St. B's Youth Gathering
| | Join us for fun, fellowship, and a marshmallow fight! St. B's Youth Group will hold their first gathering on Sunday, May 20, 2:00-5:00 p.m., at The Smyrna  Community Center, 200 Village Green Circle, in The Village Green of Downtown Smyrna. The group will make tie-dyed t-shirts, "marshmallow launchers," and listen to music. (You'll have to show up to see a marshmallow launcher.) They will also pay a visit to the nearby ice cream shop for an opportunity to ruin their dinners. Lang and Courtney will lead the youth in these and other activities.
Please contact Courtney at 678-279-4300 or via email at
Courtney@MySaintB.org for more information. | The Rule of St. Benedict
| "Insights Into the Art of Living"Each Day
At the beginning of each day
after we open our eyes
to receive the light
of that day,
As we listen to the voices
and sounds
that surround us,
We must resolve to treat each hour
as the rarest of gifts
and be grateful
for the consciousness
that allows us to experience it,
recalling in thanks
that our awareness is a present
from we know not where,
or how, or why.
When we rise from sleep let us rise for the joy
of the true Work that we will be about
this day,
and considerately cheer one another on.
Life will always provide matters for concern.
Each day, however, brings with it reasons for joy.
Every day carries the potential
to bring the experience of heaven;
have the courage to expect good from it.
Be gentle with this life,
and use the light of life
to live fully in your time.
Always We Begin Again
The Benedictine Way of Living
by
John McQuiston
This book may be purchased at amazon.com | Daily Prayer at St. B's
| Every day at 10:00 AM we hold a prayer service at St. Benedict's offices. We invite you to join us or to send your prayers to Lang.
If you decide to join us, or just want to come by for a visit, please feel free to drop in (directions).
| If you are not already a subscriber, please join today!
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| Impacting People's Daily Lives
|  I had a flashback the other day to a moment in class years ago at Georgia Tech. Our professor was asking us to calculate the distance an object would travel given its mass and the force applied to it considering the confines of earth's gravity. The professor had the audacity to call on me (I say "audacity" because I thought that my being asleep served as sort of an unspoken agreement where such questions to the "napping" were out of bounds). Anyway, for some reason my professor sought to break the rules of engagement so I did what any other self respecting student would do in such a situation. I asked the question back to him. Realizing he was to have no answer from me, he proceeded to go around the room where he continued to get no answer. Finally, he came to an 8th year All American football player (still in school trying to pass this class to graduate) and said, "Mr. P" (I will use initials to protect the innocent!): "Do you have an answer to my question?" Well, I was always impressed by Mr. P's coolness under fire. For Mr. P. looked calmly at our frustrated professor and said, "Yes sir, if you could make the question more relevant." The professor undaunted responded: "Ok, let's say the object is a football." Mr. P took his pencil in hand and made a few quick and impressive calculations. Within a few seconds he said; "Professor.... I can't tell you exactly how far the football would travel but I can say that if I had kicked it with such force, I would not be in this class but in the pro's experiencing a whole lot more relevance to your question." Perhaps the class laughter protected Mr. P. from yet another term in this class. However, I suspect the professor appreciated Mr. P's point that knowledge and wisdom without being relevant was not fruitful. One of the founding visions of St. Benedict's is to establish ministries that are highly relevant to people in their daily lives. It is for this reason that I am pleased to announce St. Benedict's new vocational ministry that will pair spiritual counseling, pastoral care and career assessment to help our community members answer their vocational calling. This new ministry will be an additional opportunity to fulfill our mission by putting Christ's teaching into action in tangible ways that improve the lives of those around us (see the press release for more details). In addition to taking note of this new ministry I hope you will note two upcoming events: the Youth Event (see column at left) and the Braves event Eucharist (see below). These two events and many small group dinners (Learn more about our small groups in the next issue.) should make way for a busy but laid back summer.
Peace,
To find out more about St. Benedict's or to learn how you can build Christ's church, please visit our Web site at www.MySaintB.org, or contact Lang directly via email or at 678-279-4301. | St. B's and The Atlanta Braves
| Come join St. B's for some fellowship, food, and baseball! St. B's has secured 75 tickets to the Atlanta Braves vs. Detroit Tigers game for Sunday, June 24 at 1:05 p.m. Before going to the game, we will meet at a location to be determined and celebrate Holy Eucharist followed by a brunch/lunch. If you are interested in attending, please send an email with your name and the number of tickets required to BravesGame@MySaintB.org. GO BRAVES!!!
| St. B's & MUST Ministries at the Jonquil Festival
|  St. B's sponsored a tent at the City of Smyrna Jonquil Festival on April 28 & 29. Lang and his family (at right, Lang, his wife Julie, and 3 of his 4 children), as well as members of the St. Benedicts' staff and volunteers attended the festival and met many people from the Smyrna area.
In addition to introducing ourselves to the Smyrna community, we partnered with MUST Ministries to coordinate a food drive and fundraiser for their food pantry. Children at the festival decorated several hundred lunch bags for use in MUST's summer lunch program (see at left). J.A. Shope won The MUST drawing and $100 was donated to MUST in her name. We also collected groceries that will be distributed to needy families in Cobb County.
Donations were collected on behalf of Heifer International, an organization founded to end world hunger and care for the earth by providing livestock, trees, training, and other resources to help needy families around the world. Through the kind people at the festival, we raised enough money to buy needy families in the Dominican Republic a goat, a tree, and a flock of chickens.
Many thanks to the generous people of Cobb County and Smyrna for making our tent at the Jonquil Festival so much fun and such a great success in providing for those in need!!
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St. B's Women's Summer Book Series - Grow In Faith
|  On May 2, fifteen women attended the St. B's Women's Summer Book Series kick-off and agreed to meet again on June 7 to discuss The Faith Club: A Muslim, A Christian, A Jew -- Three Women Search for Understanding by Ranya Idliby, Suzanne Oliver, and Priscilla Warner.
The Faith Club weaves the story of three women, their three religions, and  their urgent quest to understand one another. After September 11, Ranya Idliby, an American Muslim of Palestinian descent, faced constant questions about Islam, God, and death from her children, the only Muslims in their classrooms. Inspired by a story about Muhammed, Ranya reached out to two other mothers to write an interfaith children's book that would highlight the connections between Judaism, Christianity, and Islam. After just a few meetings, however, the women realized that they themselves needed an honest and open environment where they could admit -- and discuss -- their concerns, stereotypes, and misunderstandings. After hours of soul-searching about the issues that divided them, Ranya, Suzanne, and Priscilla grew close enough to discover and explore what united them.
A memoir of spiritual reflections in three voices, The Faith Club has spawned interfaith discussion groups in churches, temples, mosques, and other community settings. It will make you feel as if you are eavesdropping on the authors' private thoughts, provocative discussions, and often-controversial opinions and conclusions. As the authors reveal their deepest beliefs, you watch the blossoming of a profound interfaith friendship and the birth of a new way of relating to others. And this new edition provides all the materials you need for forming your own Faith Club, including sections in Hebrew and Arabic. Pioneering, timely, deeply thoughtful, and full of hope, The Faith Club's caring message will resonate with people of all faiths. (From Amazon.com)
Please contact Courtney Vaughn at Courtney@MySaintB.org or at 678-279-4300 if you are interested in joining The St. B's Women's Book Series. You don't have to read the book to come!!
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