weekend the "Frozen Fenway" program hosted Boston College, Notre Dame, Merrimack College and Providence College for a hockey tournament. The activities surrounding the tournament included a Saturday afternoon Mass at Emmanuel College for visitors from the colleges attending the games. It had been my intention to celebrate the Mass, but a delay in my return flight led to my arriving at the end of the Mass. Thankfully I was in time to greet everyone and to express my gratitude to Sister Janet Eisner, SND, President of Emmanuel College, for hosting the Mass and reception and to Father William Leahy, SJ, for kindly stepping in as the principal celebrant and homilist on very short notice and for Boston College having organized this event. Later that evening, at the invitation of Joseph Bertagna, Commissioner of Hockey East, I participated in the ceremonial puck drop at the start of the Boston College-Notre Dame game. It was quite an experience to be out on the Fenway Park field that had been converted to a hockey rink and, thanks to the padding on the ice, I did not slip in my sandals! The Red Sox organization and Hockey East were very hospitable. Sam Kennedy, the Red Sox Chief Operating Officer, oversaw all the arrangements and accompanied Mr. Bertagna and I to the puck drop, and Red Sox Ambassador Frankie Gonzalez was an extremely kind host during the visit. There was great enthusiasm for the game and the teams looked terrific. I think everyone was especially taken by the golden helmets of the Notre Dame team -- they looked like gladiators! Although the puck drop was on behalf of both teams, at the final score Boston College prevailed. Congratulations to them.

Epiphany in Waltham

Sunday afternoon (Jan 5), I visited St. Mary in Waltham to join its Epiphany celebration of the Three Kings. I celebrated the Mass and afterwards there was a pageant in the parish hall. The children performed a play in which they acted out the whole visit of the Magi. There were some touching moments including the entrance of the angel carrying the star of Bethlehem on a stick. (So, if anyone was wondering how the star came to rest over the manger, now we know!) Also, towards the end very large group of children dressed as shepherds came in bringing gifts for the Christ child and singing "The Little Drummer Boy" with all the little boys and girls playing drums. Later, a group of even smaller children came in singing "Feliz Navidad."

Inauguration opening prayer

On Monday (Jan 6), I delivered the opening prayer at the inauguration of Boston's new mayor, Marty Walsh, at Conte Forum at Boston College. The diversity of the city was certainly represented at the gathering and I would say there was an atmosphere of hope in the air. Of course, there were many different speakers. One message that particularly struck me was in the remarks by Rev. Ray Hammond. He told the people that we have to work together and that the faith community will try to cooperate, as we always have, in furthering the interests of the community. Where we can work with the government, we certainly will.

...We wish Mayor Walsh well as he begins his time in office. We pray that the Lord will help him to be a good leader and help him to be able to unite people in pursuit of a society that will be more concerned about the needs of poor, education and all the many other issues that we face in today's world. Coming from a union background we are hopeful that he will be particularly sensitive to the problem of unemployment and the needs of working people.