St. Anthony of Padua pray for us!
Yesterday, Jim and I were blessed to go to Mass at St. Anthony's Catholic Church in Bryan, TX. We were in town for the weekend to watch our granddaughter play softball. We enjoyed watching the games and visiting with our family. I remembered that we had been to St. Anthony's Catholic Church six years before. I've been praying the St. Anthony Novena and was so thankful that Jim and I could go to Mass at that same church yesterday. We stopped by the prayer chapel on Saturday after one of the games and it was so peaceful. We looked at the Mass times and decided that we would go to the early Mass on Sunday.
I looked back in my blog archives and found the post I wrote a little over six years ago about another trip we took - it included family time, softball, and St. Anthony's Catholic Church. It's a reminder to me about how some things change and many things stay the same;
Our faith and love of God - yesterday was Holy Trinity Sunday, spending time with our family; near and far, and being so thankful for our many blessings.
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Today is going to be another extremely hot day - stay hydrated and be safe out there! The post I wrote six years ago will be pasted below.
And as always, peace and blessings to you and yours, near and far, wherever you are!
This picture was taken about three years ago - Jim decided that our statues of St. Anthony, Mother Mary, and St. Francis of Assisi needed straw hats to protect them from the hot sun! I discreetly got rid of the hats the next year - yes, Jim noticed! If the temperatures continue to be in the 100s, the hats will probably reappear!
Love my husband ! We celebrated 39 years of marriage earlier this month!
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Saturday, April 9, 2016
UNEXPECTED BLESSINGS, FINDING GOD EVERYWHERE!
Hello Out There! How has your week been? I'm so happy that I finally have time to
sit down and write a post. It has been ten days since I wrote my last one. I think I
will do a timeline to catch y'all up on everything.
On Thursday, March 31st, Jim and I headed out of town. We were going to see our
oldest son and his family on Friday, April 1st. We decided to take
off a day early and just take our time and stop here and there and everywhere!
We were supposed to leave early on Thursday morning. The early part didn't happen.
We left around 11:00 a.m. I only had to run back into the house twice to grab the
things I forgot. We weren't even out of the driveway yet so it wasn't a big deal.
When Jim asked me if I was sure I had everything I smiled and said yep, I think so.
Then I told him to drive kind of slow as we were going down the street so that I could
go over everything we brought, just in case we had to turn around. I did get a "look"
from him on that comment. After a few minutes I said, "we're good, lets say a prayer
and speed it up!" Jim always says that patience is a virtue and it is not one of the
virtues that he has. After being married to me for almost 33 years, I think Jim has
definitely earned the patience virtue!
We do have a good time when we are able to travel out of town. We take our time
and stop whenever we see something interesting or if we just want to take another
look. We are known to whip U-turns, but only on country roads when there isn't much
traffic. We stopped at a little town southeast of Temple, TX to visit a sweet couple that
moved away from San Angelo years ago. They have always been like a second set of
parents to Jim and they are special to me also! We stayed a couple of hours and then
continued on our way. We pulled into Bryan/College Station just as the sun was
going down. We were trying to find a place to stay and took a wrong turn. Then all
of a sudden I cried out, "Look, it's St. Anthony's Catholic Church, he found us!"
Jim found a place to park and we got out and walked around. You will not believe
what we found. They have a beautiful rosary garden dedicated to the unborn. It is
called St. Anthony's Walking Rosary and the sign says that it was dedicated and
blessed on 12/08/2006 as a memorial for the victims of abortion in our community
and in our world. My eyes filled with tears and I began to cry as I read all the names
of the groups and people who contributed to the garden. I told Jim how much God
knows our hearts, and how amazing it is that St. Anthony helped us find our way
to this special place. We walked along the stepping stones of the rosary for a few
minutes and then we checked the Mass schedule and drove off to find a hotel. The
next morning we woke up early and drove back to St. Anthony's church for the
7:15 a.m. Mass. It was overcast and a heavy mist was falling as we parked and
dashed to the Prayer Chapel. Mass was wonderful, and afterwards we talked to
some of the parishioners. They were all very friendly. Our Bishop for the San
Angelo Catholic Diocese is from there. When the people found out where we
were from they all told us how blessed we are to have him as our bishop. We told
them that yes, we are very blessed, he is wonderful. Some people were cleaning
the large church sanctuary and they let us go in and look around. It is a beautiful
old catholic church. Another lady stopped by and told us that we should go over
to St. Joseph's Catholic Church for the 8:15 a.m. Mass with the school children.
