Greetings from southeastern Michigan! Specifically, a warm and muggy yet still, hearty hello from here in 'lake country.'   There is such beautiful scenery throughout.   Full and lush trees, numerous bodies of blue, sparkling water and the rolling hills formed by glaciers thousands of years ago. Ah yes...I'm home. Granted, I'm a city boy, as you all know. Yet, I'm only 1 ½ hours north of Detroit...it's still Metropolitan Detroit and that's just fine by me. Now, to make sure and get a Detroit style Coney dog...a boiled hot dog in a warm bun, topped with mustard, ketchup, seasoning, browned ground beef and onions. Gotta' try one, people. You'll love 'em. Do note: one is sufficient, as recommended by virtually all cardiologists and health officials!

 

I'm home to help one of my sister's sell a great deal of her mother-in-law's accumulated possessions. Something I do, on occasion, is help run estate sales. These efforts, while back in Illinois, benefit St. Nicholas, too, with donated items for our annual parish rummage sale. Also and to be quite honest, I love old things, antiques and vintage items. Perhaps I was born with an 'old soul,' as I do find such pleasure in things that have a history and linage. To find the lineage of an item: where it came from and who possessed it in the past...this is something of which I am quite fond. Yes, I have a couple collections that occupy some of my free time, too. There is a certain satisfaction in hunting for that elusive piece to add to my collection. Douglas loves vintage kitchen items; old ceramic, earthen ware and those thick, plastic, Texas Ware bowls made in the 1950's and 60s. Those things were made to last forever.   In case you're wondering, or if you haven't been to our home, I collect vintage Halloween items and holy cards. Talk about the sacred and the profane! Halloween has always been one of my favorite holidays and autumn is my choicest time of year. I've collected Halloween since I was a kid. Still love all that orange and black, with whimsical witches and ghosts. Not that bloody, gory stuff made today. No. Give me the simpler, more colorful stuff of the 1950's and 1960's and I am a happy boy, indeed.   As for the holy cards...well, a teacher of mine, Sr. Maura, when I was in 2nd grade gave me a small box filled with beautiful holy cards. Saints and angels, Jesus, Mary and Joseph, all the traditional themes were in this collection. I loved the colors and 'religious nature 'of the cards. That was way back in the 1965 and I've saved those cards since.   Many of the cards are death notices, dearly departed family and loved ones as well as death notices of people I did not know. Many cards were gathered during my trips to Malta and Italy, given to me by my extensive, extended family overseas.  

 

Now, both collections have been whittled down considerably.   I've given away and sold much of both collections. Giving away those things that are special to us, or have some sort of hold on us is a good exercise. For me, it reminds me that our true treasure is not here on earth. Rather, as Jesus says, "store up your treasures in heaven."   Personally, I take great stock in what Jesus says. All the stuff I have and the things we've all collected over the years, while lovely to look at and to behold, really, do not and cannot stack up to the real treasures that await us in heaven.   Looking at all the things here at this sale makes me want to get home and throw out anything and everything.

 

Without the possessions that weigh us down, we are set free!   Certainly, I'm not suggesting we all abandon our comforts and do without the necessities of life. Of course not. Enjoy life. Celebrate and savor the beauty that is all around us.   We find such wonders outdoors in nature's splendor; the fresh scent of newly mowed lawns and the fragrance of a garden in full blossom.   There is for many of us a similar happiness and bliss found in the discovery of that one of a kind Hummel figurine we're been search for or the completion of a puzzle we've been putting together or a quilt we've been working on. Happiness is found in many a different ways. Happiness is fleeting and so is contentment. When these gifts find their way to us, let's take them to heart and share them with one another.   When we "let go" of the things that clutter our lives, we open ourselves to receiving, understanding and embracing simplicity and freedom and all the while allowing God's graces to "fill up those spaces," we have made open and free. We hear much about 'spring cleaning.' Well, let's clean, cleanse and simplify throughout the year and eagerly anticipate the amazing treasures that await us, along with Our Savior, in Paradise. Now those are some treasures we can all receive because they have been promised to us. These gifts are 'on hold' for us, my friends and in due time, they will be ours, forever.  

 

 

-Manny 

manny@stnicholasepiscopal.org

Please consider joining the rota for communion bread bakers.  There are several slots open for the remainder of 2012, and we'd love to have you join our merry baking crew!

If you'd like to bake communion bread (one batch supplies us with enough for two weekends), please sign up in church on Sunday.  We supply the recipe, the pans and the stamps for the impressions on the top of the loaves. 

You supply the love and time to bake what we all enjoy at our worship services!

 

On Thursday, July 5, the legislative session of the 77th General Convention of the Episcopal Church will commence. Every three years Episcopalians from around the world meet, as the General Convention website explains, "to seek God's will for the Church in a planned, informed, and prayerful way".

The General Convention, which is the governing body of the Episcopal Church, has been meeting since 1785, and is a bicameral legislature. It includes the House of Deputies, which has more than 800 members (up to four clergy and four lay persons from each diocese), and the House of Bishops, which is comprised of more than 300 active and retired bishops.

The Handbook for Bishops and Deputies describes the process in this way:


This triennium's General Convention will be held at the Indiana Convention Center in Indianapolis, hosted by the Episcopal Diocese of Indianapolis, and will convene from July 5 to July 12. During that time, various resolutions will be discussed and voted on by the House of Deputies and the House of Bishops. To see a full list of resolutions to be presented and to track their progress during General Convention, go to http://www.generalconvention.org/gc/resolutions.

Watch live coverage of the General Convention, beginning on July 2, at www.episcopaldigitalnetwork.com/gc2012.

The Rev. Cerna Rand -- pastor of Prince of Peace Methodist Church, Elk Grove Village -- and her husband Mark request our prayers for a very special cause.  They have adopted a young child in the Philippines and they now await his safe and secure arrival.  Let us pray that their new son, James Wallace Rand, born October 20, 2011 is allowed to come to this country very soon and join his new family.  Cerna was present at the Installation / Celebration of a New Shared Ministry Service, and is part of the Elk Grove Interfaith Council that Manny belongs to.

Thanks to:

The Life Line Health Screening Professionals who cared for and served over 90 people on June 30th.  How wonderful to open the doors of St. Nicholas to all our neighbors.

Our many dedicated volunteers who make St. Nicholas go-go-go.

 

Walter Orlof, close friend of Nancy Allan's late husband John, who died in Washington, DC, May 8, 2012. 

 

Margo Lacy Eccles, who died June 25.  Margo is the mother of The Rev. M.E. Eccles, a priest of this Diocese. M.E. is the sister-in-law of Cyndi DeBock.  

 

Irene Rodriguez, a former member of Holy Innocents in the 1970's and '80s has died.   

 

Bishop James Allan, Nancy Allan's late husband's cousin, who is seriously ill.

 

Helen Childs, a friend of St. Nicholas, who is ill and undergoing several medical exams.

Our sisters and brothers at St. Bede's Church, that they know of our joy at having them join our family.      

 

Kathy Seghers, sister to our Jennifer Garcia.  Kathy is now home. Pray for her full recovery. 

 

Nathile Paul, Vernon Forde's sister.  Ms. Paul is recuperating from surgery.   

 

The Martin Family: Karen, Tom and Katie 

  

Ethel (Corkey) Stratton, the mother of Hal Stratton 

 

 

Paul Brouillette

  

For those in transition: those searching for work, those who are moving and those encountering changes in life.