Happy Feast of St. Mark!!

Today is a day of great joy as we celebrate the Apostle Mark. Bishop Papais around 130 referred to St. Mark as the writer of the Gospel that bears his name. St. Ireneus writes in Adversus Haereses (~178-188): "after their departure, Mark, the disciple and interpreter of Peter, did also hand down to us in writing what had been preached by Peter."

One of my favorite verses in the Gospel is:

And in the morning, a great while before day, he [Jesus] rose and went out to a lonely place, and there he prayed.

What a beautiful insight into the prayer life of the Lord. He was exhausted after a day of so many pressing about him for healing, and yet, he rises before dawn so as to spend time with his Father.
Jesus' priorities should inform our own. Will we rise with him to watch for one hour??

Holy Spirit, please give us the gift of prayer and properly ordered priorities!

Pics...

Here are a couple pictures of Zeke the Freak :-)...


If you want to see Zach's wound and trophy, click here. I did it this way for the squeamish among us. The first time Cody saw it he had to sit down! LOL! Need to toughen that boy up! :-). I don't know - the pictures of the "diaper-head" above make me a bit squeamish...

Comments...

To those very few and hearty souls that leave a comment here: I am sorry I had to turn on the comment verification feature. I tried to make it as easy as possible to leave a comment (please comment!! please, I mean PULEEZE...is anyone there??? is this thing on???). However, there are starting to be spam comments left. Thus, the reason for turning verification.

Thanks!!

Zach II

YAY!!! Zach came home today!! He is doing great! The doctor saw him laying on his stomach today watching a video. She was shocked that he could do that without pain. She concluded that he was ready to go!

It is such a blessing to have all of them home. Hard to think that just a little different position of his body as that stick went in and we could have lost him to internal bleeding.

We are just so grateful to God! Thanks for all your prayers. They reall did make a huge difference in his recovery and attitude. It was a graced time.


P.S. I'll post a picture of the "trophy" as soon as I can find it... :-)

Zach...

As most of you probably know, my son Zach fell onto a stalk of a plant on Thursday driving about 3" of it (it was about 3/4" in diameter) into his abdomen. It went in right beside his belly button. We rushed him to the hospital where he had to have the it surgically removed. He is now doing great! God is so good. If the stalk would have gone in at a different angle, it would have punctured many internal organs, and he could have easily bled to death internally. Thank God it didn't. He will be in the hospital clear until this Wednesday barring any complications. There seems to be no infection at the wound site. Zach is an amazing kid. He did not cry through this whole thing. He has never once complained about anything always allowing them to do whatever they need to do with pluck and a smile. He is my hero...

I did ask for prayers about the insurance. There were questions whether we actually had any and whether we might have to pay for all of this. Thanks be to God that we got it straightened out and our insurance will cover it! Whew...

Please continue to pray that there would be no complications for Zach. As I said, everything looks fantastic at the moment.

Please pray for Deb and I, also. She is staying at the hospital (I spell her as best I can, but she is sleeping there) with Zeke. You can imagine what a maniacal, walking 14 month-old brings to the whole hospital experience! :-) Zeke is sick with a ear infection and sore throat so Deb is getting little sleep and chasing him all over. I am trying to finish up the semester with looming finals and four major papers. Let's just say Zach's timing could have been better! :-)

Thanks for your prayers, love, and support!! We continue to pray for all of you.

Summer Session...

I have recently finalized my summer activities as far as the ITI is concerned. It is plenty! :-) First, I have to write a thesis in order to be awarded the degree. It must be at least 60 pages. At this point, I am intending to write it on the notion of obedience in the New Testament, especially focusing on St. John and St. Paul. It is a fascinating subject when connecting the relationship of obedience between the Father and the Son, the Son and his disciples, and between disciples. I am very excited to do this as I feel the Lord calling to focus on some kind of Scriptural specialization.

Second, because of the interest in Scriptural studies, I will begin an intensive (three hours a day/four or five days a week) Hebrew class starting later in the summer (so I can focus on the thesis in the beginning of the summer). Then in the middle of August, I will begin an intensive Latin course. It will cover an entire year of Latin in three weeks (four hours a day/five days a week). This will allow me to continue the Hebrew during the school year and to begin Greek.