James Derkits

Halloween is just around the corner, so we carved pumpkins at our youth gatherings this week. A friend found a lesson to go along with the carving. It's a simple lesson about being like these pumpkins: opening up to God, how God cleanses us, and most importantly, that the light of Christ in us shines out from us. The Eve of All Saints' Day (All Hallows Eve) is going to bring all sorts of fun and creativity. That's a good way to allow God's light to shine. Create like the creator. It's a holiday that brings out a playfulness in us. We dress up and play tricks on each other, and even get a treat. Celebrate your created-ness, and your creativity. Be playful, and as you do, shine your light. We all need to see light!

This is one of those little praying places. A spot I've returned to again and again over the years. When I returned to this spot on the Guadalupe River, at Camp Capers, I remembered some of my prayers from that summer in 1998 when I was on staff there. That summer I brought a site-specific outdoor education curriculum (it had been an independent study toward my B.S. in Geography Education from Southwest Texas, San Marcos.) That curriculum helped me weasel my way onto the summer staff, since I had never gone to Camp Capers as a camper. I made it on, and was allowed to take each cabin for a nature hike and do some outdoor education. I enjoyed my time with the campers, and I think that's the first summer I tried to grow a full beard. I figured it went with the outdoor theme. That summer some of the other staff started calling me "Nature Boy." It was also a dark time for me. I was trying to understand my calling to the priesthood, seeking to trust that calling, and ...

If you're reading this from outside Texas (South Texas, even) this may seem a bit ridiculous, or just a bit late. Oh well. The weather just cooled off here. I'm actually wearing long sleeves! The cool weather makes me want to sit around a camp fire and play music. Yesterday, when I was sweating just walking to my truck, I didn't want to sit around a camp fire and play music. That little temperature drop changed everything. Last time I felt this cool (it's 66 degrees right now) was in July...I was not in Texas then, but in the Smokey Mountains of North Carolina. We were on vacation, and I spent  the mornings reading and writing on a screened in porch. I even sat next to a camp fire and played music. The weather is right. It's shifted my attention. It makes me want to be creative. The world seems to be conspiring, like in the beginning when that wind blew across the face of the waters. I bet it was a cool breeze, dropping the temperature of the planet just eno...

Yesterday I had the good pleasure of visiting a hospital not because someone was ill, but because someone was just beginning! Michael Andrew Rembisz was born yesterday morning to Mark and Anne, and Alex is a proud older brother. This comes just after the birth of Fr. Bill and Judith Calhoun's granddaughter, Olivia. Bill snapped an amazing picture of Olivia grasping her mother's finger. It was only after he took the picture, that he noticed the positioning of mom's ring, providing the perfect caption: "FAITH." Faith, Belief, and Trust all come from the same Greek word "pistis."  The Faith-Belief-Trust of an infant in her mother must be one of the purest. For a newborn, what else is there? Last week, I also got to see a picture of another grandchild, the Schlechten's 4 month old, Annibelle (in the knit cap and pink jammies.) All these babies. All this life. In a season of thanksgiving, it's an easy time to give thanks for these...

Photo of the Polly Anna,  headed out to the gulf. I didn't even know how beautiful it was until it was restored. The building needed a fresh coat of paint, so we took the four panels of the mural down, and the Harrisons offered to store them. A visiting youth group came and painted the entire garage (and cleaned out the inside--thanks again St. Thomas', College Station!), and eventually the artist, Clinton Baerman appeared to restore the mural. In the late 80's Suzanna Reeder commissioned the mural as a billboard for Trinity by the Sea. It included a banner that read "Trinity by the Sea Welcomes You." Boats depicted include the Polly Anna (one of my favorite places to buy shrimp!) and Suzanna's husband Gary Einkauf's boat "Shadow," built Edwin Hawn and Bruce Wilde. Suzanna eventually sold the property where the billboard stood, and the beautiful mural was moved to its current location as a memorial to her beloved Gary. The first time I no...