Joe M. and I started making the Novena at St. Rita's parich today. For those who are not from South Philadelphia, that church has the distinction of being the National Shrine of St. Rita of Cascia.

I tried to blog a photo of the church from my cell phone before yesterday's Mass, but I see it didn't arrive.

The Novena began yesterday, and continues for nine days, finishing on May 22, which is the feast day of St. Rita.

Mark will be coming to some of the Masses with Joe and me. He came to this evening's Mass, is likely to be in attendance in at least one Mass over the weekend, and will be there on May 22 which also happens to be our 10th wedding anniversary. :)

In other news, John R. had surgery on the broken bone in his ankle today. The good news is that the surgery went well, and if he listens to his doctor's instructions, the bone should heal completely. (We won't visit the topic of his past history regarding following doctors' orders. Sigh.) The not-so-good news is that the docs were not pleased with something, I'm still not sure what, that they saw while he was under anesthesia. So they sent him to have his heart catheterized.

Again.

He already had a heart attack, a bypass, and at least one angioplasty/stent put in during the past 12 months. (More like 10 months, really.) The last thing he needs is to have more heart-related trouble. So let's pray that whatever the docs saw can be EASILY resolved.