Monday morning and a whole brand new week ahead of us. What shall we make of it? Should we just stay in and wait for the multi-inches of rain to arrive or shall we venture out and be bold? I think today is a holiday of some sort. It is President's Day which is a holiday that is mentioned but I don't know how well it is observed. I know I'm working and the secretary is working. The school bus ran this morning so possibly the only people not working are the US Government employees. I reckon the only thing that will impact for me is that the mail won't be picked up today and I put a card in the mail this morning.

It is warm already this morning. It was sixty-two when I got up this morning. It is supposed to go up to seventy today and maybe seventy-three tomorrow. That only means one thing; --- rain and possibly severe storms for this time of year. So far the storms are not in the forecast; but this is Southern Indiana and who knows what will really happen. After all weathermen are in sales, not production. That's the same thing I tell parishioners when they ask me to pray for rain or pray for sunshine.

We had a good Sunday. Yesterday a couple of our parishioners gave a presentation during the service on their trip to the Holy Land. It was very interesting and having never been there it was enlightening as to how close things were that we read about in our Bible. For instance,  he had a picture of where they say Jesus was crucified and then a picture of where Jesus was allegedly put in the tomb. I had always assumed the two places were separated by some great distance, But --- according to their briefing and pictures, the actual distance was no more than three hundred yards. I found that fascinating. I also found it interesting and perhaps a bit disturbing that these sites were so lavishly ornate. All of the gold and glitter was overwhelming. I understand the thought process that says "but this is the home of God etc, etc." But, I can't for a moment accept the fact that Jesus would have wanted any of this. It certainly doesn't represent his teachings. But, people need what people need and people interpret things differently than I do. I love to see beautiful chapels and churches and all of that as much as anybody does and I feel humbled when I am there. The Vatican and the Sistine Chapel are marvelous and you can feel the presence of the Holy Spirit; but --- a gold altar will not put you any closer to God. Abraham stacked rocks on top of one another as an altar on which to sacrifice his son Issac. Moses and the people of God built a rock altar everywhere they went and they worshiped God. Jesus was buried in a hallowed out rock but it couldn't hold him. So gold plating it will not make it any more Holy. Okay, enough of my rant about things that I can't change and may even have the wrong perspective on.

My backyard guests are cleaning out all of the feeders again today and that means that I have a job to do this afternoon. I need to get everything filled up again because once it start pouring down rain --- I'm not going out there.

Got to go to work and earn my dollar. I hope your day is full of goodness and love. Peace.