Feels like Tuesday not Wednesday!

Not a lick of sewing in yet this week, at least not of quilts. 
Yesterday I spent about 2 hours at church with our violinist going over music for Mass. MaryKay is so easy to work with, we had a great time!  Went and got some fresh grapes for lunch and a diet dew!  I rarely drink soda anymore, but occasionally one sounds great and tastes even better.  I know how horrible diet soda is, worse I think than regular, but sometimes a gal just hasta splurge.
I spent a couple of hours once I got home practicing the music we went over .
Then this morning I got up and had a repeat.  Only this time with Lissa the choir director.  And we mostly spent time on the Mass of Wisdom which is the mass setting we will be using starting at advent.  English Catholic Mass is changing, there's a whole lot of new stuff for the Priest and quite a bit of new responses for the people as well.  And the choir has to learn a lot of new music since the Gloria and all those things will be changing.  It should be very interesting.  I look for some of our older parishioners to have some trouble with this, we've been saying all these things since Vatican II, that was what, 1965 when Vatican II closed?  That's a LONG time for that stuff to become ingrained in everyone, and now it's going to change.  The younger folks shouldn't have too much trouble.
So I took some pictures, because a blog entry without pictures is boring... right?   So here goes!

This is our little church and what you see when you pull into the lot.
St. Jude Thaddeus. This is also the view most folks get as they drive by our church on 191.

This is the side, and the doors open into a foyer and then into the church in the middle of the church.  Odd.    It's not one of those beautiful churches or even pretty churches.  But it works for us and we love it.

This is standing in the back of our little church and looking toward the altar.  Not very big at all, I figure it might hold 80 people comfortably and 100 if they all squished in!  Fr. Manolo has changed quite a bit around, it might be hard to see, but believe me, he's done wonders in our church.  We are so blessed to have him here.

This is what the front of the church looked like with the other ambo or pulpit in the front on the right of the altar.  St. Jude statue is not up there.

 

This is a little out cropping in the wall on the right.  Opposite of where the entrance to the church is.  I am told that many years ago, this was where the altar was kept, and that it changed when the pews that they got were too long to put in going east to west.  Our altar currently is on the west wall and Fr. Manolo wants to flip it so that the altar is on the east wall..

This is our organ, and I've never heard it played.  But I hear that it's a very nice organ.  That's on the wall, and the choir and the violinist and guitarist currently stand right in front of that cabinet you see on the east wall.  But I believe that the choir is going to be moving to the south side this coming weekend.  :)  Good, more room, works out so much better!

Looking towards the back of the church.  That middle door, well, that's the best door in the church, that's the "box" where we do confession!  Called the confessional I believe.  :)  The sacristy is to the left of that and the wide door, there's a lot of storage back there. 

This is a lovely picture of Our Lady of Guadalupe.  Very beautiful and it's in the foyer. 

 Another picture of Our Lady of Guadalupe along with Juan Diego standing behing her.  Juan Diego is the Mexican man who saw and reported the apparition of Our Lady of Guadalupe in 1531.  I've never seen this picture, it's quite nice.  If you've never read the story about Juan Diego and OLG, you should, it's very interesting.

This is a statue in our church.  We don't know who this is.  Many years ago, when the Commonwealth Mine here in Pearce was active, the Catholic Church here was Our Lady of Victory.  That building still stands.  I'm not sure when St. Jude was built, but a while ago! Anyhow, this is a statue that was brought from OLV to St. Jude.  OLV was empty and for sale for many years.  It was made a historical landmark in 2004.   Here's what it says about it:

Periods of significance: 1900-1924; 1925-1949; 1950-1974

Significant years: 1916; 1917

 

Anyhow, someone told me that they think it might be Saint Barbara, patron saint of miners.  Which would make sense since OLV was built while the silver mine here was booming.  She's in great condition and very pretty.  If anyone would have any idea if this is St. Barbara or not, I would love to hear from you. It would be very nice to put a name to this statue.  If someone needs more pictures, I can do that.  :)

 And this is our priest Fr. Manolo.  He's such a great guy.  He came in before we got started, so I took my guitar and handed it to him and he played a song and sang it as well, it was beautiful.  It was in Spanish, but so lovely that it almost brought tears to my eyes.  He actually wrote the song as well.  He's talented, and I would LOVE to see him record a CD. 

His mom is in town this week and next weekend.  I've not met her yet, so I'm hopeful that I will meet her this time!  (she was here once before and I missed meeting her)

 After I left church today, I stopped here, at the Produce Wagon.  This is the only grocery store we have in town.  It's small and it's not cheap, but they carry a lot of the basic stuff, produce, fresh eggs, milk, cheese, cold cuts, ice cream, flour, sugar, ketchup, tuna, bread, etc. and so forth!  They have a little meat, not a lot but some.  They tend to carry some odd ball stuff as well, such as buffalo and goat meat.  Lots of spices and baking goods. 

 The folks who run it are great.  It's on it's 3rd set of owners since I moved here 6 or 7 years ago.  A Mennonite family started it and then sold it to the guy who owns the hardware store and then he sold it to one of the folks who worked for him.  We need this store, it's for sure a God send when we don't want to drive 35 miles to Safeway or 40 miles to Walmart.  (that's one way folks!)  I believe this building was a bar before it was the Produce Wagon!

 Next to the Produce Wagon is Taza's.  This is a restaurant.  They have great food!  It's small, but our town is small.  This is the 4th restaurant in there as far as I can remember.   I have no idea what this building was years ago! 

 And today I needed to make one last stop before heading home, the post office!  The left door is the door that leads to the main part of the post office, where you buy stamps etc.  And the right side are the PO Boxes. It's tiny, room for 2 people at the counter, but you rarely see more than one person at the counter.  Bill is the postmaster and he's a good guy.  Howard Stern is one of the guys who works there, seriously, his name is Howard Stern, but he's a really nice guy!  Our mail lady is Suzette!  She's great, couldn't ask for better. 

 

It's rumbling outside!  Sugar is in a mini panic at the moment.  She's been in the closet since about 4:30.  She's not eaten and won't until morning.  Poor girl.  Lulu is ready, willing and able to eat Sug's dinner, but I think I'll put it in the fridge for morning!  Have a great Thursday!  God Bless, Anne