Almost Fall, Y'all - St. Peter the Apostle - Being Thankful

 Hello out there! My weather report for today is - I can feel and see that fall will soon be here! The temps aren't quite as high and the days are getting a little bit shorter. This morning there was dew on the ground and a cool/almost chilly breeze in the air. I love this time of year! I'm ready to start baking beer bread and fixing spicy chicken and dumplings, chicken and rice soup, stew, etc. I'm going to bake some chocolate chip cookies when I'm through with this post! We're having left overs tonight!

This past Sunday, August 27th, the scriptures from the Gospel reminded me of a heartwarming memory/story I'm going to re-share with y'all today. Let's start with the Gospel!

Matthew 16:13-20

Jesus went into the region of Caesarea Philippi and he asked his disciples, "Who do people say that the Son of Man is?" They replied, "Some say John the Baptist, others Elijah, still others Jeremiah or one of the prophets." He said to them, "But who do you say that I am?" Simon Peter said in reply, "You are the Christ, the Son of the living God." Jesus said to him in reply, "Blessed are you, Simon son of Jonah. For flesh and blood has not revealed this to you, but my heavenly Father. And so I say to you, you are Peter, and upon this rock I will build my church, and the gates of the netherworld shall not prevail against it. I will give you the keys to the kingdom of heaven. Whatever you bind on earth shall be bound in heaven; and whatever you loose on earth shall be loosed in heaven." Then he strictly ordered his disciples to tell no one that he was the Christ.

(When I write down scripture passages they either come from "Magnificat" (our daily devotional and Mass readings) or our family bible, "St. Joseph Edition of the New American Bible") 

Now I'll share the story. Jim and I don't travel often but when we do, we always visit Catholic Churches a long our route. I copied part of a story I posted back in December 2017. I'll paste it below - We visited St. Peter The Apostle Catholic Church in Joplin Missouri. I'll add the link to the whole post below that because it has a story about an old cemetery we visited while we were in Little Rock, Arkansas - so much history.

Our final destination was Branson, Missouri. We had arrived in Branson on Thursday
morning. Now for the last day - We left on Saturday morning (closer to noon) to head
home. We decided that we would drive as far as we could and if we got too tired we
would stop and spend the night somewhere. We had about a ten and a half hour drive
ahead and that would not include all the stops. Our route would take us through
Joplin, MO, into Oklahoma and then Texas. We had only driven about an hour when
we stopped in a little town and ate lunch. I told Jim that I would like to stop at another
Catholic Church before we left Missouri. I looked on my phone and found, St. Peter
The Apostle Catholic Church in Joplin, MO. We missed the turn off and had to drive
quite a ways before we were able to turn around. I looked at Jim and said, "I know it
will be a blessing!" He looked at me and shook his head kind of like, okay but we
still have a long way to go. He might have been thinking something else but that was
my interpretation. We finally made it to the church and it was beautiful! The church was
built in 1905. Here is a picture of the outside and of the doors! I love the symbolism
of the doors!

I took a bunch of pictures of the inside of this church! I will share some more of them

with you tomorrow. I have to tell you about the "neatest story" now. I held my breath

as I pulled on the handle of the door and it opened! Jim and I were walking around

and looking at everything. Jim was at the back of the sanctuary and I was up by the

statue of Mother Mary when an older gentleman walked in. He sat down in the back

for awhile and then I saw him out of the corner of  my eye when he moved to the first

pew right in front of the altar. He took a hymnal and opened it and began to sing

"Amazing Grace" - took my breath away! He had a beautiful voice and he sang from

his heart and the words echoed throughout the sanctuary. I quietly joined in and then

he sang the second verse. By that time, I was choked up and just listened to this

faithful man singing his heart out to the Lord! I walked to the back to be with Jim.

In a little while the gentleman walked to the back so that he could leave. I said to him,

"You have a beautiful voice." He replied, "I like to come in here and thank God

for another day." We said goodbye and he left. Jim and I left soon after. We both

felt like we had been given this amazing gift.

That's all for now. I have to fix dinner! Hopefully I will be able to finish tomorrow!

                                                                Blessings to you and yours!

                                                                                 Bye for now, Sharla



Sometimes I think about the gentleman we met that day. How he took the time to stop and thank the Lord. We are so blessed to have the freedom to worship when and were we choose. This man was a veteran and we thanked him for his service. So wherever you go to church, please remember to give thanks to God for the freedoms we have and for all our service men and women and their families. 

If you have time and would like to read the whole story - click on the link below!

https://adoptedandblessed.blogspot.com/2017/12/part-one-road-trip-vacation-full-of.html

Peace and blessings to you and yours, near and far, wherever you are!

Bye for now, Sharla