I'll be adding a new feature/section this week called "Prayers". For those of you who would like more to pray about, I'll be including a few things to pray about happening in and around my life.
This week continued my walk on grace, particularly on Monday, Friday, Saturday, and Sunday. I feel as though I am on the right path, and that God is working in me, and it's just a marvelous feeling. Work has been challenging, but nothing so bad that it could knock me off my peace. Other things seem to be going well too, but that could just be a sign of a good attitude.
Grace and peace are different from happiness, and it is certainly possible to be at peace and not be happy. These few weeks I have been both, I'd love to share that feeling with you, and hopefully if I've seen you, I have.
Our intrepid week four crew: Ben P., Brianne, Me, Frank, and Joe.
Location and History:
Assumption. 5434 South 22nd Street (22nd & U), South Omaha (Omaha). The first surprise, this parish is literally a six minute trip from my house. It may not be the closest parish to my house mileage-wise, but it may be the quickest and easiest for me to get to. I left in a rush, but then I was there twenty minutes early.
Assumption was founded in 1894 to serve the Czech community in South Omaha. The current building was dated 1950.
Just as a side note, the Wikipedia effect works against me actually writing my blog when I do this research, I start looking for parish information and ninety minutes later I find myself reading about the history of the baseball field at Brown Park.
Architecture:
This is the first week that we had an impressive-on-the-outside looking church. 22nd and U is in the middle of a urban neighborhood, and the front of the church is large, and it seems even more so with the tight neighborhood and brick streets. The outside had a sacred heart garden to the right, and rosary garden to the left. Father Keiter, who was very kind to us, explained that the parish has an outdoor project every summer, and the two gardens were examples of such. The grounds were immaculate, I love that.
The inside of the church was smaller than any of the other parishes we had visited, but none the less, it was beautiful.
The stained glass was especially nice. You can see all my pictures from the church and the dinner next door here.
Mass:
For the second week in a row we had a priest who was very interactive with the congregation. Father Keiter was just wonderful in his homily (loosely quoted) "your number one job is to help your family, your friends, your neighbors get to heaven ... how different would your activities be if you stop and think this before you do something: 'is this going to help someone get to heaven?'"
The Mass was beautiful, and the congregation was friendly and obviously liked Father Keiter, and he them. Right before the last song, Brianne and I turned to one another and both said "I like this church." I was reminded again, just how different Mass can be from one parish to another.
Our guest this week, Ben, had never been to Catholic service before, Joe and I put him between us and tried to help him follow along (Joe mostly), and naturally Ben had questions. Questions are good, and since I believe Ben will join us again (I hope he writes here about his experiences), I hope to be able to answer ,intelligently, those questions. This may be a trip to every parish, but it's actually a journey of faith and discovery.
Assumption Parish Czech Festival Kick-off Dinner:
After Mass we sauntered over to the festival kick off dinner. I got the pork, it came with the hugest dumplings I've ever seen, plus kraut, gravy, and extra applesauce ... and what is that??? Kolachi? Oddly enough I seem to be the only bake sale junkie of the group. I went and got more Kolachi, which was not only fantastic, but was paid for by raffle winnings.
Brianne, Ben, and Joe got the duck. I tried some of Brianne's, but I just don't really care for duck, and no, it's not because it's gamey. However the pork was fantastic, I find it hard to believe we won't hit this event again next year. Somehow I didn't get a picture of the food, I know Brianne did, maybe Frank did too. Christmas (yes, that is her name) and Todd showed up to join us for the meal
Gospel:
A new commandment I give to you, that you love one another, even as I have loved you, that you also love one another. John 13:34
If Shakespeare wrote a Gospel, one can imagine him having Jesus say "How do I love thee? Let me count the way ... 1. Unconditionally." Not just on Tuesday. Not only when you take out the trash. Not just when you buy me flowers. Jesus knew we'd gossip about Him. He knew we would serve our own needs and desires. He knew that we would fail Him, and the Father ... yet He loved us so much, unconditionally, that before He took his rightful place at God's side, He took our rightful place on the cross.
I can get pretty caught up in me. And what happens when I do? I become miserable, eventually, because I am not this, or I fail at that, or something in my life isn't going perfectly. But what happens when I quit being focused on myself, and try to live a life of service? I become more at peace, more fulfilled in a way that I cannot be by just thinking of myself. I become more like my beautiful Savior.
God teach me how to love all your children as you have loved me.
Prayers:
Please pray for:
Tom who is being deployed to Afghanistan, and his wife and two daughters.
My friends M. and C. who have been ill lately.
Heidi as she prepares for a mission trip to Haiti in July.
Peace, Eric
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