookies I just made. Why don’t you take them along so the children will have a nice treat when they get home from school?