I made my first visit to the Shrine of Our Lady of the Snows back in 1995 – Kenny Penalver and Steve Cameron joined me for a great weekend. This past weekend, I gave a talk at Holy Spirit Church in Maryland Heights for my friend Donna, then buzzed over for a concert at the Church of OLS on Saturday night. All day Sunday, I presented for the 6th to 12th grade YOUTH RALLY. Brought make lots of memories, some bittersweet. Had a couple of young people ask me, “How did you become a singer?” or “How did you get to be so funny?” The answer, “I’m not sure, but I know it has something to do with me saying “Yes” to as many invitations to share my gift. I hope that was helpful. I’m thinking about what I might do beyond the ministry that I’ve done over so many years. My wife has asked me about future goals….I’m staring to ponder that question with some seriousness. I’ve got a couple ideas. Will keep you posted. Thanks to all who helped make this weekend possible, Jodi, the greatest manager ever, and the Shrine Staff, with all the support, Rose, Joan, Gayle, and those who helped sell our stuff – Scott on sound and lights, everyone! All the best! Jesse

Malden, Waltham, Malden, and Stoughton – Scott and Margo Morin at Immaculate Conception, Laura Peterson and Bernadette Scalese, back over to IC, then on Monday, to Fr. Kelly and Marianne at St. James in Stoughton. Wonderful folks. Saw Jim, Paula and Liam Flanagan, Chris Gosselin – they’re doing great things. Michelle Garrity picked me up at the airport, took me to an awesome SEAFOOD lunch. Talk about love, Michelle didn’t order a thing because she doesn’t like seafood. I thought, maybe I’ll suggest we go somewhere where we can both order something we like. Then I thought, “What would Jesus do?” Gosh, that fried shrimp was massively epic! Then went to pick up Steven, Colleen and Becca – Surrounded by Garritys! Loving it. Even went to Karaoke with the core team of IC’s Generations of Faith. Scott, DJ, and a number others stepped up to the mic and represented! Celebrated the kick off of Generations of Faith at IC, 10 years of LIFETEEN at Sacred Heart in Waltham, and a kickoff of Rel Ed for St. James. Beautiful time. Beautiful people.

Thanks to everyone who bought a raffle ticket to help Jodi and I make it to Madrid. Thank you, thank you, thank you! 4th prize is a smiley face tee shirt…GUILLERMO MARQUEZ, 3rd prize of CD goes to Kathleen Venzon…2nd prize of a smiley face tee shirt and a CD goes to Paul Mach….and the GRAND PRIZE of YOURS TRULY, goes to….Dr. Carole Goodwin, of the Diocese of Louisville, KY! Again, thanks to everyone who were so generous to help! You are greatly, greatly appreciated.

The day before the concert in San Francisco, I went to St. William in Atascadero, CA. Landed in LAX, then off to Santa Barbara where the ocean and cliffs danced beautifully as I looked out the window during the landing! Jumped into the car and headed for St. Williams, to Mary Pat, Fr. George, Cindy, Cindi, George W., and the amazing youth of the parish and the neighboring parishes! The Knights and others dealed breakfast, lunch and dinners to a hungry people. I love the young people of St. William! Geez you all just made my life full of joy that night and day. Thank you. Bless you. I have a new prayer shawl, made by Cindy and prayed/made by her and young people. WOW. Mariana, Lily, Horacio and Liza, Leo, Ellen, Sarah, Andrew, et al! Love and blessing.

Love you Kathy Lorentz, LaSallian Brothers, Tim Mahoney, Taylor and Lauren, and all who helped make our concert of Remembrance a great success. Haley and Georzanne, DANG! Thanks for that food! Michelle, DANG! Thank you for that lechon! DANG!  JULIE WIND is producing, editing, and putting together the DVD footage from Declan Weir’s parish, St. Philip in Franklin, TN, along with the San Francisco footage. Thanks to Tony Davidson Gomez, Frank Jansen, James Bent, the Jubilee Choir from SHCP High School, director, Rhonda, and the DeMarillac Academy Children’s choir, director Erin! We’ll need help funding to finish and duplicate, but that will come later. In the meantime, we celebrated, remembered, sang, cried, laughed, and recommitted to non-violence, and to learning from the lessons of the past and present, in order to bring forth more life than death. It was a night that sought to bring slivers of hope in the face of the heaviest of hopelessness. Sept. 11, 2001, sadly does violence continue over “there” and over “here” in wars, talk of more war, political cowardice and greed, fears from every institution, both secular and religious groups that fight to keep injustice in place rather than face their fears and confusion. So we remember, do what we can when we can in any way that we can to live in faith, rather than in fear. We do the best we can to be recklessly welcoming and inviting, forgiving, merciful, compassionate and reverencing the dignity, the holy and the beauty in all people; espec-ially the ones with whom we’re most afraid. Didn’t a small group of Judeans kill Jesus for living that way? Oh geez.

Declan Weir was the Grand Prize winner of the HELP JESSE GET HIS MACPHERSON GUITAR raffle. On Friday, I delivered the prize to Declan. Generous as always, Declan did a couple of things with his prize. He offered it to Fr. Bala, pastor of St. Philip Catholic Church, as a way to build excitement and connection with the cultural variety of the parish, including and especially ministry to youth. Declan also offered to record the event for posterity or for even possible material for a DVD. Jodi and I invited our dear friend, ValLimar Jansen in on this opportunity and she and quadrupled the excitement and enjoyment of the evening concert. We sang at four masses, with Vince Ambrosetti at the vigil, Tom Galantowicz at the 8:30, Mike Alvey at the 10:30 and Paco Salazar at the 1:00. Got to play with the Ceili Rain guys, Raymond Arias, Kevin DeSouza, and Bill Bleistine. Mike Alvey played piano as Frank Jansen wasn’t able to join us this time. Kevin joked that the name of the band was Jesse Rain. That thrilled me because I’m a Ceili Rain stalker. I look forward to playing with the guys again in the future. Fr. Bala was the consumate host, taking he time in his schedule to cook Indian food for all of us band members and family. Quite a spread of food. The parish held a potluck and lots of folks showed up that as well as the concert. Fr. Bala makes you feel right at home. Fr. Tran, Kim, and numerous other parishioners delivered love and hospitality. The trip was full of activity and at the end of the day, as Declan dropped us both at the hotel, there were really no words to express our gratitude and joy. So we hugged. Declan and Fran woke up before the birds the next morning to get me to my flight. No better way to say thank you than making the people you’re thanking wake up before the birds. God is good.

Grateful for so much on August 24, 2011 – Jodi and I have navigated the waters of romance, disillusionment, misery, awakening over and over again – thanks be to God, source of love, truth, healing, and reconciliation. Thank you friends and family who have held us in prayer through these many years of great joy and sorrow. Endless thanks….the only way through the pain and the fear is through the pain and fear. Count your blessings and be very, very grateful. Ask for help. Be vulnerable. Seek to live courageously. Seek to love your beloved like God does. Cling to Jesus. God bless Retrouvaille.