| Father John Payne had been
spending some time at Seton Hospital in Austin. He collapsed one day after
evening prayer. It appears that he had pneumonia and was not getting
enough oxygen. He has not had much strength, but he does seem to be
getting better. He missed his turkey dinners with the parish and the Holy
Cross community. He has gone up to Holy Cross House to recuperate. Please keep him in your prayers that he continue to get
better.
Father Harold Essling had
trouble with his car out at Steiner Lodge. The lights would work; the
radio would play. But when he turned the key nothing would happen. A
couple days passed, and Father Harold wanted to call AAA. Brother
Thomas Krieter suggested that he check the fuses. When he did,
he discovered that the "kill switch key," an anti-theft device, had
slipped out of place. Both Father Harold and his car are running fine now.
Winter is beginning to set
in. Up north the trees'
leaves change colors in the fall. In Texas the pecans fall in
December. It's sort of nature's way of saying, "Nuts to
you." Brother Thomas has been
gathering the pecans. He delivered some to Sister
Olivia at Dolores Church; she makes excellent pecan pies. We
had some for Christmas.
Brother also mailed some pecans to his mother and to Father John's mother.
In a later edition, we will report on those pies.
Sister Adelaide
over at
St. Ignatius did plenty of collecting pecans and other nuts. At the
Christmas Dinner at St. Ignatius, she made sure that everyone had plenty.
She also gave some to her friends, parishioners, and people who needed
some. She was overjoyed to hear that there might be some at the provincial
house.
At Dolores Parish Sister Rose went
shopping with Adilina, a candidate for the
Franciscan sisters. In their joy of shopping they returned
to the car, unlocked it, and sat down in it. Adilina wondered why there
were some sunglasses there. Sister Rose wondered why the seat had been
pushed back so far. They then noticed that the car had an automatic,
wrap-around seat belt. Their car doesn't have one. They realized
that they were in the wrong car!
On Christmas Brother Thomas
and Father John went over to the Alcoser
home in South Austin for dinner. Father Mike Alcoser
was
home from Berkley where he is the local superior and does counseling.
John and Willie Gutierrez (one of the
son-in-laws) have had a running contest over the years as to who will eat
more. Both have been slacking off more and more.
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