| St. B's Upcoming Youth Events | For St. B's Youth &
the Young at Heart!
Youth & Family Community Service Sunday, June 18, 12:00 to 3:00 p.m., St. B's Office Help make bag lunches for  MUST Ministries. We'll eat some pizza, make sandwiches and bag lunches for 500 kids, and watch Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone (in preparation for our trip to see Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix - see below). Teens can get service hours for school!! Call Courtney and let her know if you can come.
"Unday Sunday"
Sunday, June 24, 1:45 to 4:00 p.m., Parkway Pointe Movie Theatre (AMC15), Cobb Pkwy.
Join St. B's to see "Evan Almighty" - St. B's will buy the tickets and all you need to do is bring money for popcorn! But don't forget to bring new & clean undies! Help kids who need new underwear when they go back to school! We need newly packaged undies for girls and boys, ages 5-18 (don't forget the larger sizes!!). MUST Ministries collects underwear twice a year, once at the beginning of the school year and once at Christmas. Please RSVP to Courtney. "Back to Howarts"
Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix
Wednesday, July 11, Parkway Pointe Movie Theatre (AMC15), Cobb Pkwy., Time: TBA
Be the first to see the new Harry Potter movie. Join St. B's at the opening of Harry  Potter and the Order of the Phoenix. There's no cost for your ticket! All you need to bring is some school supplies for needy kid's going back to school. MUST Ministries collects and delivers them to low-income families. Please RSVP to Courtney.
You can contact Courtney at 678-279-4300 or via email at Courtney@MySaintB.org to RSVP or for more information. | Temporary Worship Space
| If you would like to help St. B's find temporary worship space while we build a church, please let us know, Gail Sickling, Chair of the Worship Committee could use your help!
| The Rule of St. Benedict
| "Insights Into the Art of Living"Paramount Goals
What is wanted is not that we should find ultimate truth,
nor that we should become secure,
nor that we should have ease,
nor that we should be without hurt,
but that we should live fully.
Therefore we should not fear life,
nor anything in life,
we should not fear death,
nor anything in death,
we should live our lives
in love with life.
It is for us
to train our hearts
to live in grace,
to sacrifice our self-centered desires,
to find the peace without want
without seeking it for ourselves,
and when we fail,
to begin again each day.
If we adopt an outlook of confidence and trust and perfect our experience by care for others, if we live in the certainty that we are heirs in the providence of the outermost mystery, we will begin to change into the persons that we have the potential to be.
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).
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| Start Small...Think Big
|  As a child, my maternal grandfather said to me "Start small.Think big!" So when I saw a bumper sticker with the same slogan on it the other day, it caused me to think back to my childhood with my grandparents. When I was nine, our family moved from Austin, Texas to Atlanta, Georgia. Eventually, my paternal grandparents moved to Atlanta but every summer I went back to Austin to visit my maternal grandparents.Summers with them was always formative. My grandfather was with the University of Texas so much of my time was spent on campus. Occasionally, we would take trips to the desert, the river, or to the beach. Many of our trips were with their church or the Salvation Army. (See, I never had a chance to escape the church!) One summer we went to Corpus Christi on the Gulf Coast. As my grandfather and I walked along the beach (profoundly named after the Body of Christ) we walked up on a beautiful starfish. He picked it up and said "Start small.Think big!" I'm sure my perplexed look called for an illustration so he asked me if I knew the story of the man and boy who were walking on the beach and found thousands of starfish that were washed up on the shore.I said no, so he told me the story of how the man started throwing starfish after starfish back in the water in an effort to help them.The boy walking with him said:"Surely you don't think you can help them all. Will your efforts really make a difference?"The man said to the boy: "It most certainly will to those I throw back in." I heard this same story at a non-profit organization several weeks ago. The speaker reminded the audience that no matter how small or incidental our efforts may be that even though we may "start small," others seeing us do the work of Christ will join in the effort as well. And if we "think big" then, when acting with others in a common effort, we can do big things to change the world. St. Benedict's is only five months old! If all goes well, by the end of the summer, we will call together our emerging "Founding Fifty" members. With the founders acting in small groups (hosting get togethers, starting new ministries, etc.), it is my hope that we then can identify the 200 people needed to begin worship this Fall. So while it is true that we are starting small, we are thinking big from the very beginning. God thinks big! Why shouldn't we!
