Welcome to the Family!

Sol Justicia Beard Armbruster was baptized at St. Mark's on June 11, 2006. Father Joe performed the sacrament, with her parents, Ralph and Meg, and her godparents, Ruth Holman and Oscar Alejandro Fierros also attending the ceremony. Sol coperated quite nicely, enjoying the music as well as her birthday cake later in the day. She is proud to be one of the newest
members of the St. Mark's community.

In an Octopus' Garden

We have some pictures from the 2006 dinner auction.

What a lovely evening! It's always amazing to see how everything is transformed for the auction.

Here's Diana, our auction chair, posing with Fr. Paul and Fr. Joe. Congratulations on a job well done!

More pictures are available on the St. Mark's web site: http://www.saint-marks.net/pix/2006/pic1.html

A St. Mark's Graduate

Samantha Morgan is graduating with a BA in English and a minor in Exercise and Sports Studies, Fitness Instruction. She plans to stay in Isla Vista through August. In the fall she is moving to Tecate, Mexico to work at a fitness spa called Rancho La Puerta. After that she would like to spend a year doing volunteer/missionary work.

Blessings, Samantha.

A Poem for Our Graduates

In honor of our St. Mark's graduates, here is a poem about graduating by St. Mark's student Thomas Flowers. Thomas wrote this poem for his graduation from Bellarmine College Preparatory in 2002. It was written on the theme of trusting in God's love, as expressed in the "lilies of the field" gospel (Matthew 6:25-34). May the seeds of love sown here at St. Mark's continue to bear fruit in the lives of all our alumni.

Last Moment
By Thomas Flowers

There are so many things we haven't said
That here we leave undone,
And so there are tears.
There are so many things we plan to do
As we live on dreams of futures,
And so there are smiles.
There are so many things we have done
And the memories come back,
And so there are tears and smiles and laughs.

It seems it's all about emotion
Or at least a motion from past to present to future
And so it feels so fast and slow
And we wait for ends and beginnings.

But I would suggest that we are here now.
Caught on a precipice, yes, as we are always caught
Between now and then
love and despair
the marvelous and the known.
But just so, we are here now,
Though the moment may pass,
And we will undoubtedly go.
But we are who we are.
And if among our imperfect efforts
And our varied ways
Our love is still sown,
Then past and present and future need not matter,
And our tears and our smiles and our laughs can cure all.

---

Blessings to all of our graduates. We love you, will miss you, and wish you well as you move on to new endeavors.

Summer Schedule Changes

With summer coming and students leaving, there will be several schedule changes.

Sunday: The 5pm Mass is on hiatus until Fall. All other Masses continue at their regular times -- Saturday at 5pm and Sunday at 10am, noon, and 8pm.

Monday: Lectio divina will meet on Monday, then stop for the summer.

Tuesday: Tonight is the last gathering for monastic night prayer until fall.

Wednesday: The noon campus Mass will resume in the Fall.

Thursday: Catholic IV will meet again when classes start.

Another Soon-to-be-Alum

Natalie Alvarez is an MCDB Microbiology major with an emphasis in Genetic Engineering and Certification in the College of Engineering's Technology Management Program. Future plans are to pursue a career in Biotechnology and work towards an MBA. Natalie says, "I have had a wonderful experience at St. Mark's! I thank Fr. Joe , Fr. Paul, Ana, and everyone who has contributed a lot of their efforts in making St. Mark's a welcoming and fulfilling environment."

Best wishes, Natalie!

Soon-to-be-Alumni

Thomas Flowers will receive his BA in History. He's headed off to Santa Clara University for a master's degree in Catechetics. He's looking at teaching part time in a Catholic high school while he works on his degree.

Anne Hannes will receive her BS in Biological Sciences with a minor in Art History. Her post-UCSB plans are to become a Titan and go to school with the best baseball team ever! In other words, she's been admitted to the Master of Science program in Biology at California State University, Fullerton for Fall 2006 with Dr. Michael H. Horn as her advisor. She will be studying marine ecology, specifically fish physiology and morphology. After her MS she hopes to pursue a Ph.D. in marine ecology in order to become a research professor. Anne will leave Isla Vista in early August to move back to Orange County for grad school. She adds that she will miss St. Mark's terribly!

Best wishes, Thomas and Anne!

Welcome!

Welcome to Honey from the Lion's Mouth. This will be the place for news and information about the St. Mark's community. What kind of news? That's up to you.

What's happening in your family that you would like to share with the parish? Need prayers? Tell us! Have a significant event in your life? If you're graduating, tell us about your future plans. If you're an alumnus, tell us about where you are and what you're doing now. Pass on any information you'd like to share.

Send info to andrea@saint-marks.net and mention that it's for the blog.