In the November 2007 issue of The Tower Chimes we ran an article about the need for a pictorial directory. The problem was that we didn’t have any takers on taking on this project then, and now we are into April going on May and we need to get this done.
         This project is one that is very special to a number of folks here in our church, like many of our shut-ins who are trying to keep their connections with the church alive and the new folks in our congregation who are trying to get to know those they see every Sunday. This really helps folks know who is who by putting faces with the names they hear all the time.
         So here is the offer: it doesn’t cost the church any money, but it does take volunteers to put the project together. The volunteers work with the photographer(s) for the dates they will be in the area, schedule the appointments for the photo sessions, send out reminder cards to the folks about a week or so before their shoot dates, and finally show up on the days of the shoots to keep track of the schedules so all the photographer(s) have to do is take pictures.
In talking with those who have done this in the past it has been very rewarding, and ends up being a whole lot of fun.
         We will probably need six to eight volunteers to make this happen, so if you are interested please call Pastor Sharyl, Pastor Dan, or our office secretary Michelle here at the church (242-0298) and we will get you signed up for this wonderful opportunity.

          In the most recent issue of “The Voice of La Puente,” the shelter and assistance complex in the San Luis Valley, we read this: “In the last year we have seen a 150% increase in veterans at the shelter. Only one is a veteran of Iraq; the others served in Vietnam and Lebanon. The National Coalition for Homeless Veterans provided the following statistics: 23% of homeless people in America are veterans. Based on a national figure of 2.3-3.5 million homeless people per year in this country, that indicates there are between 529,000 and 840,000 veterans who are homeless at some time during the year. While the V.A. is the largest provider of housing for vets who are homeless, they are only serving 100,000 per year, leaving a large number of men and women who are vets without housing.”
          The apartments being constructed by Catholic Outreach here in our own community will help provide housing for some of these brave men and women who have served our country. Wouldn’t you like to help a vet find a place to come home to, which is furnished comfortably and well, so they can experience the personal security and dignity that they have fought for so that others might know it? Please consider buying just one of the items on the “Apartment Needs” list (in the box on the table in our Gathering Space) – a set of dishes, or sheets, or towels, or pans, or other basic necessities will go a long way toward making those apartment dwellers’ lives so much better. (see Page 5 also for list)

We each have a wise and a passionate heart, with a shell built around it to keep it from breaking that keeps it from living.
The spiritual path is breaking that shell and unfolding that heart.
To love truly is not to love others more, or to love self more, or even to love God more, but to love life more; to love the life of the heart more than the life of the shell.
The greatest act of love is to do what you fear to do, to say what you fear to say, to think what you fear to think, and to feel what you fear to feel.
The greatest act of wisdom is to live without easy answers, or even without answers at all, in order to live with more heart.
From the book “Beloved Community: The Sisterhood of Homeless Women in Poetry”

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Click to see Contents of March 2008 Tower Chimes