Please pray for
- All victims and first responders of Hurricane Harvey
- Frank Perliski, who died this past week. His funeral Mass will be at Emmaus on Saturday, Sept 2 at 11:00 AM
- Merle Lynch who died last week. We celebrated her funeral Mass at Emmaus last Tuesday
Special Collection this weekend for storm victims
This weekend we will have a special collection in support of the efforts by the American Red Cross and Catholic Charities to aid the victims of Hurricane Harvey. Please make out checks to Emmaus with a notation “hurricane victims.”
Other ways that you can help the victims of Hurricane Harvey
In addition to the Red Cross and other agencies, Catholic Charities is coordinating efforts to help the victims of Hurricane Harvey. Also Mobile Loaves and Fishes and the Lakeway Police Department are organizing support for victims. Check out the notice from Maria Soo on the City and the front page of our website: www.EmmausParish.org.
Be careful about bogus requests for help for hurricane victims
It is unfortunate that there are those who would take advantage of a disaster such as Hurricane Harvey to run scams. Reports are that scammers are already in action. Please be wary of phone solicitations. My suggestion is to stick with Catholic Charities and the Red Cross.
New family things starting this year
Starting on Sunday, September 17, there will be a Family Mass once a month at 10:30 AM, and we will focus on children and families. This means that families will be ‘hosting’ the Mass. They will be the greeters, choir members, ushers, lectors and more. I am requesting that if 10:30 AM is your usual Mass for serving, please help the families that will be learning about the importance of this work for our faith. Family Masses will be on these Sundays: September 17, October 15, November 12 and December 10, always at 10:30 AM.
Faith and Family Events: Once a month instead of regular Faith Formation classes (preK through High School), we will gather to explore our Catholic Faith in a fun and interactive way. The first Faith & Family Event will be Wednesday, October 4 at 6:00 PM in the Great Hall. More information will be coming soon so keep reading the bulletin and weekly emails.
Jesus keeps calling Simon names
In last Sunday’s gospel (Mt. 16:13-20) Jesus asked his disciples who people said he was. When Simon was asked, he responded, “You are the Christ, the Son of the Living God.” Jesus then said to him that he was ‘Cephas’ or ‘Peter’ as we know him today. By the way, that was not a name in Jesus’ time. It was a symbol and it means ‘rock’. Today, we understand this interaction to be the foundation of our understanding of Peter and his successors, the popes, as the head of the Church. This week, in the gospel from Matthew, 16: 21-27, Jesus calls Simon ‘Satan.’ That name means ‘tempter’. What is going on? Well, it is not as simple as it might seem. See you at Mass this weekend!
Book Recommendations
Stephen P. Kiernan, The Hummingbird
Stephen P. Kiernan, The Curiosity
I came across this author while browsing on my Kindle. His books are so good that I read these two virtually non-stop, except to say Mass and to take care of other necessary things. The Hummingbird is Kiernan’s first novel. It is the compelling and very moving tale of a hospice nurse assigned to care for an elderly cancer patient. The patient is a rather difficult, disgraced professor. The story of the relationship that develops between them is marvelous. Kiernan is magnificent in creating characters that speak to one’s soul.
The Curiosity is a very different sort of novel. It is a story of an Arctic scientific expedition that discovers among other animals a 100 year old flash-frozen body of a man in an iceberg. After bringing him back to their laboratory in New England, scientists are able to revive him. The book starts off a bit slowly with a good dose of science, but it quickly picks up once the frozen man, a turn of the 20th century judge, is revived. Again Kiernan is superb in his development of characters, and this is a deeply touching story as well.
Bargain e-books
Recently someone told me about BookBub, a source of bargain e-books. I decided to google it and when I did, I signed up. Each day now I receive a list of bargain books (.99-1.99) of various sorts available through Amazon, Barnes and Noble and several other sources. Most days nothing interests me but on some days I get terrific books cheap. Just the other day I found two, one of which I am reading now. It is a terrific horror tale. I really like well written horror novels, and there are not many being generated these days. Anyway, I suggest that novel readers in the parish google BookBub and check it out.
Yours in Christ,
Fr. Samuel Hose
Fr. Samuel Hose