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document.write('><strong>Catholic Features:<br>Priest Makes Ordinary Time Extraordinary</strong></font></td><td width="30%"><p align="c');
document.write('enter"><img src="http://www.parishwebmaster.com/images/Tabloid_logo02.gif" alt="Tabloid_logo02.gif (3720 bytes)" width="');
document.write('100" height="93"></td></tr></table><P><strong><em>by <a target="_blank" href="http://www.parishwebmaster.com/services/');
document.write('authors/bio_npopadich.htm"><font color="#000000">Barbara Hamilton</font></a></em><br />God Gazette Features Editor</stro');
document.write('ng></P><p>It is the longest season on the Church\'s calendar and Father Paul Meadows hates it.  "Ordinary time is just s');
document.write('o blasé," he said in his living room at the rectory of St. Francis of Assisi Parish, Davison, MI.</p><p>The room was an');
document.write('ything but blasé though.  Fr. Meadows loves to decorate and has already remodeled the rectory seven times in his five-ye');
document.write('ar tenure.  Looking around the room, it\'s easy to see why.  The place is filled to capacity with movie posters and other');
document.write(' such memorabilia representing movies ranging from The Music Man to Indiana Jones.</p><p>"That, over there, is one of m');
document.write('y favorites," he said, pointing to a huge curio cabinet with enough lights to illuminate a small city.  "I have here the');
document.write(' actual fake eyelashes worn by Miss Barbara Streisand when she accepted her Oscar for Funny Girl.  \'Hello gorgeous.\'"</p');
document.write('><p>Fr. Meadows spent hours showing me his impressive collection.  "Every parish I\'ve been to has helped me add to my c');
document.write('ollection.  I got those Judy Garland shot glasses from St. Wenceslaus in Frankenmuth.  Over here you can see my signed N');
document.write('eil Diamond glitter shirt.  Well... some of this name has come off a little bit.  Sweaty sequins - what are you going to');
document.write(' do, ya know?"</p><p>And indeed it is Fr. Meadows\' clothing collection that has given him the nickname "Brother Love." ');
document.write(' Fr. Meadows has closets full of vestments that are fit for a superstar!"</p><h3>Turn on your Heart Light</h3><p>"Back');
document.write(' in the 70\'s, when I was ordained, many nuns had decided to change their traditional habits in favor of more practical a');
document.write('nd trendy clothes.  Priests, on the other hand, though they got rid of the long black cassock on the streets, still wore');
document.write(' outdated styles at Mass.  Not only are these drab, but they\'re quite restrictive."</p><p>Fr. Meadows said he needed to');
document.write(' be freed.  He was working at a Spanish Mission out in California and one "Hot August Night" he had the opportunity to s');
document.write('ee Neil Diamond live, in concert.  The experience changed his life forever.  "I looked up at that stage as Neil sang \'So');
document.write('litary Man\' and thought to myself, \'Hey!  This is the perfect song for me.  I\'m a priest.  I\'m a solitary man!\'"</p><p>');
document.write('As soon as he got back to the mission that night, Fr. Meadows began making his first sequined stole.  And by Easter that');
document.write(' year, he had created a completely sequined chasuble.  <br />"I remember it like it was just yesterday," he recalled.  "');
document.write('We processed up to the altar in the candle light.  As we sang the Gloria, the lights were turned on one by one and when ');
document.write('they hit my vestments, \'Bam!\'  What a sign of resurrection, huh?!  It worked perfectly with my \'You are the Light of the');
document.write(' World\' homily."</p><p>From that day on, Fr. Meadows has used his flare with fashion to bring excitement and passion ba');
document.write('ck to the Mass.  "I mean, this is a celebration," he said.  "I say, wear your New Year\'s Eve outfit to Mass every week -');
document.write(' that\'s the kind of God we have!  Every Sunday should be like a New Year for us!"</p><h3>It\'s Not Easy Being Green</h3>');
document.write('<p>Many parishioners aren\'t sure whether they are at Mass or at a Las Vegas show when they enter Fr. Meadows\' church.  ');
document.write('He even tries to make ordinary time extraordinary.  "Imagine having to wear green to your job every day except at Christ');
document.write('mas and Easter time," he said.  "Boring!  So I\'ve taken my green ordinary time vestments and with a little help from my ');
document.write('Bedazzler, I\'ve got a completely different outfit to wear every Sunday."</p><p>During the 80s, Fr. Meadows really enjoy');
document.write('ed adorning himself with buttons.  As singers came together to double their efforts to stop world hunger with the song "');
document.write('We are the World," Fr. Meadows\' button collection also doubled in size.  "I remember I had a stole with a button from ea');
document.write('ch singer of "We are the World," Meadows said with pride.  "We also met our goal for the mission that year."  The good f');
document.write('ather added a button to his stole every time $100 was raised, as a way to help the people see how much progress they had');
document.write(' made toward reaching their Parish goal.</p><p>Even today, he still wears his "God is my Copilot" button.  "I was sad t');
document.write('o see the button trend go, but I\'m glad that rhinestones are coming back in style," he said.</p><h3>The Solitary Man Re');
document.write('mains True</h3><p>Some have said that Fr. Meadows\' style is a little over the top and that a priest shouldn\'t try to be');
document.write(' so worldly.  But their comments don\'t get Fr. Meadows down.  "Hey, as Neil Diamond said, \'I am said.\'  It\'s our Church.');
document.write('  Let\'s have a little fun with it!  Where is it said that religion has to be boring?"</p><p>It certainly isn\'t said at ');
document.write('St. Francis of Assisi in Davison, where one lone Pastor strives to make Ordinary Time extraordinary!</p><p><a href="htt');
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