JANUARY
Celebrations
We had wonderful Christmas celebrations at the Shrine with the weather cooperating both days. Father John Lager, O.F.M., Cap. presided at each liturgy and his Capuchin fathers and brothers accompanied him at a few of the liturgies. The chapel was filled with poinsettias and trees donated by JoEtta and Jim Heiney and the Loretta Dardano family and arranged by Carol Thrush. Sisters Pat and Renee coordinated the arrangements along with our shrine administrator Jeff Lewis. Our 2015 calendars created by JoAnn Seaman, Director of Development, were distributed.
Holy Family Sunday was the last Sunday of the month and we had our scheduled Spanish liturgy. After the liturgy each month, a meal is served with dishes prepared by the congregation and the shrine kitchen. An added treat of stockings for the children and food bags for the families was created by Ted Talamantez, our kitchen director, with the help of Carmen Garay and Connie Guerrero.
2015 New Website
As we begin the new year we are putting the final touches to our new website. The design will be more informative and easier to navigate.
Pope Francis’ Holy Family Story
Pope Francis once said that as a child, he heard a story of a family with a mother, father, many children and a grandfather. The grandfather, suffering from Parkinson’s illness, would drop food on the dining table, and smear it all over his face when he ate. His son considered it disgusting. Hence, one day he bought a small table and set it off to the side of the dining hall so the grandfather would eat, make a mess and not disturb the rest of the family. One day, the Pope said, the grandfather’s son came home and found one of his sons playing with a piece of wood. “What are you making?” he asked his son. “A table,” replies the son. “Why?” the father asks. “It’s for you, Dad,when you get old like grandpa. I am going to give you this table.” Ever since that day, the grandpa was given a prominent seat at the dining table and all the help he needed in eating by his son and daughter-in-law. “This story has done me such good throughout my life,” said Pope Francis. “Grandparents are a treasure,” he said. “often old age isn’t pretty, right? There is sickness and all that, but the wisdom our grandparents have is something we must welcome as an inheritance.” A society or community that does not value, respect and care for its elderly members “doesn’t have a future because it has no memory, it’s lost its memory,” Pope Francis added.
