Paco's Blog

Name:Elaina Rae Chaudoin
Born on:01/05/08 at 08:23 AM
Weight/Length:8 lbs 6 ozs, 19.5 inches
Hospital:Jennie Stuart Medical Center
Parents:Bill and Brenda

A child is a gift from God! Congratulations to Bill and Brenda!
**picture courtesy of Jenny Stuart Hospital, Hopkinsville KY.

Nativity Outside:


Front Street:

My car:

pop's car:

my sister's car:

The back-yard:


The New year was welcomed among chill, snows and cold... yet not even that can freeze the hope 2008 brings.
Here are some pictures of outside my house.

This is the brand new Shrine of Christ's Passion, located at Saint John, IN, about 70 miles down from Chicago. The shrine portrays a whole Via Dolorosa tour with lifesize images and scenarios, including narrations by a reknown actor whose name I can't remember. The Shrine officially opens on June 2009.
This is the Church of the Crucifixion which will be consecrated on May 2009.

This is the station of Jesus condemned to death.

Though the Shrine is still closed, the Gift Shop is open now and has lots of religious articles and reasonable prices. My family and I were blessed enough to visit that place last Christmas Eve. The pictures were taken as the weather termometer indicated -10f.

Here is a Christmas letter fro good friend Dan Musgrave, seminarian, musician, artist. Hi Dave! He is a man with a unique spiritual gift. I would like very much to share it with you.
Hey there my brother Seminarians,



It now feels like the summer at Omaha was a long long time ago, (in a galaxy far far away…sorry, I couldn’t resist), but the fruit of that summer remains with me. My prayer life has been enriched, and when I look back at the photo’s I took during the summer it always gives me a smile, especially when I am stressed out from school work. It helps refocus me.

I have just completed one of the hardest semesters I have been through, carrying 17 class credits, and 4 seminary credits, along with being the new music director this year,…it was a doozy! Next semester looks to be more of the same, but with God’s grace, and a few of my outbreaks, “Why God, Why??? Why does this have to be so difficult? I can’t do it, it’s not going to get done!” Then it all gets done somehow and I just look back and say, “…wow…God, you rock.” Averaging 5 to 6 hours of sleep, and lots of coffee, along with God’s grace seems to be the winning combination of passing classes.

The Bishop has informed us graduating students at Cardinal Muench Seminary where we will be going for major seminary. I have found out that I will be attending Mount Saint Mary Seminary in Emmitsburg, MD. Any of you that are out that way can look for my ugly mug in the fall around campus.

I hope you are all doing well, and that God is blessing you abundantly. I enjoyed my summer with you in Omaha, and I definitely miss the community that we had there. It felt a little bit like heaven on earth. May God bless you this Christmas season as we behold once again the Incarnation of God who became man.



God bless and Merry Christmas,



Dan Musgrave

Cardinal Muench Seminary

Fargo, ND

A few days ago I received an e-mail from good friend Troy. We were talking about working out and I was telling him that although I try to be as disciplined as I can with my weight-lifting, I don't rea;;yu see much results. Then we started talking about prayer. I want to share a chunk from his latest e-mail. I just think is a beautiful and real testimony that deserves to be read:
SOMETIMES YOU DON’T THINK YOU ARE GROWING WHEN YOU ARE LIFTING OR DOING GODS WILL. BUT THEN IF YOU STAY THE ROUTINE THEN YOU WILL LOOK IN THE MIRROR AND START NOTICING LITTLE CHANGES. WITH GOD IT IS THE EYES OF YOUR BROTHERS THAT ARE THE MIRROR. I WANT YOU TO KNOW I HAVE EXPERINCED WHAT YOU ARE TALKING ABOUT. IT IS A GOOD PLACE TO BE IN LIFE WHEN GOD IS A REALITY AND YOU CAN SEE HIS WORK IN YOU AND AROUND YOU. AS IN WEIGHT LIFTING, YOU DON’T REALLY KNOW HOW MUCH STRONGER YOU HAVE GOTTEN UNTIL YOU ARE UNDER THE PRESSURE OF THE WEIGHT. IT IS SCARY SOMETIMES AND YOU MAY NEED A SPOTTER, BUT ONCE YOU DECIDE TO TAKE ON THE CHALLENGE AND COMPLETE IT , THEN IT IS GRADIFING TO KNOW THAT YOU DID IT AND YOU ARE READY FOR THE NEXT PLATE TO BE ADDED ON. WHO WOULD OF THOUGHT GOD AND WEIGHT LIFTING HAVE THAT MUCH IN COMMON?