New Additions to the Room

Today I added some new wall art. I added a laminated poster of the San Damiano Crucifix which is the crucifix that spoke to Francis over 800 years ago. Right next to that image is a painting by Ms. Katherine Vadney (age 2) - Dianne and Greg Vadney's first child. From what Dianne told me Katherine wanted to paint Friar Nader a image, so when I received it I said I would hang it on my bedroom wall when I got back to San Antonio. Well I did! Here those two artworks below.
The third addition to my room is of a sign that I found in a whole in the wall shop when my family was in Ocean City, NJ for a beach getaway weekend. My parents were interested in me buying something and when I saw this quote I fell in love with it. The picture is below and here is the quote if you can't read it: Peace. it does not mean to be in a place where there is no noise, trouble or hard work. it means to be in the midst of those things and still be calm in your heart. Unknown (author).I decided to GoodSearch the quote to see if I could find more information about the quote. It turns out that the quote is taken from a longer story. Here is the background story of the quote from a site on peace entitled Meaning of Peace:

Once there was a king who offered a prize to the artist who could paint the best representation of peace. Many artists tried, and the king looked closely at all their pictures. But there were only two he really liked, and he had to choose between them.

One picture was of a calm lake. The lake was a perfect mirror for peaceful towering mountains all around it. Overhead was a blue sky with fluffy white clouds. All who saw this picture thought that it was a perfect picture of peace. The other picture had mountains, too. But these were rugged and bare. Above was an angry sky, from which rain fell and in which lightning played. Down the side of the mountain tumbled a foaming waterfall. This did not look peaceful at all.

But when the king looked closely, he saw behind the waterfall a tiny bush growing in a crack in the rock. In the bush a mother bird had built her nest. There, in the midst of the rush of angry water, sat the mother bird on her nest - in perfect peace. Which picture do you think won the prize? The king chose the second picture. Why?

“Because,” explained the king, “peace does not mean to be in a place where there is no noise, trouble, or hard work. Peace means to be calm in midst of all those things and still be calm in your heart. That is the real meaning of peace.”

Mount Sacred Heart School

This year I will be ministering at Mount Sacred Heart School in San Antonio. It is a grade school located across the parking lot from where I go to school at Oblate. Today I meet with Sr. Mary Hope, the Director of Religious Education and Liturgies at the School, who will be supervisor this year. As part of all the seminarians and ministry supervisors meeting the seminarian introduced their supervisor to the whole group. I found out some very interesting facts about Sr. Mary Hope. She is a member of the Sisters of the Sacred Heart of Jesus and originally from France where she met the sisters. Two year after being professed she was a assigned to the US and has spent most o her life in the southwest. Sister did spend about six years at one of their mission in Papua New Guinea. It is to be noted that Sr. Mary Hope is a graduate from Oblate School of Theology and graduated when women were first allowed to go to school with seminarians. Also some of the professors that taught her are teaching me now. After meeting with Sr. Mary Hope I walked over to the School for a Safe Environment workshop with the other teachers. I learned a lot and it was nice to see and meet the teachers.

I will let you know more about what I will be doing at the School within the next week after I found out.

Peace and All Good Things!