They were all priests. They worked tirelessly and often without any thanks, taking care of the poor, the sick, the weary, instructing the faithful with moving homilies, spending long hours in the confessional, and writing on the teachings of our Lord. Oh, they wanted to bring as many souls to heaven as they could. And today, I see the same devotion in so many of the priests I've gotten to know. So here is an old prayer for all our priests.
O Jesus, Eternal Priest, keep Thy servants within the shelter of Thy Sacred Heart, where none may harm them. Keep unstained their anointed hands, which daily touch Thy Sacred Body. Keep unsullied their lips, purpled with Thy Precious Blood. Keep pure and unearthly their hearts, sealed with the sublime mark of Thy glorious Priesthood. Let Thy holy love surround them and shield them from the world's contagion. Bless their labors with abundant fruit, and may the souls to whom they minister be here below their joy and consolation, and in Heaven their beautiful and everlasting crown. Amen.
While we were in Oak Harbor, we had a chance to go to Mass twice at St. Augustine Catholic Church. Four years ago, they were remodeling. Look how beautiful it is now! A perfect space to give thanks and praise for all God's creation.
Deception Pass -- I want to write a book with this title :) Alas, I am no thriller writer. But I should be able to concoct a story about deception given the times we live in, no?
7 comments:
Lovely pics! Love seeing all that blue water. And I agree, great name for a thriller, lol!
Your photos are fantastic! It looks like a really wonderful trip!
Lovely church, but surely a coincidence that you posted about Deception Pass in the same post...
Why, I wonder, is it so named? I can think not only of crime thrillers that could use this as an anchor, but also romance novels, a story about a small-town boy growing up to play football at the national league, or a spook story.
Looks like you lucked-out with some nice weather on Whidbey Island.
Beautiful pictures. The manuscript I'm working on here at Fool's Paradise has lots of lavender in it - such a hard smell to describe, but so nice.
Thanks you all -- my kids took the majority of the pictures -- and I love summertime on Whidbey. Actually anytime after July 4th.
Mirka, hehe -- coincidence but maybe not. Only you would think so deeply :) But I do love the setting and someday when the right characters come to me, I will drop them at Deception Pass and see what happens. As to the name, when Vancouver and Whidbey were exploring this area, they thought this was a peninsula. Here's the more detailed description from Wiki: A group of sailors led by Joseph Whidbey, part of the Vancouver Expedition, found and mapped Deception Pass on June 7, 1792.[2] George Vancouver gave it the name "Deception" because it had misled him into thinking Whidbey Island was a peninsula.[3] The "deception" was heightened due to Whidbey's failure to find the strait at first. In May 1792, Vancouver was anchored near the southern end of Whidbey Island. He sent Joseph Whidbey to explore the waters east of Whidbey Island.
Given the constant and treacherous currents through Deception Pass, I can only marvel at these early explorers. I would not dare to go through without a motorized craft. My guess is that they only survived because the current was against them at the time of their approach.
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