St. Jude Award

Greetings to all of you!

Well, it has been awhile since I have been able to write this column mostly due to the summer doldrums I guess, but also the hectic pace this summer has been here at St. Mark. I am pleased to announce that the recipients of the Jude Award Medal for St. Mark the Evangelist Church this year are Nancy and Rich Larson! Nancy and Rich have been outstanding stewards from the very beginning of our parish and we are so blessed to have had this wonderful couple serving us at St. Mark for these many years. Many of you most likely know them or, at least, have seen their faces on many committees and leadership positions, so I know you will agree that they are very deserving of this outstanding award. Now if only we can get Rich to fix that loop in his golf swing, he would be an even more perfect candidate! Anyway, offer them your congratulations and thanks for all they have accomplished here. They will be receiving the award from Bishop Lynch on the Feast of Christ the King in November. Ad Multos Annos to the Larsons!
This year’s Vacation Bible School was once again a HUGE success as children experienced a "road tour" of various ways of life in our country. It was so successful that some moms asked me if we could do it for two weeks next year! I'm not sure if we have the energy to make that happen, but I'm glad to hear that the kids loved it. I would like to thank Sandra Bonilla, Claudia Garcia, and all those volunteers who made this such a successful event. Hopefully, when we get our new Church, we will have much more room to accommodate those children who were not able to attend due to space limitations. I'm looking forward to next year already!
Finally, I did get a chance to play golf with my three brothers this past week at a club called Golden Ocala. What a wonderful course to play in which some of the holes are replicas of holes from Augusta National and St. Andrews, among others. I didn't play real well on the front nine (51), but I regrouped and played the back nine in three over 38! What's really amazing is that the 5 or 6 replica holes on the back nine I played in even par. Go figure! Playing with my brothers is always a treat since nothing is ever left unsaid and one needs a pretty thick skin to endure a round with them! My brother Joe, whom we affectionately call "Bulldozer" doesn't let us get away with anything. When my brother Phil, whom we call the "stargazer" told Joe he had a "9 or 10" on a hole, Bulldozer promptly put down 10 on the score card! No mercy there I guess! All in all, it was a great day (although a hot one, I almost wilted on the 17th) and we may play again somewhere this week. Pray for me!

Well that is all for now. Continue to enjoy the gift that God has given in each other!

Peace,

Fr. David