Many of you may be remember the old hymn (written in 1851), “Crown Him with Many Crowns.” Apparently, here at St. Francis Xavier, we took this quite literally, because we have at least 45 crowns of Christ on the inside of our church building. See if you can find them- there are at least 31 crowns of thorns, 12 crowns of gold, and 2 marble crowns.

There’s an old but good story (and for you true historians, apparently, it’s just a story) about Winston Churchill’s last public speech. As the story goes, late in 1964, the then 90-year-old former British Prime Minister was invited to give the commencement address at a small college in London. He had not appeared in public in many years, but to everyone’s surprise, he accepted the invitation.

I was born and raised in Phoenix, attended Saints Simon & Jude and Brophy, then ended up at Baylor Law School where I met Sue. We moved back to Phoenix in 1986 and joined St. Francis Xavier . At the time, my brother, Fr. Dave Klein, was assigned to Brophy. We were active parishioners, sent our daughters (Laura and Michelle) to the SFX grade school, then Xavier College Prep, then Jesuit universities (LMU and Georgetown).

On Nov. 6, 2010, I was ordained a permanent deacon, and in the ten years since, Sue and I have helped over 500 couples in marriage preparation, baptized hundreds of children, assisted with annulments, taught baptism and family and adult religious education, and facilitated webinars and online and in-person discussion and prayer groups. We have worked with a number of terrific staff and volunteers, parish organizations (St. Vincent de Paul and the Knights of Columbus to name just two), as well as more than 20 Jesuit fathers who have been assigned to the parish over the years.