This afternoon I had agreed to drive down to St. Bonaventure University and help a Franciscan friend with a computer I had donated to him. I had configured this Dell Inspiron equipped with Microsoft Windows Vista Home Basic with Star Office. Fr. Bob Struzynski, OFM is a very bright man and a wonderful person, but computers are a little scary for him. I had moved his files to this new machine about three months ago, but he continued to have problems editing his previous Microsoft Word files. It turned out that Microsoft Word Viewer which had come with the computer had been set as the default application for opening word processing documents. I had originally setup the computer to use Star Office Writer as the default. Somehow that changed. I was able to solve his problem rather quickly and to help him set up an Amazon Simple Storage account so that he could work both at the University and at his home at Mt. Irenaeus.
Working together we got the Amazon S3 account setup. I also downloaded and configured Jungledisk which is a great program. He needs a bit more training but this is a great way to work with the same group of files on two separate computers. Toward the end of our time together Fr. Bob mentioned that he had to leave soon for Mass. I asked where the Mass was and he said in the University Chapel. I had forgotten that today was the Feast of St. Bonaventure and since the University is celebrating its sesqui-centennial this is more special than other years.
After a short walk from University Ministries we arrived at the Chapel and it was nearly full of Franciscan friars, nuns, a lovely choir and some townspeople like me. Tears filled my eyes as I listened to the lovely bell choir that invited us at the beginning of the worship. Gratitude to both Fr. Bob and the Franciscan Friars filled my heart as I looked and listened. This was truly something I hadn’t dreamed of earlier in the day. The Mass was lovely but I really enjoyed the choir and musicians. Franciscans are joyful and this is just what I needed today.