Jim and I finished looking at the church and when we walked outside that same
lady was waiting in her vehicle for us to follow her. We went to Mass at
St. Joseph's and really enjoyed seeing all the school children. The sanctuary was
full of families. I love seeing the mothers and fathers, and all the little ones!
Jim and I felt so blessed, what an awesome way to begin our Friday morning.
After Mass we met some more people and we were introduced to the priest.
He shared some stories about our bishop and told us how he knew that someday
he would be a bishop. We thanked him and said good-bye.
While Jim and I were looking at the beautiful, Old Testament story telling
stained glass windows, a lady walked up and started talking to us.
Her name is Ruth, and she is the sweetest woman. She led us through the
doors to the Adoration Chapel and told us to sign in.
As Jim and I were kneeling to say our prayers, she brought us three rosaries and
some reading material to take with us. Ruth told us that one rosary was for our
vehicle and the other two were for us. She hugged us and then she was gone. Jim
and I stayed for a little while and prayed. Tears kept streaming down my face. I
could feel the Holy Spirit right there with us. When Jim and I got into the truck
I immediately hung up one of the rosaries on our rearview mirror. We went back
to the hotel, had some breakfast, packed and checked out. We had only been gone
from home a little over 24 hours and were so humbled at the blessings we had
received. I just kept thinking about one of my favorite hymns;
Lead Me, Lord. I sing the refrain from it a lot.
"Lead me, Lord, lead me, Lord, by the light of truth
to seek and to find the narrow way.
Be my way be my truth; be my life, my Lord,
and lead me, Lord, today."
We were on the road again. We stopped at a neat store on the side of
the highway. There was every kind of concrete statue you could imagine, and a
bunch of other stuff too! Jim took a picture of me next to a life size painted
statue of a lion. I wanted to take a picture of him by a big ape but he wouldn't
cooperate! We journeyed on, stopped at a barbecue place and ate and then
drove on to our destination. We checked in at our hotel, freshened up, and drove
over to our son's home. Our granddaughters ran out to greet us right as we drove
up. Hugs and more hugs, kisses too and then we all loaded up and headed to
the field where our younger granddaughter was having her first softball
scrimmage, she is 7 and she is the catcher, our son is the coach. We enjoyed the
game, they both did a great job! We found a place to eat dinner and then we
called it a night! The next day was going to start early and we all needed a good
nights rest! I will have to finish telling about the rest of our trip in the next day
or two! I've been running back and forth fixing dinner and washing dishes while
I wrote this post! The cornbread is almost ready and the goulash is simmering!
Have a wonderful evening. God bless you all wherever you are!
Bye for now, Sharla
sit down and write a post. It has been ten days since I wrote my last one. I think I
will do a timeline to catch y'all up on everything.
On Thursday, March 31st, Jim and I headed out of town. We were going to see our
oldest son and his family on Friday, April 1st. We decided to take
off a day early and just take our time and stop here and there and everywhere!
We were supposed to leave early on Thursday morning. The early part didn't happen.
We left around 11:00 a.m. I only had to run back into the house twice to grab the
things I forgot. We weren't even out of the driveway yet so it wasn't a big deal.
When Jim asked me if I was sure I had everything I smiled and said yep, I think so.
Then I told him to drive kind of slow as we were going down the street so that I could
go over everything we brought, just in case we had to turn around. I did get a "look"
from him on that comment. After a few minutes I said, "we're good, lets say a prayer
and speed it up!" Jim always says that patience is a virtue and it is not one of the
virtues that he has. After being married to me for almost 33 years, I think Jim has
definitely earned the patience virtue!
We do have a good time when we are able to travel out of town. We take our time
and stop whenever we see something interesting or if we just want to take another
look. We are known to whip U-turns, but only on country roads when there isn't much
traffic. We stopped at a little town southeast of Temple, TX to visit a sweet couple that
moved away from San Angelo years ago. They have always been like a second set of
parents to Jim and they are special to me also! We stayed a couple of hours and then
continued on our way. We pulled into Bryan/College Station just as the sun was
going down. We were trying to find a place to stay and took a wrong turn. Then all
of a sudden I cried out, "Look, it's St. Anthony's Catholic Church, he found us!"
