By LORETTA FULTON For the second consecutive year, Holy Family Catholic Church is getting a new priest. On Monday, Bishop Michael Sis of the Diocese of San Angelo announced several upcoming pastoral changes, including the one at Holy Family. Ironically, when the Rev. Santiago Udayar was named priest at Holy Family in August 2021, it marked the first time in
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To donate to the Global Samaritan project to fill buckets with household items for refugees fleeing Ukraine, go to http://www.globalsamaritan.org. It costs $40 to fill and ship each 5-gallon bucket. By LORETTA FULTON “They need help.” That was the only reason Bill Payne needed to show up May 2 at Global Samaritan Resources to help pack 5-gallon buckets with household
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By LORETTA FULTON At the original National Day of Prayer, held in 1775, colonists were urged to pray for justice, their rights, and “our true, sovereign George III.” It is unknown what the colonists actually prayed for in regard to George III, but the outcome probably wasn’t what King George had hoped for. The brief history lesson was presented by
Read moreBy DANNY MINTON “Mother!” cried out a soldier wounded in a World War II battle. He didn’t know why he said it; the word automatically came from his subconscious. The scenario represented a moment in the lives of many soldiers, some wounded, some dying. Why do grown men cry out for their mothers when they feel trapped in a live-or-die
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By JIM NICHOLS One of the most well-known pieces of the Bible is the set of parables of Jesus. Concentrated in certain areas of scripture but also sprinkled at random elsewhere, they contain lessons that are both profound and precise. That is not to say they are necessarily easy to understand. We generally suggest that they are stories using a
Read moreBy DANNY MINTON On March 1, 2009, Corey Smith drowned along with two friends, Marquis Cooper and Will Bleakly. The three men and Nick Schuyler were on a fishing boat in the Gulf of Mexico when it overturned while they tried to pull up an anchor that had gotten stuck. Smith and Cooper were both NFL football players. Schuyler would
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By JIM NICHOLS His given name was Leroy, although everyone called him Roy (except for his children and grandchildren). Roy was a bus driver eventually, although he worked his way through other jobs. One of his early positions was as a door-to-door salesperson for the Fuller Brush Company. That sentence sets the period for his life and this story. Roy
Read moreBy NANCY PATRICK In February 2020 Spirit of Abilene ran an article I wrote entitled “Like a Box of Chocolates.” The title alludes to the movie “Forest Gump,” but the piece focuses on the randomness and serendipity of life. In the article I referred to a television series entitled “This Is Us” on CBS. That series is now in its
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By LORETTA FULTON At least two organizations will host live National Day of Prayer services on Thursday. 1-Kingdom, an organization of local civic leaders and ministers, and the Abilene Interfaith Council, which has members from various faith traditions, will host services that are open to the public. 1-Kingdom is sponsoring several prayer opportunities throughout the day, all at Festival Gardens
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