September 10

Just realized I've let several days slip by again without a post to my blog.

Running has been good with cooler weather lately. Chapel construction continues with the work on the foundation. I'll try to post a picture soon when there is a bit more progress evident.

Let us all pray for our nation and for our world as we commemorate 9/11 tomorrow.

God bless America.

Running and Digging

I thought I'd share this photo of Chapel construction in progress. As you can see "lots of dirt". The photo is looking at the excavations for the Chapel foundation. I have a friend who talks about the "red dirt" in East Texas and you can certainly see red dirt in the photo.

Beyond what you can see in the photo there has been a lot of work done on the parking and some work done where the re-located ball fields will be. Thanks to cooperation between the school and construction crew things have gone pretty smoothly with the beginning of school on August 16. It has been hot and dry which seems to be the best weather for this part of the construction. We could use some rain but I'm sure the construction crews would prefer to keep moving dirt.

I have been able to keep up with my runs..........hot but good. I hope to schedule another "batch" of runs soon. I'll keep you posted.

Chapel funding is about $600,000 short of having the construction and initial furnishings fully pledged thanks to so many generous members of the Cathedral community. I recently visited a church under construction in another diocese and they were just about the reverse of our situation with about $500,000 in the bank and looking at debt around $5,000,000. Even though we continue to work to cover our entire cost of just under $5,000,000 we have to be very grateful to God and His generous people that we have only several hundred thousand still to cover.

August 12 Hot and Fast

A bit of an update on the progress with the Chapel of Saints Peter and Paul. The dirt is flying on site and with the start of school looming on the horizon the construction crews are working hard to have as much drive and parking area available as possible. They are working on the foundation of the Chapel also so as you can imagine the corner of Loop 323 and Easy Street is a busy place right now.

We have had some great meetings discussing the interior liturgical design of the Chapel. Another busy agenda there with stained glass, altar furnishings and pews to look at. The basic theme that is developing is a journey of the saints depicted in the stained glass windows along the Chapel walls and culminating in the main window over the altar with Christ in Glory surrounded by the 12 apostles. The initial drawings are very exciting and even though we have to keep costs down as much as possible we agree that the windows will be beautiful and inspiring.

I'll do my best to share some site photos once it is more than dirt moving and then also share sketches of the windows etc. as they develop.

Running has been good lately too heat advisories and all!!!!!!!!!!

I really have tried to be sensible about the heat and run in the late evenings as much as possible. It really has felt good. After school starts I'll have to put together another set of runs!!!!!!!

Scenes from a Groundbreaking

Finally have a chance to share some pictures from the official groundbreaking for the Chapel of Saints Peter and Paul by Bishop Alvaro Corrada on June 29,2010.

Hello Again............its August

Sorry for letting July slip by with no posts. It was a busy month with several trips out of town.

Great things are happening with the Chapel of Saints Peter and Paul. Crews are working hard to get things in shape for the beginning of school and other activities.

I have been running but haven't organized myself around another "set of runs". I'll try to remedy that soon. I have to admit I will probably wait until the temperatures are mostly below 100 degrees instead of trying to get in too many runs with 100 plus temperatures. I may be a crazy runner but I'm not that crazy!!!!!!!!!

Building Excitement

We have a construction trailer at the site of the Chapel of Saints Peter and Paul and we should see some dirt moving any day now. The ground breaking was cancelled due to a down pour but we got great press coverage anyway. As people look back at newspapers years from now the ground breaking for the Chapel will go down in history as a great event even though it didn't actually happen. We will probably have a blessing of the site in the next few days but keep it pretty low key.

I'll do my best to keep you posted on Chapel progress as the construction gets under way.

I guess you may start to think this blog should be called the building priest instead of the running priest but I really have been running. I'll have to get organized and get another set of runs underway. It was just about this time last year that the original idea for therunningpriest.blogspot.com came to me while I was running!!!!!!!!

Thanks to all who have supported my efforts. God bless America on July 4, 2010!!!!!!!!!

Runnin' into June

Have had some good runs in the June heat..........actually ran at Bachman Lake in Dallas after dropping a friend off at the airport. I enjoy taking the opportunity to run in various locations when I'm on the road. Bachman Lake is one of my favorite places in the Dallas area..........can be kind of exciting as planes from Love Field fly over.........you can see all the stuff under the plane very clearly.........always glad they keep flying.

Still counting down for launch day for the Chapel of Saints Peter and Paul...........generous pledges continue to flow in and we are right at $1,000,000 in new or continuing pledges with about $600,000 to go for the Chapel to be fully funded as we begin construction........exciting stuff!!!!!!

THANKS AGAIN TO THE REMARKABLY GENEROUS PEOPLE OF THE CATHEDRAL OF THE IMMACULATE CONCEPTION WHO ARE MAKING THIS CHAPEL HAPPEN!!!!! GOD BLESS YOU ALL.