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 - New Date, New Game
| St. B's Trip to the Brave's Game Rescheduled Because of a schedule change by the Braves, we have moved our date for Braves baseball to Sunday, September 2, 1:05 p.m.  where we will watch the Atlanta Braves vs. the New York Mets.We still have 75 free tickets for the game. Plan to meet at 10:00 a.m. at Jonathan's home in Grant Park (near the Atlanta Zoo, about 5 minutes from the stadium). We will celebrate Holy Eucharist and eat brunch before going to the game.
If you would like to attend, send an email to BravesGame@MySaintB.org indicating how many tickets are required (first come, first serve basis). Once you have received your tickets, you will be given more details. You will need to tell us if you are coming, even if you responded to the earlier Braves vs. Tigers game announcement. Please look for more details in upcoming newsletters and emails.
GO BRAVES!!!
| Volunteer Spotlight - Billie Ronk
|  Billie has been with St. Benedict's almost since our beginning, just a few short months. But in that time, she has infused St. B's with her energy and her unique and varied skills. Billie has been active in the Episcopal Church for many years, most recently attending St. Catherine's in East Cobb.
Besides helping us with various office tasks, Billie is an active participant in our Women's Group and contributes her time to MUST Ministries. In addition, she- is certified as a Stephens Minister, providing one-to-one Christian care to the bereaved, hospitalized, terminally ill, separated, divorced, unemployed, relocated, and others facing a crisis or life challenge,
- is a Lay Eucharistic Minister - available to bring Holy Communion to those who, for reasons of illness or infirmary, cannot attend church, and
- has been certified as an EFM Mentor.
Billie says that she is "...excited about joining St. Benedict's and helping build a new church. It's a wonderful opportunity to start and to serve a new community."
If you would like Billie to provide Christian care as a Stephens Minister or if you require communion at your home, please contact St. B's offices (678-279-4300). Billie also is considering an EFM program for St. B's. If you are interested, please contact our office.
| St. B's Women's Summer Book Series - Get "Potted" with Beth Knowlton
|  On Tuesday, July 10, 7:00 to 9:00 p.m., the St. B's Women's Summer Book Series will meet at Art from the Heart, a pottery studio at 1265 W. Spring St., Smyrna, Ga. There will be margaritas, pottery painting, and discussion of Anne Lamott's book, Grace Eventually: Thoughts on Faith. The discussion will be led by Beth Knowlton, Canon for Prayer and Mission at the Cathedral of St. Philip.
It would be easy to mistake this book for more of the same. Like Lamott's earlier spiritual nonfiction, Traveling Mercies and Plan B, it's a collection of essays, mostly previously published. The three books have strikingly similar covers and nearly identical subtitles. The familiar topics are her Mom; her son, illness; death; addictions; Jesus....  Not that repetitiveness matters; Lamott's faithful fans would line up to buy her shopping lists. But these recent essays show a new mellowness: "This may seem an impossibility, but it is true, and indicates the presence of grace or dementia, or both." With gentle wisdom refining her signature humor, Lamott explores helpfulness, decency, love and especially forgiveness. She explains the change: "Sometimes I act just as juvenile as I ever did, but as I get older, I do it for shorter periods of time. I find my way back to the path sooner, where there is always one last resort: get a glass of water and call a friend." Here's hoping that grace eventually persuades this older, wiser Lamott that her next nonfiction book should be wholly original. (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!!
The next discussion will be held Thursday, August 16 and the book discussed will be "Leaving Church", by Barbara Brown Taylor.
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