Your parish sounds so wonderful!
And we have so much fun! I mean, it's not a gloomy place, it's as cheerful and happy as it can be. We do a lot of traditional devotions - the Forty Hours and the Two Hearts Vigil and First Fridays, but with joy. Our choirmaster is just a delight - he's so easygoing and optimistic and at the same time such an excellent musician. I love going to choir practice and singing on Sunday - wouldn't miss it for the world. Our new Parochial Vicar is adorable, everybody loves him, he's a HUGE young man, almost as tall as my husband (who's 6'6") and can easily give him a hundred pounds. He's well spoken and funny and just dynamite in the pulpit - I would have sworn he was raised A.M.E. because he preaches just like the best of the downtown black preachers, but turns out he's a cradle Catholic. He makes 'em sit up and open their eyes! Our rector is the Faithful Irish Priest from Central Casting - stocky, ruddy-faced, accent you could cut with a knife, sly sense of humor, no nonsense about him but kind as he can be (I love slightly grouchy old guys, they hold no terrors for me after my father in law who was a bird colonel in the USAF.)