Jim found a place to park and we got out and walked around. You will not believe
what we found. They have a beautiful rosary garden dedicated to the unborn. It is
called St. Anthony's Walking Rosary and the sign says that it was dedicated and
blessed on 12/08/2006 as a memorial for the victims of abortion in our community
and in our world. My eyes filled with tears and I began to cry as I read all the names
of the groups and people who contributed to the garden. I told Jim how much God
knows our hearts, and how amazing it is that St. Anthony helped us find our way
to this special place. We walked along the stepping stones of the rosary for a few
minutes and then we checked the Mass schedule and drove off to find a hotel. The
next morning we woke up early and drove back to St. Anthony's church for the
7:15 a.m. Mass. It was overcast and a heavy mist was falling as we parked and
dashed to the Prayer Chapel. Mass was wonderful, and afterwards we talked to
some of the parishioners. They were all very friendly. Our Bishop for the San
Angelo Catholic Diocese is from there. When the people found out where we
were from they all told us how blessed we are to have him as our bishop. We told
them that yes, we are very blessed, he is wonderful. Some people were cleaning
the large church sanctuary and they let us go in and look around. It is a beautiful
old catholic church. Another lady stopped by and told us that we should go over
to St. Joseph's Catholic Church for the 8:15 a.m. Mass with the school children.
Jim and I finished looking at the church and when we walked outside that same
lady was waiting in her vehicle for us to follow her. We went to Mass at
St. Joseph's and really enjoyed seeing all the school children. The sanctuary was
full of families. I love seeing the mothers and fathers, and all the little ones!
Jim and I felt so blessed, what an awesome way to begin our Friday morning.
After Mass we met some more people and we were introduced to the priest.
He shared some stories about our bishop and told us how he knew that someday
he would be a bishop. We thanked him and said good-bye.
While Jim and I were looking at the beautiful, Old Testament story telling
stained glass windows, a lady walked up and started talking to us.
Her name is Ruth, and she is the sweetest woman. She led us through the
doors to the Adoration Chapel and told us to sign in.
As Jim and I were kneeling to say our prayers, she brought us three rosaries and
some reading material to take with us. Ruth told us that one rosary was for our
vehicle and the other two were for us. She hugged us and then she was gone. Jim
and I stayed for a little while and prayed. Tears kept streaming down my face. I
could feel the Holy Spirit right there with us. When Jim and I got into the truck
I immediately hung up one of the rosaries on our rearview mirror. We went back
to the hotel, had some breakfast, packed and checked out. We had only been gone
from home a little over 24 hours and were so humbled at the blessings we had
received. I just kept thinking about one of my favorite hymns;
Lead Me, Lord. I sing the refrain from it a lot.
"Lead me, Lord, lead me, Lord, by the light of truth
to seek and to find the narrow way.
Be my way be my truth; be my life, my Lord,
and lead me, Lord, today."
We were on the road again. We stopped at a neat store on the side of
the highway. There was every kind of concrete statue you could imagine, and a
bunch of other stuff too! Jim took a picture of me next to a life size painted
statue of a lion. I wanted to take a picture of him by a big ape but he wouldn't
cooperate! We journeyed on, stopped at a barbecue place and ate and then
drove on to our destination. We checked in at our hotel, freshened up, and drove
over to our son's home. Our granddaughters ran out to greet us right as we drove
up. Hugs and more hugs, kisses too and then we all loaded up and headed to
the field where our younger granddaughter was having her first softball
scrimmage, she is 7 and she is the catcher, our son is the coach. We enjoyed the
game, they both did a great job! We found a place to eat dinner and then we
called it a night! The next day was going to start early and we all needed a good
nights rest! I will have to finish telling about the rest of our trip in the next day
or two! I've been running back and forth fixing dinner and washing dishes while
I wrote this post! The cornbread is almost ready and the goulash is simmering!
Have a wonderful evening. God bless you all wherever you are!
Bye for now, Sharla
