Yesterday we pulled the church’s cornerstone. It really was a memorable experience. Several of us stood and watched as the workers carefully cut the stone from the wall. What we thought was going to be a box inside the wall ended up being, literally, the cornerstone of the church. It was a heavy 16″ cinder block, and carefully placed inside were three items. A mason jar filled with carefully folded papers, a folded newspaper, “The Collier County News”, dated December 22, 1950, and a small vial that was filled with something at some point but has since evaporated.
Later in the day, we opened the jar; we scraped away the rusted top that had deteriorated. Carefully, we pulled the damp papers from the jar and unfolded them. We found a variety of historical documents: the original by-laws of the church, communications about changing the name to Trinity-by-the-Cove, the letter from the bishop confirming that Trinity would be granted their wish to become a parish in Naples. There are many other documents that we waiting to dry before digging deeper into their meaning.
While it is so interesting looking at the history of how our church was formed, we just need to remember why our founding members did what they did. They wanted to build a church that would be home to generations, a place where people would worship and celebrate the most precious times of their lives. A place where our Lord would be the foundation and the center of that worship. They did just that.
The new church will have a cornerstone as well, and we are discussing what items we will place there. I think I’ll petition to put in one of my little Jesus figurines š . At the end of the day, Jesus will be there, in all that we do. He is and always will be the cornerstone of our faith and our church.
Have a good day, friends, and thanks for listening to the play-by-play from yesterday.
1 Corinthians 3:11
For no one can lay a foundation other than that which is laid, which is Jesus Christ.
Leave a Reply