For the past couple years, I’ve been trying to write a blog post on the first day of each month, starting my title with “Rabbit, Rabbit, Rabbit”, harkening back to those childhood days of saying Rabbit, Rabbit, Rabbit to bring good luck for the coming month. My blog writing, like my poetry, have been taking a back shelf to my seminary studies and my posts here have been less frequent as a result.

However, classes don’t start for me until Tuesday. I’ve done a lot of my reading already for the first day of classes and I find myself with a little bit of time to reflect and write before the new semester starts.

I continue to play Pokemon Go, taking moments here and there throughout the day. They’ve added various new features to the game since they first launched it. One is missions. You need to accomplish various tasks in the game. One of these tasks is trading Pokemon with other players. I made a trade with my youngest daughter today, so I accomplished that task. I also need to evolve one of the Pokemon, an Eevee, into its next evolution, and have a bit of walking to complete for this.

I did contact another Pokemon player via Facebook about making a trade, and we were going to do it either just before or just after Vespers this evening. We didn’t manage to connect, but the other player was asked by a priest at a neighboring church why he has hanging out at the church. We talked about this a little on Facebook, and I wrote:

A lot of priests I know have no idea what to make of Pokemon, especially when the gym which also happens to be their church has a legendary raid. Many churches have a blessing of the animals (usually in early October). Maybe a good 21st century church needs a blessing of the Pokemon.

For those who don’t play Pokemon, a “gym” is a location in Pokemon where key activities take place. They are often at important sites, including churches. A “legendary raid” is one of those activities where a group of Pokemon players gather at the same time at a gym, and play Pokemon, looking intently at their smartphones. I will save the discussion of theology and liturgics of a blessing of the Pokemon for a different time.

This being Labor Day weekend, Kim, Fiona, and I went to the Greek festival at the local Greek Orthodox church. We’ve been doing it for years. They always have great food.

With all of this going on, I still managed to make it to Vespers. I did not realize that September first is the liturgical New Years in the Orthodox church. Happy New Years everyone. In a few days, we can celebrate New Years again with our Jewish friends.