After Sunday Mass w/ Rev. Fr. Jarek (w/ Photos)

Good Sunday, everyone! How are we all doing today? Good. Thank God, we're alive and well!

This sunny (but a little chilly) Sunday morning, I was one of those parishioners of St. Paul's Catholic Church, in downtown Portsmouth, VA, who was so glad/excited and thankful to see our former parochial vicar, Reverend Fr. Jarek, celebrating Mass with us today. Joyful and bubbly as he's always been, Fr. Jarek had no choice but to leave us then (over a year ago now?) for his new assignment: as the new pastor of St. Jude Catholic and chaplain at Radford University. Observably, he wanted to stick around with us but the diocese gave him that new position, a promotion but also a challenge for him. And as a good follower and ambassador of Christ, he accepted his new pastoral ministry.

He's such a jolly, likable and passionate priest, to me. I'm sure a  lot of my fellow parishioners would also agree with me for saying this. One time in summer last year, Freny and I decided to visit him unannounced (kind of a surprise visit), at his new parish, after that Chemistry workshop that Freny has participated at JMU in Harrisonburg. His Mom was there then. We're so happy and excited to see both of them. And we were warmly welcomed by Fr. Jarek at the Mass we attended and he celebrated with us, visitors/guests and his parishioners there. After Mass, he invited us to his house. They were so accommodating, indeed! He and his Mom served us two different kinds of soup, with Polish sausages that they both cooked/prepared. We had a good time! (If my memory serves me right, I think, I did write a blog post about our visit to him last year.)

Well, guess what, my dear folks and friends, I'm sharing with you herewith the pictures taken this morning, after Mass officiated by Rev. Fr. Jarek, our former parochial vicar at the historic St. Paul's Catholic Church, Porstmouth, VA, and currently the pastor at St. Jude's and chaplain at Radford University.

We've been parishioners of the historic St. Paul's Catholic Church for years. On the next photo are my wife Freny and her sister Rose.

Rev. Fr. Jarek, here in the succeeding photos, greeting parishioners of St. Paul's Catholic Church, after the Sunday Mass today. He's still the same faithful and passionate servant of God who is friendly and full of life!

A longtime parishioner of St. Paul's Catholic and fellow Knights of Columbus member joined our group to have a brief chat with Fr. Jarek...

Can't you tell how friendly and down-to-earth Fr. Jarek is! He's so joyful, full of life, indeed!

Fr. Jarek reiterated his invitation for us to come and visit him again. We said, "we'll come visit you, again this summer, Father."

The ever-joyful and friendly Rev. Fr. Jarek...He even received a sweet hug from a young parishioner. (See the photo below.)

 After Mass, and having a short time with Fr. Jarek, we went to NEX/Commissary where we had lunch at a Subway restaurant there. As I've mentioned we would love to have Fr. Jarek with us for lunch but he has another commitment at another cluster parish in Portsmouth after the Mass. And from there, he'd probably go back to his parish which is 5-6 hours drive. (Has he been with us for lunch, we would have treated him to wherever he wants to eat. Why? Because he's such a special friend to us. We'll surely miss him!)

After lunch, we went to the Commissary to buy groceries there. Yay, would you believe if I say that we spent over two hundred dollars for groceries today? Yes, we did! Well, as you know, we haven't been to the Commissary for a while. We got carried away, my dear folks and friends! Btw, for veggies and fruits that we need, on a day-to-day basis, I just go to the nearest grocery chain in our area. Just like last week in which I posted on my blog some of my favorite grocery items that I bought at that grocery store.

Well, this is all for now. Thank you for keeping me company. Until next time around. Take care and have a blessed, peaceful day, everyone! As always, I pray, "May God bless us all!"-chris a. quilpa, 21 April 2013