Sappy, but...

...still a great story of camaraderie. Enjoy

Sad News

I just got the news that Fr. Jim Miceli, my first assignment Pastor in the Archdiocese, died this morning. Please keep his family, the other priest of the Archdiocese and the people of St. Mary's in Rome Georgia in your prayers.

Eternal rest grant unto him, O Lord!

The video of the cut.

 Here is the video of the cut. This was taken at the mohawk stage, enjoy!

Photos from vacation.

I went to Boston to have a Memorial Mass for Wilfred "Bub" Landry on the 9th of July. Then on the 11th went to Cape Cod for a week. I took some great photos around the garden of the people I was there to celebrate the Mass with and then some good photos of the Tall Ships in Boston, then put my camera away in my backpack and when I went looking for it, I could not find it for days. Then, when I found it, I found I left it on and the battery went down and no charger I was left to just using my iPhone (which is not as great) which is why I did not have many photos of the cape...anyway here are the photos from Boston. Enjoy

And yes I know I still owe you more photos from Japan...they will be here soon!

Totally fake and set up...

but still quite imaginative. Enjoy

These pirates attacked Dallas

Here are two young pirates who brought in quite a haul in Dallas...more about that after the photos.

I guess one of the perks of living in Dallas is that when you knock on a door you never know who will be inside that house...none other than FLOTUS Laura Bush. They had a short discussion of the upcoming election and then that pirate was off to get more booty! Speaking of that booty, when these little pirates got home the stash at home for the other kids ran out, so these two pirates decided to share all of their candy with those who came looking for candy, what great little sharers.
If you have photos of your little ones out and about send them in I would love to post them. Peace

Special Awards

Last night at our evening reception they handed out three special recognitions and the Global Fellow of the year. The three recognitions went to the three deacons who have helped the Global Fellow program find new preaching dates. Of course our own Deacon Bill, who has been working quite hard for CRS, and was duly recognized with two others for their similar work. The Global Fellow of the year went to Fr. Tom Fenlon. Good job and congratulations to all! The photos are below.

Fr. Michael Messner

I am in Baltimore for meetings with CRS. Since I knew I was on my way up here, I took some time to go see Fr. Michael Messner (a classmate from St. Vincent) then to see Mark Starr & his seminary. So Sunday I flew to BWI then drove to Abbottstown, Pennsylvania to see Fr. Messner. He is Pastor of Immaculate Heart of Mary Parish. Here are some photos from my short stay.

The Church

The Parish office and the Rectory.

Two handsome priests.

The Pastor and his house. Like Jefferson at Monticello...hehehehe!

After I left Fr. Messner, I went to Mount Saint Mary's Seminary in Emmitsburg, Maryland. Mark showed me around the seminary, we went to prayer with the seminarians and then to dinner with the men from Atlanta. After dinner time to relax (and study for the students) then night prayer and some time with the seminarians, then they went to study and sleep, I sat and had a beer and watched some TV. This morning I got up and drove to Baltimore in advance of my meetings in the morning. Deacon Bill will be here later today, I will take a photo later and upload it. Peace.

ICSC in Chicago

Last week in Chicago were were obviously not the only ones from Atlanta, for the ICSC...as you well know. Not only did we do dinner with the Archdiocese we also went to lunch with the folks from Holy Trinity. Here are some photos.

On way to lunch, such a great town!

The two parish contingencies, what a happy group.

On the way back to the conference, spectacular!

New Images of St. Matthew

As many of your know each year we commission a new image of St. Matthew. Well in 2007 I had some trouble getting an artist, but I did find one in 2007 but we had to wait for his backlog to clear and now we have our 2007 image. Also earlier in 2008 I met another artist whom I commissioned to do our 2008 image, so without any further ado...here they are!

This one was done by Matthew Alderman an artist from New York City who is also an ND grad: he blogs over at the Shrine of the Holy Whapping. You really do need to see this image up close to see all the symbolism.

St. Matthew-2007

Here is a piece written by Matthew describing our 2007 image of St. Matthew

The Martyrdom of St Matthew

Our image for 2008 was done by Sheila Chambers an artist from Salt Lake City and a friend on my sister Angela. You can even see her in the photo gallery from the house blessing in SLC. She is in the photo titled "all in prayer". These two images are representations of the Call of the Disciple. The top one is the Call of Matthew the bottom one is the call of the modern person to follow the call of the Lord to be his disciple. They are truly stunning images, again you need to see them in person.

