I am pleased to announce that the parish building committee for the new pastoral center on the Emmaus campus and for the Chapel Life & Retreat Center on the Queen of Angels campus has selected an architecture firm for both projects. We have contracted with Jackson Galloway Architects. We look forward to working with them as we continue to improve our parish facilities.

I will be away for a short vacation from July 15 through July 27. During that time Fr. Rito and Msgr. Bill Brooks will be taking care of weekend Masses At Emmaus. Fr. Rito will be available for any emergencies.

You will be seeing a number of changes as we continue to look for ways to improve our parish bulletin. One thing to which I want to draw your attention is the front cover.  As we did this past weekend, we will often be putting on the front cover announcements of things that we want you to pay attention to right away. This past weekend it was two adult faith formation classes which began on Tuesday. One is on Catholic prayer. Our prayer tradition is rich and varied. There is a lot more to it than the average Catholic knows. The other class is an opportunity for you to learn the biblical origins of the Mass. Taking that class will enhance your understanding of what we do and why we do it.  It will also give you information that you can use to teach your children about the Mass and why it is so important. The classes started on Tuesday but you can still join them next Tuesday, July 17. (details here: www.EmmausParish.org/AdultFaith)  So, don’t skip over the front cover of our bulletins. We will be announcing a lot more there in coming weeks and months.

I am sharing this with you in case there are some out there who have encountered a download problem on their Barnes and Noble Nook e-book readers. When I attempted to download a new book a few days ago I got a message that my device could not connect with Nook services and to try again later. I did and I still got the same message. As a matter of fact I tried over the course of several days and got the same message over and over again. I tried everything that I could think of and failed. So I took my nook to the Galleria Barnes and Noble customer service desk. The young lady at the desk said, “You need the new app download.” That was a surprise since there was no indication of that on the message that I got on my nook. Then she went to get her manager. She came and could not fix the problem.  So she want to find her manager. Her name was Dana. It seems that getting the download of the new nook app was something of a challenge. Dana embraced it wholeheartedly. She tried everything that she knew and failing got on the phone to a technician somewhere. It took nearly an hour for all of this to occur but Dana was determined and finally solved the problem and my nook is again working nicely. So if your nook is acting strange take it to Dana at customer service at the B & N store in the Galleria. She is terrific. I have rarely experienced such wonderful, determined and enthusiastic customer service.