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July 25, 2006
Welcome to St. Gaspar House
Effective August 15, when I return from vacation, I will begin moving into my new office at St. Gaspar House. A new set of doors, visible in the picture have replaced the sliding glass doors. This will provide a bit more security, and will also enable me to enter from this side. Other groups will continue to use the large meeting room and the kitchen area of the house and will continue to use the front door. With this new door, I will not need to interupt their meetings to get to my office. Now I will be able to move my office out of my my bedroom, and I will have a place to meet prarishioners on a regular basis.
St. Gaspar House which is at the end of the property of the parish, was purchased may years ago. It was used as a meeting place and a service center for volunteer services. The house had not been well cared for in the past serveral years and it has collected a lot of junk that no one uses. So room by room we are going to begin to repair the house. It will become a place for Adult Faith Formation, for Spiritual Direction and for Marriage and Family Counseling as well as Administration. Catholic Charities provides a licensed Counselor on Fridays. The Legion of Mary meets there on a regular basis, and on Sunday it becomes a Sunday School for pre-school children. The School uses the large meeting room and the yard for retreats for various classrooms.
And finally, the Pastor has his own office. The principal, the School book keeper, the School Development office, the DRE, the Youth Minister, The Music Minister, the Maintenance Director, the Parish bookkeeper, all of these people have their own private office. Now the Pastor gets his own space. Currently my name is one of three on one of the small parlor doors.
Many thanks to Ken and Cruz who have worked long hours of repairing the walls and painting, and now will help assemble the desk and bookcases. When I am moved in, I will post a few pictures.
St.Gaspar House will also have its own website. This site will also replace the old Pacific Province site which was the home of all of St. Gaspar's letters. The new site for St. Gaspar's letters will be here once I get all the links moved over.
One the the new sets of Documents going into this new page is the book, The Life and Times of St. Gaspar del Bufalo by Giorgio Papasogli. This book was considered by Fr. Ray Cera, C.PP.S. to be the best "Life of Gaspar" available. Through the work of Fr. Milton Ballor this book is now availble in print and is a very valuable addition to any collection of the lives of the Saints. One of the things I like about it is the thorough explanation of the society, the culture and the politics of the early 19th century that forms the background of St. Gaspar's life and ministry. Another item the print version has that is not availble on the internet is the collection of pictures of the various places that were central in St. Gaspar's life.
The book is available for $20 plus shipping from Fr. Milton Ballor, C.PP.S., St. Charles Center, Carthagena, OH 45822. Parishioners of St. Edward or anybody here in the Bay Area can pick up a copy here at the Parish Office or St. Gaspar House when I move in.
Posted by Fr. Jeffrey Keyes, C.PP.S. at July 25, 2006 2:56 PM
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Comments
Wow!
Posted by: Donalyn at July 25, 2006 6:39 PM
How splendid! Just today I preached on the importance of naming places for the saints . . . and you DID just that! Are we on the same page or what! Wishing you every blessing in St. Gaspar House!
Posted by: Don Marco at July 26, 2006 6:01 PM