This morning, while eating a bowl of cereal, I watched Thursday’s episode of “The Office,” which I DVR’d this past week.
Hot tears ran down my face during the last few moments I watched Pam and Jim.
My reaction was completely unexpected given the show’s reputation of insanely witty humor, yet, perhaps, expected given my life at the moment.
Thieves strip art from walls of church
BY CHRISTOPHER BURBACH
WORLD-HERALD STAFF WRITER
Thieves working in stained-glass-filtered daylight spirited away seven paintings from the sanctuary of Immaculate Conception Catholic Church in south Omaha.
They took six of 14 Stations of the Cross paintings that parish officials believe date to the original Immaculate Conception Church in the 1890s. They also cut a 6-foot-high depiction of Jesus – a painting valued at $15,000 in its home country of Poland – from its frame.
The Rev. Anthony Espinosa said the thefts occurred sometime in the afternoon of May 6, between a Mass celebrating a parish family’s special occasion, and a regular Saturday evening service.
Espinosa discovered the empty frames when he went into the church, 2708 S. 24th St., for the 6 p.m. Mass on May 6. It took him a while to conclude it was theft. Workers had been painting and making repairs to the church interior, and the Stations of the Cross paintings had only recently been returned to the walls.
And, he said, it was unthinkable that someone would steal such items from a church.
“They were targeted,” Espinosa said. “Either someone knew the historical value or just really wanted stations.”
He could not place a monetary value on the Stations of the Cross paintings, saying only that they are “historically irreplaceable” and a link to the church’s heritage.
The larger painting, depicting a Polish saint’s vision of Jesus as the Divine Mercy, is one of three of its kind painted in Poland, the historic homeland of Immaculate Conception Church’s founders and many of its current parishioners. The two in Poland are valued at $15,000, Espinosa said.
The Stations of the Cross traditionally adorn the walls of Catholic churches. There are 14, and they tell the story of Jesus’ Crucifixion. Catholics use the images as prayer aids, especially during Lent.
Immaculate Conception members sponsored the paintings in 1897, said Joyce Urban, the parish’s administrative assistant. Her grandparents, Anton and Maryane Smolinski, donated the 13th Station, one of the eight that were not taken.
Several families still in the parish stem from those founders, she said.
The stations paintings had been stored in a church basement until children discovered them in the mid-1980s. The pastor found them beautiful, and parishioners paid to restore them and return them to the walls.
They hung in wood frames with metal titles. The frames were left behind by the thieves. Among the stolen paintings was Station 4, “Jesus Meets His Afflicted Mother.”
The parish took down the remaining stations out of concern the thieves would return to finish the job.
Police are investigating.
“I’m really sad about it,” Urban said. “I’m not angry. I’m just sad. The Stations of the Cross are very much a part of our lives and our faith. How could they do that? What were they going to do with them? They belong to God. This is God’s house.”
That said, she said it could have been worse, and the crime doesn’t shake her belief in the goodness of the church’s neighborhood.
“Are we going to miss them? Yes,” Urban said. “Can we replace them? No. We can get new stations, but they won’t be the same.
“But no one was hurt. And they’re material things.”
Espinosa affixed a printed note to a church wall inside the empty frame of the Divine Mercy painting. The note was, he said, “a way of making a dreary situation spiritual.”
The priest’s message reads, “Long ago, a thief repented to Jesus on the cross. Today we hope a thief will repent and return our picture of Jesus, Divine Mercy.”
Nothing says Happy Friday like mashed potatoes and warm chocolate chip cookies from the oven, though not together but the prior following the latter.
My tummy is finally full.
NBC ‘Apprentice’ star Bill Rancic to announce Bellevue University Career Makeover winner
BELLEVUE, Neb. – Bill Rancic, winner of the first “Apprentice” reality TV show on NBC and still a frequent guest on the show, will appear at Bellevue University May 25 to announce the winner of this year’s Best Degree of You Career Makeover, a contest that awards a full-tuition scholarship and new car to the finalist who receives the most votes online from the public.
There are five finalists, and the public has until midnight May 20 to vote for the winner at www.careermakeover.info
The winner announcement event begins at 7 p.m., May 25, in Criss Auditorium inside the Hitchcock Humanities Center. Rancic will make a short speech before announcing the winner of this year’s Best Degree of You Career Makeover. He will be available after the announcement to meet audience members, sign autographs and pose for pictures. The event is free.
Like the five contest finalists, Rancic understands the challenges faced by working adult students. Rancic helped paid his way through school at Loyola University with money earned through his own boat wash and wax business. He also understands the power of education, as his father was a school superintendent and college professor and his mother worked as a school principal and now is as an adjunct professor. After his father passed away in 1999, Rancic and his sisters established a scholarship fund in his name that benefits students in need who wish to become educators.
After he graduated from college in 1994, Rancic went on to found www.cigarsaroundtheworld.com, which is now a thriving multi-million dollar operation that’s part of a publicly traded company.
In 2004, Rancic rose to national prominence by winning “The Apprentice,” Donald Trump’s hit reality TV show. He has since written two best-selling books about succeeding in business and continues to manage his own business ventures while making frequent speaking engagements around the country.
Since they were announced May 1, the Career Makeover finalists have been busy “campaigning” for votes, both through promotional events such as a radio remote broadcast from Beardmore Chevrolet and a working-professional fashion show at Oakview Mall to be held May 20, and through media appearances on Q98.5 FM and KPTM-TV. The finalists also have been handing out business cards and wearing t-shirts that urge people to go online and vote for them at www.careermakeover.info
So I’m working away yesterday when I receive the following email from my sister. You be the judge.
——————-
From: Katie Townley
Sent: Thursday, May 11, 2006 1:31 PM
To: Wendy Townley
Subject: Hmmm…?
I swear, people do not pay attention to the things they design. I’m going through this huge PDF this morning about transportation and come across this graphic. What does this look like to you???
Confession: Now that I have DVR with my digital cable, I’m taping shows I haven’t watched in years, such as “The OC” on Fox.
Confession: While watching “The OC,” there are moments I miss my sister so much I almost can’t breath. {For those who don’t know, my sister is an Orange County resident sans the anorexia, promiscuity and heroine addictions such as those belonging to the main characters.}
From “The Book of Questions” by Gregory Stock:
No. 37: What was your best experience with drugs or alcohol?
She is so very lovely, indeed! Thanks for your beauty, Ms. Hepburn.
For you Mac users in search of a little hardware/software TLC, try The Mac Nurse.
This won’t hurt a bit; I promise.
