Mass in Spain...sort of!

Our first port stop has come and gone!  We made a BSF (brief stop for fuel) in Rota, Spain yesterday.  Thanks to the efforts of our awesome command chaplain, he was able to arrange for the local base Catholic chaplain to pay us a visit during the day while we refueled.  It was such a joy, and actually unexpected—we’d been having some issues with email and his visit wasn’t confirmed until he showed up on the ship!  When the word was passed of his arrival and of when Mass would be, I dropped everything I was doing (quite willingly, mind you) and even got out of a painful weekly meeting that was about to occur.  Priorities, people!!! 

Fr. Jerome Dillon, CDR, USN, was our visiting priest—he is a diocesan priest from Omaha, Nebraska, and had been serving as a Navy chaplain for 27 years, getting ready to retire from the Navy.  We had a great chat, and I was able to go to confession and then we had Mass.  I wish I had brought my camera so you could see what Mass is like on a warship!  Father had his “battle chaplain” kit, filled with only the necessary sacristy items to properly say Mass.  Simplicity.  Needless to say, it was beautiful.  To know that our Lord made Himself present, sacramentally, here on this ship, has brought a refreshed attitude to how I can best conquer my moments of feeling down when the environment around here gets the best of me.  This place is sanctified, it is holy, just because He came here.  Cue David Crowder Band’s The Glory of it All!

Other great point of Rota—though we didn’t have time for liberty there, we were visited by a Baskin Robbins truck and pizza delivery on the pier.  Oh, the little comforts of home! 

Finally, in light of being in Spain, I want to share with you a quote that is at the heart of my meditation right now.  Tough words, as usual, from my heavenly spiritual director and native Spaniard, Saint Josemaria Escriva:  “Here, we don’t bargain with the Lord.  The Law of God, the invitation of the Lord, is something you either take or leave, just as it is.  You need to make up your mind: go forward, fully decided and without holding back; otherwise, go away.”