Today

May Crowning: The boys' school gathered in the gym for a Rosary, and Father R. led everyone to this statue of Our Lady out front. Everyone brought flowers for her.

Hail, Holy Queen

Just as we began singing "Immaculate Mary," God gave his Mother a great flyover.

Lots of flowers for Our Lady. She saved a few for this angel nearby.

This afternoon we had a thunderstorm.

When the sun came out, we spotted this guy in the lake.

People sometimes ask me if we go swimming in the lake, since it's right in our backyard. This is one reason we don't.

Just as I was getting ready to drive Curly and Moe to their tae kwon do class, the hailstorm started. I put the car in the garage instead to protect it from this stuff.

Umm, I'm not sure. Something Curly and Moe did with hailstones and food coloring.

The storm was over as quickly as it had begun.

Happy Birtday, Blessed John Paul II! And all the best to my friend Father Stefan on the fifteenth anniversary of his ordination!

Get Thee to the Church: St. Bede, Williamsburg, Virginia

It's where we go when we visit Joe's parents, and where we celebrated Easter Sunday Mass this year. Their current building is relatively new; I can remember attending Mass at the old church, and having to sit in their parish hall because their wasn't enough space in the main chapel. In fact, they used to have Easter Masses in the arena at William and Mary in order to accomodate the large numbers of worsippers. They don't have to do this anymore; although Easter always brings an overflow of people and many seat outside in thier spacious vestibule (it's so big they call it the "commons." It's like an entrance hall of sorts.

The altar is surrounded on three sides by the pews. Isn't their organ amazing? And that isn't even the whole thing; there's more in the back of the church (I wish I had taken a photo of that).

St. Bede has a wonderful pastor, Monsignor Michael McCarron, who is an on-fire-for-the-Lord type of preacher with a deep, booming voice, a hearty laugh, and a joyful smile. It's hard for your mind to wander during one of his homilies.

The Crucifix

The Baptismal Font


Their "Annunciation Reredos" was in the old church. (I assume it was behind the altar, since when I consulted Dictionary.com to find out what the heck "reredos" meant, it said, "a screen or decorated part of the wall behind an altar in a church.") At the top it depcits the Annunciation, in the middle are Mary and John at the foot of the cross, and the saints on either side of them are Benedict, John Fisher, Thomas More, and Francis of Assisi.



The remnants of the Easter Vigil fire from the night before

In honor of their patron, St. Bede. This plaque describes the images.


Did you know that St. Bede was declared a Doctor of the Church by Pope Leo XIII? You can learn more about this eighth century saint here and here.

I wish I had taken more photos (including their Blessed Sacrament chapel, where the tabernacle is housed), but there wasn't a lot of time before Mass. If you visit their website, you'll find many more photos that are way better than mine. Be sure to click on "About Us" and take their virtual tour!

I hope you all have a blessed Mother's Day! I talked to my mother for a long time last night, and today we'll give Joe's mom a call. Today will be spent catching up on laundry (a never-ending task), planning my last two CCD classes for the year, and working on the plans and projects for the last few weeks of preschool. Joe and the boys are cooking dinner.

We watched "The King's Speech" on Friday night. Mabye while I'm folding all that laundry I'll watch it one more time before we have to send it back to Netflix. By the end of the week, don't be surprised if I have a copy of my very own to watch anytime I want. It's the best movie I've seen in a very long time.

Have a great week! I've got a couple of posts I'm mulling over, and I hope I get the chance to stop back by here this week. The next few weeks promise to be crazy-busy for all of us.