Please pray for:
- Don Walden, as he continues treatment for illness,
- Tom Walsh, a he continues his recovery from surgery,
- Noreen Gottschalk, who was recently hospitalized, and
- Morris Stark as he undergoes treatment for illness.
Congratulations to:
- the children who received First Eucharist during the past few weeks, and
- the youth who received the sacrament of confirmation from Bishop Vasquez last Saturday.
Thank you to:
- the members of the staff and all of the volunteers who prepared our children and youth for reception of the sacraments of First Eucharist and Confirmation, and
- the staff and volunteers who worked hard to make the celebrations of those liturgies so very beautiful. The amount of time and effort that it takes to make those happen is immense. They worked hard and it all came off so very well thanks to them.
Missionary Priest this weekend
This weekend please welcome Fr. Enrique Hernandez Montoya, OFMConv., to Emmaus. He will be present at all Masses (at Emmaus) for our annual missionary appeal. His order, the Orden de Frailes Conventuales, Provincia de Mexico, Nuestra Senora de Guadalupe, is seeking support in their efforts to build an education center that was destroyed by a volcano and for the continuing education of seminarians. Checks should be made out to Emmaus parish with a notation “Missionary appeal.” You can also support this appeal by using the Giving Kiosk in the narthex. Instructions on its use will be available. Even I was able to figure it out.
Building Project Update
- Today (May 25) we are meeting with the diocesan Director of Facilities, the Director of Stewardship and Development and with the CFO of the diocese to discuss the funding of our proposed projects. We have to have diocesan approval which is based on our ability to pay for the project with cash on hand and through our ability to service any needed loans.
- We have received proposals from three architects. Members of the building committee will be interviewing them on Friday, June 8.
We are paying down the principal on the PLC loan today!
Thanks to the response of so many parishioners to the special gift portion of our recent Count on Me Campaign we are taking with us, to our meeting with the diocesan CFO today, a check for $55,000 which will be used to pay down the principal on our PLC debt. As I reported to you some time ago, each $10,000 that we pay down the principal now lowers our total outlay over the life of the loan by $23,600. With our payment on the principal today, our total outlay of funds for the loan is decreased by $129,800. Thank you!
Fr. Rito on vacation
Fr. Rito will be on vacation beginning this Saturday, May 26 through June 20. He will be visiting his family in Nicaragua. Please pray for him that he has a safe journey and a restful time away.
I will be away…
…from Tuesday, May 29 through Thursday, May 31. I will be at the annual Austin diocese priest summer gathering at the Marriott Resort in Horseshoe Bay. Given that that is where we will be, this is clearly not a retreat. It is a bit of continuing education and a significant amount of time just being with fellow priests.
A story for you...
A man left his house one morning to walk to work which was close by. He walked and turned a corner and immediately fell into a big hole. He climbed out, dusted himself off and continued on to work. The next day the man once more left his house to go to work. Again he walked down the street, turned the corner and fell into the hole again. Again he climbed out, dusted himself off and continued on to work. The next day, the man once more left his house to go to work. He walked down the street and turned the corner once more. However this time he attempted to jump over the hole. He did not make it. He ended up in the hold again. So, once more he climbed out, dusted himself off and continued on to work. The next day, the man again left his house to walk to work, but thinking ahead this time, he took with him a long, sturdy pole. When he came to the hole he attempted to pole vault over it. He failed this also and he ended up in the hole again. So, once more he climbed out, dusted himself off and continued on to work. The next day, the man left his house to walk to work. He walked down the street and turned the corner. However, this time he decided to cross over to the other side of the street so that he could avoid the hole. He did that and continued on, without further incident, to work.I shared this at daily mass this morning in response to the gospel reading of Thursday (May 24), which was Mark 9:41-50 – click here to read that.
Jesus tells us in that gospel passage that if something causes us to sin we need to eliminate whatever it is from our lives. This is called avoiding the occasion of sin. How often do we just allow ourselves over and over again to fall into the same traps? They might be places we go, people we spend time with, things we do and so on that end up causing us to do and say things that are not consistent with being good disciples of Christ—things such as gossip, judgement of others, anger, divisions and so on. Maybe if we are really honest about the “holes” that we need to avoid in our everyday lives, and we really make some needed changes, we just might find ourselves living our lives more “safely” on our way to where God wants us to be.
Book Recommendation
Varina, by Charles Frazier
Charles Frazier returns, in this new novel, to the time of his earlier great novel, Cold Mountain. It is a story of the memories of Varina Davis, the wife of Jefferson Davis who was the president of the Confederacy. Set near the end of her life in the early 20th century, she receives a visit from a former slave child whom she had rescued and cared. That visit lead to a recounting not just of the Civil War years and the aftermath but also of her earlier life and her relationship with her significantly older husband. Like all of Frazier’s novels, this is a wonderful and beautifully researched work and a great story.