Create a Free Web Site

Some of you may be interested in utilizing this service from Microsoft Office Live. This site reads "Create a free website." Here you can create a website using a Microsoft address, or secure a domain name and use that. That is what I did with Holy Cross. The cost of the domain for the first year is waived, and subsequent years charged at $14.95. They give you all the tools to design your site,that include instructional videos. It took me about 6 hours to create the Holy Cross site, which I did over the course of three days. You can look at our site by clinking the link on the left side of this blog. The link for the Microsoft site is: http://www.officelive.com/free-website

Christian cards and gifts

The Printery House is a great place for Christian themed greeting cards and other gifts. In stating their purpose, their website says: "The Printery House is an apostolic work of the monks and employees of Conception Abbey, a Benedictine monastery situated in the rolling farmlands of northwest Missouri. Our mission is to proclaim the Gospel and share the Christian faith through the creation and distribution of printed products and contemporary religious art." I have used their Christmas cards for the past two years and have been very satisfied. Their prices are very reasonable and they have a very good selection to choose from. Here you can find cards for all Christian occasions including ordination. They also carry carry a good selection of Christian gifts. You can sign up online to receive their catalogue which is updated with some frequency. They can be found at the following URL: http://www.printeryhouse.org/

Incense and Charcoal

My favorite incense is one called "Gloria Incense" and is available from Skete.com, an Orthodox monastery in Boscobel, WI . It is the only incense they sell. It makes lots of smoke and smells great!This is the incense that was being used at Christ Church Cathedral in Lexington, NC when I was there, and I believe it was still being used 6 months ago.

I have tried many different brands of charcoal over the past years. It has often been a frustration experience. Many that I have tried give very spotty performance. I have found some of those I have tried to be very difficult to light and I spent a fortune on lighters! Often you think they're lit only to find that only a quarter is burned! Of course, then you have to look close to see the smoke. After many attempts, I have found the most consistant and easiest to light to be the "Self-Lite" Charcoal from Char-Lite Products. It runs around $22 for a box of 100. I have found that a single briquet does a great job smoking up the Church. Just add another before your homily and your ready to cense the elements. They are come packed in trays of 25 so breakage is minimal. These are also available at Skete.com. Theres is a link for the their site under the "Resourse websites" on this blog.

Get rid of those wine stains!

We've all had it happen. You've just put a freshly laundered and ironed fair linen on the altar or credence table, and you get one little drop of red wine on it, or even on your freshly drycleaned alb. If you're like me it drives you crazy! And, if you're like me, the thought of going through all the work of cleaning and ironing the linen for such a small stain also makes you crazy. Well, Tide makes a wonderful little product called Tide to Go. It is a little stick about the size of a magic marker. You simply press down on the stain with the tip and a little cleaning solution is released onto the stain. Then you simply rub lightly with the tip of the Tide to Go on the stain and let dry. Viola! The stain is gone! These are available in the laundry detergent section of any store and cost about $3-4. Also, you can get a coupon for a buck off if you go to this link: http://tide.com/en_US/tidetogo/products.jsp?utm_source=sharpie_couponpage#/our-products