In his homily during Sunday's Mass yesterday, our Rev. Pastor talked about what each of us, parishioners, can do if and when we love one another. He said that all of us are capable of being generous, merciful, compassionate, kind, and loving.
As volunteer Extraordinary Ministers for Holy Communion (EMHC), my wife and I were scheduled or assigned to distribute host to our fellow parishioners at Sunday's Mass yesterday. Before the Mass ended, my sister-in-law, my wife and I, and our daughter had to leave the church early to the point that we didn't wait for Rev. Pastor's final blessings. The reason being was that our daughter was scheduled to play the piano for a church service in a Methodist Church in Norfolk at eleven in the morning. (She gets paid $40-$50 for the whole service.) We have exactly thirty minutes to arrive at our destination. My wife did the driving, as always the case for a place that we're not familiar with. I do the "navigating", sort of. But with help of GPS, of course. We're glad that we arrived five minutes before eleven. As "visitor-guests" of the church, we were graciously welcome by the church members there who were mostly senior citizens. We did participate in the service, even though we're Catholics or of different religious affiliation. We prayed and sang with them. We also listened to their pastor. After the service, they thanked us for being with them. We did the same, for allowing and having given us the opportunity to experience attending their church service.
We left Norfolk after the church service. My wife thought of driving to the other clustered Catholic parish to catch up with our Rev. Pastor if he was the one officiating the Mass there at eleven fifteen. Arriving there on the church's ground, we noticed that the parking lot was full. Meaning the Mass isn't over yet. Actually, it was almost done because it was already 12:10 p.m. (Normally, regular Sunday Mass ends in an hour or less. My sis-in-law, my wife and our daughter got out of the car, went to see our pastor and request if he can bless our daughter's new car (our graduation gift for her). I remained sitting there in the car. While waiting, I saw the parishioners coming out of the church, in twos or threes or fours, and going to their respective cars on the parking lot. That means that the Mass has just ended. After a few minutes, my wife cautioned me to drive the car closer to the front of the church. There they were, with our parochial vicar, Rev. Fr. Jarek. (We'll surely miss Fr. Jarek when he transfer to his next parish assignment this last week of June. He's such a sweet, always jolly, approachable priest; very down-to-earth, people-person and, no doubt, true and faithful disciple of Jesus, in my observation. May God bless and keep him always!
He did bless our daughter's new car graciously, without hesitation at all. We even had some pictures taken while he was blessing the car. We had a group picture, too. he didn't mind at all, when we asked him. Afterwards, we sincerely thanked him then extended our invitation for lunch and our daughter's graduation party last weekend of this month. He said he'd love to attend but he doesn't know his schedule. "We'll see," he said. "I don't know my schedule next week. We'll see, okay?" he added.
Lunchtime came. Since it's Mother's Day, I'd love to treat my wife to a fine restaurant. But, my sis-in-law's schedule didn't allow us to dine at a buffet restaurant. She has work at one p.m. That's why we just ate lunch at Seafood Restaurant that's near her part-time job. After lunch, we drove our sis-in-law to her work.
Our daughter, my wife and I drove around until we decided to go to Furniture Store. (My wife and I have been planning lately to go shopping for something for our living room, that's why.) So that's what we did. We did go to two furniture stores: one in a military store and the other, civilian. Finally, we ended up at this civilian Furniture Store where we purchased a sectional (yet to be delivered next week) for our living room. Yes, folks, timing is everything. And, in our case, we're just hoping that all the stuff we're doing in and out of the house will be ready in time for our daughter's graduation party in our house.
Well, friends, this is all for now. Thank you for your time. Until next time around. Take care and Have a wonderful day, everyone!-chris a. quilpa, 14May 2012.
No comments:
Post a Comment