St. Matthew-2008

I could not be more pleased with the images. Thanks to the creators of these images, they will serve our parish family well. Peace to all!

Convocation

We are still going strong today. Here are some photos from yesterday and today. I promise to get some better photos today. Peace

What did you do this morning?

Well for me, I woke up at a decent hour. I went to the Church to see who was around. I ran into folks working on the Gallup survey, pulling weeds, and liturgical set-up for this weekend. It was busy day. Here are some photos from around the Church.

After the stop by the Church I was off to breakfast with Kelly & Chad Rosamond and their kids. You will remember Kelly and her family from here, here and here. Well while we were in SLC I told Pamela to eat her heart out. So now that the crowd is here, and they know my sister Angela, and we went to My Waffle House...Eat your heart out Angela!

Shock!

Well last night I thought I was going to have a fairly basic dinner with some friends. All seemed to be headed in the right direction for the day and I had resigned myself that none of my family was going to be able to make it for my anniversary. Well I walked into the Groover's house and there were a whole mess of people there...all of the staff of the parish, I was stunned. Then as I was surveying the crowd I noticed my Mom...then my brother Tony again I was stunned. Then my Uncle and Aunt from north Georgia...stunned. Then my Uncle Dan said there are two more in the other room, and there they were Granny and Grandpa Emminger, I could not believe it. So I was so happy to have everyone there and it had seemed that everyone had been enjoying themselves for a while before I go there. So I thought, "I need to post a photo for Angela and Karen who are in Amarillo." So Annmarie Gilbert snapped a photo with my phone and I looked at it and told Annmarie "hey you chopped Tony completely out of the photo..." she asked me if I was sure and I needed to look at the photo again, and what to my wandering eyes should appear but my dear sisters Karen and Angela...shock! Now just to let you know over the past few weeks I have tried to ferret out of each one of them if they were coming, they all had good excuses. Like I said I had resigned myself that no one was going to be here from my brothers and sisters to celebrate with me, no biggie, I thought. Well I was shocked, totally shocked, I was had! So much so dinner took place in somewhat of a fog, it passed as serenely as the touch of a loved one. We got back to the house and people in typical Galier fashion started falling asleep around the house. "Go to bed" was heard many times, but we/I did not want the evening to end. Finally, after seeing Moms pictures of the Holy Land and a quick trip to Kroger for some food it was time to call it a night around midnight. Well, still being in shock, I have tossed and turned all night...what a great surprise. If you notice the time of this post you will know I am up way before I normally would be awake, and I have been typing now for 20 minutes or more (this kind of reminds me of Christmas morning euphoria from when I was a kid). I am sure there will be more surprises today but even if these were my dying moments, I could not have asked for anything more. So to all who made this great shock possible...THANKS, you got me! All my love.

More

Not only Mom, Karen Tony and Angela being here but so are. Granny and Grandpa Emminger

Bishop Tony Taylor

(photo Bob Ocken, Arkansas Catholic)

Well my mom has been busy these past few days, but she took some time yesterday to head over to Little Rock for the Ordination of her friend, the new Bishop Tony Taylor. Here are a few pieces about him and his new home in Arkansas. (here, here and here) Rocco over at Whispers also has some words up. Peace

Busy day & woe...

Well it was a busy one today with a trip to the Court of Appeals, then the Archdiocesan Finance Office, then to a clergy meeting at the Cathedral then back here for Mass and work I should have gotten done in between all the other stuff...oh well. I hope you day has not been as hectic. I have spoken to a few people and heard a bunch of heart ache and woe this week, so give this Josh Groban song a listen and know you are loved! Peace

Photos from Charleston

These three are my three favorite photos from Charleston. I took a whole bunch more of them which you can see below. Enjoy

Feet and their people

For quite some time now I have taken photos of peoples feet and calves...not sure why but always gets people laughing and it is something to talk about. There are always two photos in the series: 1. The feet and calves and 2. The people they belong to. Here is my latest photo, I will post more as I get them and some from the past as well. Enjoy

Found camera

I could not find my camera for the past few days. I had told you over here that I would post some photos from the Braves game I went to last week. Well since I could not find my camera...no photos. Well I prayed to St. Anthony of Padua (patron of lost articles) and he came through. So without any further ado, here are the photos from the Braves game. Enjoy

Thompson Baptism

Remember this post? Well I am finally getting around to posting some photos of the Baptism from that morning. Enjoy