Women's Trip

Last weekend was the Women's Trip to Nashville. A great time was had by all. I will post a video of the line dancing we did soon. Enjoy the picts!

Building skillz!

These guys in South Africa can do soemthing quite amazing. That is cement he is hurling up to the other guy. Amazing!!!

Africa

Did you ever think it was this big? Maybe you grew up with a map that showed Greenland being about the same size as the continent of Africa. But as you can see Africa is HUGE. Enjoy

You think your job stinks

Could you imagine doing this type of work? This guy is amazing: balance and strength WOW

Party

This evening I went to Evening Prayer, Mass and Dinner with the seminarians, hosted by the Deacon's in formation. Since I am on the Deacon Board, teach the Deacon's in formation and have a keen interest in seminarians (as they are my retirement plan) I thought it would be good to attend. Deacon Salomon was there (also Deacon Ignacio) our own Deacon Bill and Deacon Gayle helped with set up and Bill cooked chicken and steaks for the crowd. It was a great evening and after dinner I stood around with some of the "Men of Ten" and chewed the fat. Here are some photos...maybe I should get a Miata?

I'm back

Well last week was a real stinker, with being sick and all it really threw me for a loop. Anyway back on my feet and back to work now so I need to get back to blogging. I have a few things still about Japan that I would like to put in here, just need some more time. So I am back and hopefully I can get back to posting with more frequency. Peace

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.

Deanery Meeting

We had our deanery meeting at St. Philip Benezi in Jonesboro. We had three presenters today so it was a bit longer than usual. The meeting went well and food was wonderful, those Franciscans are wonderful hosts. Here are the photos. Peace

Meeting day 2

I am telling you we are having all sorts of fun here today. Know that your dutiful blogger will be here to let you know how much fun we are having listening talk titled: "De Accommodata Renovatione Vitae Religiosae in the USA: Forty Years and Counting" and "Challenges for the Proper Administration of temporal goods in the Light of Changing Circumstances" Don't you wish you were here as well??? Here are some photos...peace!

Fr. Paul "skinny paul" Hachey and Fr. Jeremiah J. McCarthy, taking a stretch during a break.

The room at break time.

A shot of the room ready to go for our second session.

Away for a few days

(image from CLSA)

I am in Charleston SC for the Canon Law Society of America, Easter Regional Canonist Society meeting, sounds like fun huh? Okay I have to admit it does not sound as much fun but it is still quite interesting. We have an all star line up of presenters. Here are two big names...Msgr. Fred C. Easton, JCL and Fr. Fancis G. Morrissey, OMI, JCD, PhD. So I am in a meeting now, well on a bit of a break and will be home on Wednesday. It promises to be a great meeting, hopefully I will have some photos later. Peace

Day off and other stuff

I went to Everybody's Pizza with Fr's Bryan and Michael, it was great, but a bit too much food.

Remember this post? Well looks like Gwinnett County uses those same guys as well...who know?

And the photo below says it all...Fr. Bryan is a Genuine Honda Accessory.

Sub-Committee

As some of you might have read (here , here and here) the Archdiocese is looking at long range planning, they formed a committee and then sub-committees. Well guess which one I am on? That is right, Stewardship now titled Discipleship. We meet about twice a month and our work gets combined with the other sub-committees and hopefully we will be planning well for the future of the Archdiocese. Here are some photos from out last meeting. I know it looks pretty low energy but I forgot to get the camera out until late in the meeting. Also since I took the photos so late I missed getting photos of others who were at the meeting, namely Fr. Eric Hill and Fr. Fred Wendel, sorry guys.

Busy Tuesday

Well it is Tuesday here at St. Matthew and the parish is a buzzin' with activities. I did not get out my camera early enough to capture the cleaners, but here is the Bible study, counters, and the group working on putting the mosaic together. It is nice to see so many people active today, especially when I have such a low level of energy. See you tonight at the Penance Service. Peace

St. Catherine Newman Center

Well here are some photos from my preaching this weekend and St. Catherine of Siena Newman Center at the University of Utah. All in all it was a pretty light weekend because of the generosity of Fr. Daniel Rolland, OP and Fr. Peter Rogers, OP (Pastor). Fr. Daniel was kind enough to celebrate the 5 and 8:30, I celebrated the 10:45 and Fr. Peter showed up to celebrate the 7, so I had one Mass to celebrate and four Masses to preach, such a sweet deal. Combine all this with seeing some old friends, being with family, working for CRS and snowboarding a bit, it was a great weekend.

This is Kelly and Chad Rosamond and family. Kelly was a CYO member of mine in Rome Georgia when I was a seminarian. She is a member of the Newman Center as well. Eat your heart out Pamela!!!

Do I always look like this when I preach?

So serious!

Look at those hands, yikes!

what is this about?

Ok so at the Mass on last Monday this guy was in front of us the whole time. It kinda bugged me, what with aligning Christianity with warfare. This is not the first time I have been troubled by it, but it just kind of bothered me at the Mass for Life. Anyway, what do you think. Oh, and since I am asking for comments. When you are done commenting, just make sure to leave your name at the end of the post or sign up for an account so I know who you are. So again, what do you think?

And if you cannot read his shirt (click photo for larger view) it says:
Christian life is WARFARE. Hit hard, with heroic virtue. Hit fast with the 10 commandments. Hit often with vigilant prayer.

Oh and when you read it remember who said it first, and in what setting.

Lunch at CRS Southeast office

Since we are both Global Fellows, Deacon Bill and I were invited to share some thoughts with the staff at the CRS regional office here in Atlanta. Executive Vice-President of US Operations Joan Neal was present for a lively discussion on the work of CRS in our world and our region. Here are some photos from the lunch. I love oranges.

March for Life Photos

If you are interested, you can check out these galleries I have made to show the photos I took on the OLM trip to the March For Life. I had a great time withe the students. If they are the future, it appears we are in good hands, the students were great. Enjoy the photos.

MfL Traveling

MfL Arlington

MfL Mass and Prayer Vigil

MfL Youth Mass

MfL March

MfL Regret

Look in the above gallery for the photos of the Rainbow I spoke about.

MfL Homebound

Run away! Run away!...Err...RETREAT (Part II)

Well, although it is icy and snowy and treacherous outside, I am venturing to the Ignatius House for my day of leading the soon-to-be-ordained men. Say some prayers for them and their family, and me and my journey. I will post some photos upon my return. Thanks. Peace

UPDATE: Now with photo goodness...enjoy!

Christmas "de-decorating"

Part II: The Lights (electric and candles)

Thanks to all for all the help setting up, and taking down.

Christmas "de-decorating"

Part I: The Tree