Fr Mike's Notes

 I found out this morning (Monday, October 20) that a dear friend of mine died of a heart attack yesterday.  He lived in Virginia Beach, so it isn't like I can do much about it from here, but I pray for Terry's soul, his friend, but most of all his family as Terry's ex-wife died within the last two months also.  Terry had been working very hard to plan a memorial service for her with his children.  Now he joins her and I cannot fathom what his children are dealing with. In some ways I feel like I can relate to them.  In the last year, there have been several family deaths I have dealt with, most recently for my dad's oldest brother who died in Israel where he had lived since around 1975.  Uncle Marty and I were not exactly close, but it is something to consider that Marty was still family.  He was brought into this world by my grandparents and baptized at St. Dorothy Parish in Chicago.  After a short first marriage, Marty had five children with hi...

 Cubs vs. Brewers It has been a wonderful year with the Cubs who held on to first place for much of the season.  However, when any team becomes as hot as the Brewers got this year (including 2 13-game winning streaks), no one can argue against this matchup for the Division title.   The Cubs bats, in the height of the two Brewers winning streaks, seemed to take a vacation.  The two most consistent hitters throughout the season have probably been Nico Hoerner and Michael Busch.  However, at the beginning of the year, the fun players like Seiya Suzuki, Kyle Tucker, and Pete Crow-Armstrong were having great starts.  Unfortunately, those three men all seemed to go cold at the same time and scoring runs was hard to come by during that period. The brightest surprise in my opinion this year was Carson Kelly taking over as the primary catcher after Miguel Amaya got injured.  Kelly's bat and arm and defense really helped keep us on target and focused enough...