Project 366

Days 32-41
A photo a day for every day of this (leap!) year


Watching big sisters dance


Sisters and a priest during the ordination festival


After-bath bunny baby


My birthday with the kids and friends


Katie and her friend A. reading to their dollies


Opening a present from my parents with some help!


Our new bishop, Steven Joseph Lopes


Precious Cecilia at her big sister's basketball game



Here begins the use of my big birthday present, a new camera! The way this camera allows me to capture the artistic vision in my head is amazing! I can't wait to capture more special moments with it.


My girls at the next night's basketball game


Beautiful baby hair :)

The Ordination Day of Bishop Lopes

The Ordination festivities started with a Prayer Vigil and Choral Evensong on Monday evening and a Tuesday morning mass for Candlemas, followed by talks. After this was an Ordinariate festival all afternoon. It started with the old English country dances performed by our kids and their homeschool friends.

Practicing upon arrival

Checking out the area with the inflatables

All of our dancers!

Time to perform!

The next performers were the bagpipers from St. Thomas Episcopal

Sisters fighting! 

A sweet little moment between some Sisters and a priest 

I just realized that these little ones were sitting in just the same spot!

 Two Sisters and a priest one day?

Babies and Texas ribs!

Babies and giant sticks!

Not photographed was our crazy afternoon of missing keys, waiting for Daddy, readying for the mass, finding dinner, circling downtown for a parking space, and finally arriving into the Co-Cathedral just as the procession was beginning! Steven and the big kids had a spot in the sanctuary but I stayed in the vestibule with Katie and later Thomas.

I believe there were around 150 priests, over 30 bishops, and 6 cardinals!

Cardinal Levada, our pastor Fr. Hough, and Cardinal Müller

Homily by Cardinal Levada

Bishop Lopes preparing for Ordination

Cathedra

And this was what my view was like during the mass!

I think this was my favorite part, Bishop Lopes' mother and step-father bringing up the gifts at the Offertory. His father died when he was a teen.

All the handsome altar servers

Cardinal Müller

Cardinals and Bishops

The newest Bishop!

My crazy crew after mass

Tommy with a plate of strawberry leaves

Katie Grace and her friend "Party Addy" having fun at the reception which ended at 11pm! We got home at midnight. A full, but very blessed and grace-filled day!

I'll also add the YouTube video of Bishop Lopes' remarks at the end of the mass. Especially poignant is the explanation of his motto "Magna Opera Domini," Great are the works of the Lord.

An Exciting week for The Church!

Last year around this time we started attending Our Lady of Walsingham Catholic Church. It is part of the Personal Ordinariate of the Chair of St. Peter, that is a sort of "diocese" made up of Catholic Churches in North America which have been formed for Anglican (and other) converts to the Catholic faith. Our pastor, clergy, and many parishioners are former Episcopalians. But other Catholics are welcome to worship there as well, and being that my father was raised in the Episcopal church, our family is actually even more "official" than we'd initially realized.



The mass is beautiful and reverent, the sacred music is uplifting, and the community is vibrant and welcoming. We love smaller, traditional churches, and are blessed to be a part of this parish, which is the Principal one for the Ordinariate. This week is a very exciting one as The Holy Father has named the first Bishop to lead the Ordinariate, and he will be ordained here at the Cathedral in Houston on Tuesday night. It will be broadcast live on EWTN (also streaming online).



Tuesday will be filled with lots of events and a big children's festival at the church. That evening, Bishop-elect Steven Joseph Lopes (yes, his name is Steven Joseph!) will become a bishop, and next weekend our parish will actually become a Cathedral! His story is a beautiful one of faithfulness and service to the church and to the mission of the Ordinariate. Our three oldest children will be performing some traditional old English country dances during the children's festival and have been rehearsing for several weeks. They've been doing these dances with their local homeschool clubs for many years, and now they finally get to perform them with their local friends who attend our parish! We look forward to watching their dances and also experiencing the bishop's ordination mass. I hope the children handle well the events of the day, as we celebrate with our friends and church community this joyous event!



Our current Administrator, Msgr. Steenson, describes the Ordinariate as "the most remarkable endeavor the Catholic Church has ever launched for the cause of Christian unity." We are blessed to be a part of it and continue to pray for the unity of all Christians.

Project 366

Days 22-31
Here ends one full month of every day photos!