@ Church, chili's, Home

Good Sunday, everyone! Thank God, we're alive and well!

We, Freny, sis-in-law Rose and I, left the house early this Sunday morning to attend/participate in today's Mass @ 9:30 @ the historic St. Paul's Catholic Church where we've been parishioners there for years. Since we arrived early, we couldn't find any parking space available in front, both sides of the church because the first Mass was still going on, not over yet. So, what we did was to drive around. We saw two birds on the road and with my camera, I snapped a couple of photos of those two lovebirds roaming around one of the narrow streets, a couple of blocks away from the church. We also took a photo of that old small ship that has become a Portsmouth Naval Museum? We've driven around downtown Portsmouth a couple of times until the first 8:00 Mass was over and parishioners were coming out of the church. We found one parking spot available and I had to do the parallel parking. Rev. Fr. Chris was at the facade of the church greeting or bidding farewell to those who just attended/participated in the 8:00 o'clock Mass.

Walking to the church, we met and greeted fellow parishioners as they were going to their cars. Others were entering the church, with their best church attire possible, like us. Most of them were in groups, apparently as faithful families and/with their extended families, probably.

As I've mentioned, Rev. Fr. Chris celebrated the 9:30 am Mass with us. Freny and I did the Cups 3 and 4 (the cup with the consecrated wine, the Blood of Christ), since we're scheduled today as volunteer lay Eucharistic Ministers of Holy Communion (EMHC). We also volunteered as greeters, welcoming parishioners, visitors and/or guests to the church.

The gospel message for today (from John 13:31-33a) emphasizes one of the very important ten commandments and that is to love one another as Jesus has loved us. Rev. Fr. Chris, in his homily, initially talked about our new Pope Francis I and his living the Gospel simply and humbly. He explained us how the latter is handling or managing his papacy so far, bearing in mind the love of Christ through loving the poor in our midst.

After Mass, Freny asked, "where are we going to eat?" Captain D's? Apple Bee's? Rose mentioned that she has a gift card for Apple Bee's. I kept my mouth shut momentarily. Then, eventually along the way, I thought of something, a different restaurant to eat out this time. I had in mind CHILI's for we haven't been there for months, 6 or 8 months, maybe? Freny got excited when I said, "how about CHILI's?" So there we went to have lunch at CHILI's. I ordered the tripple dipper, Freny and Rose the salad and chili soup combination. We all just had each a glass of iced water with a sliced of lemon. Thank God, for all your blessings to us all!

Photos (c) 2013 by Chris A. Quilpa

From CHILI's at Chesapeake Square, we went home with some more left-over food. At home, I took some photos along the way, photos of my house and backyard, including some of our growing fruit trees and rose plants, as you've seen in the above pictures.  Hope you liked and enjoyed them.

This is all for now, my dear folks and friends. Thanks for your time. Take care and have a nice day, everyone! As always, I pray, "May God bless us all!"-chris a. quilpa, 28 April 2013