As I write this pastor's column, I am happy to say that we have two candidates for the position of Director Religious Education for Youth. I am confident that either one would be a good leader for our program. One of the responsibilities will be to obtain, as needed, teachers for our classes of children and teenagers. I would like to use this space this week to encourage parishioners who have the background, the experience, and love for the Lord and the Catholic faith, to step forward and offer themselves to help form our youth in the ways of the Lord and the Catholic church. Since our classes will be starting after Labor Day, I want to help whoever our new director is by asking anyone who might be interested in teaching anywhere from pre-school all the way to high school to give me a call at 209-2502. I will speak to you and then refer you to our new director who I hope to have on board by the time you read this column. The blessings that come from this ministry are tremendous and long-lasting. We hope to have at least two teachers per classroom of students so that there can be a sharing of responsibilities and time commitment.
Before we get too far away from the Father Vic Memorial Celebration, I want to firstly thank the large group of people who attended the Mass, dinner and showing of the video on Father Vic's remarkable life and ministry. Special thanks go to our Knights of Columbus who sponsored the event and video, Tom Donnelly and those who helped him with the meal, and Mary Anne Honzik who worked hard on the table decor, and those who helped set up and clean up after the event. Last, but certainly not least, to Bob Honzik who was the moving force behind the making of the video, Ed Voss who used his expertise to put together this high quality video, and those who had speaking parts in the vifdeo, which included Tom Donnelly, Dick Breckon, Monsignor Malone, former parishioner John Bodensteiner, Bob Honzik, and Ed Voss. I was privileged to have a speaking part as well, and was blessed to share my thoughts and experiences of Father Vic. For those who were not able to join us and issed the 30-minute video, we will soon have opportunities for parishioners to see it in the Lower Hall. It will lead you to give thanks if you were blessed to know him and, I hope, thankful to have a saintly, patriotic priest and faithful Knight of Columbus in our mindst for 15 years and now, we pray, an intercessor in heaven.
Before we get too far away from the Father Vic Memorial Celebration, I want to firstly thank the large group of people who attended the Mass, dinner and showing of the video on Father Vic's remarkable life and ministry. Special thanks go to our Knights of Columbus who sponsored the event and video, Tom Donnelly and those who helped him with the meal, and Mary Anne Honzik who worked hard on the table decor, and those who helped set up and clean up after the event. Last, but certainly not least, to Bob Honzik who was the moving force behind the making of the video, Ed Voss who used his expertise to put together this high quality video, and those who had speaking parts in the vifdeo, which included Tom Donnelly, Dick Breckon, Monsignor Malone, former parishioner John Bodensteiner, Bob Honzik, and Ed Voss. I was privileged to have a speaking part as well, and was blessed to share my thoughts and experiences of Father Vic. For those who were not able to join us and issed the 30-minute video, we will soon have opportunities for parishioners to see it in the Lower Hall. It will lead you to give thanks if you were blessed to know him and, I hope, thankful to have a saintly, patriotic priest and faithful Knight of Columbus in our mindst for 15 years and now, we pray, an intercessor in heaven.
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| Fr. Raymond Rossi |
I was blessed to served as associate pastor under Father Rossi at St. Peter the Fisherman Church in Mountain Home, Arkansas in my second year as a priest from 1987-88. Father Rossi was pleasant to work with, and he offered priestly hospitality to me as well. He was encouraging to me and unselfishly let me do quite a bit of ministry as I was learning how to be a priest. Those early years of priesthood are critical, and I truly appreciate all that I learned from him in the year that we were together.
Father Rossi has the distinction of being the first resident pastor as Sacred Heart Church. He was a friendly, kind, and gentle servant of the Lord. Though dementia robbed him of being able to communicate with people with words, he would always reverently receive Communion whenever I, or others, brought it to him and was seen at times going throughout Village Springs Nursing Home blessing employees and residents alike. He was blessed to have a nephew who saw to his care and provided three wonderful women who took turns being with him, but I know that Father Rossi is much better off now that he is in the hands of the Lord whom he served so well, for so many years. While I pray for the happy repose of his soul and ask that you do the same, I suspect that I will soon be asking for his intercession as I continue my priestly life and ministry. GOD BLESS YOU, FATHER ROSSI! MAY YOU REST IN PEACE!
There are instances in which people ask me how I can handle the challenges of so many funerals here at Sacred Heart Church. Obviously, I handle them with the guidance and presence of the Lord with me and with the bereaved families. It is a blessing for me to meet with family members and have a chance to hear their perspective on their deceased loved one and help me to know them better. In doing this, I discover just how blessed we are to have such faith-filled, quality people in our midst. I encourage more of you to participate in funeral Masses whether you knew the people or not, as an act of mercy, and a way to put into action one of the corporal and spiritual works of mercy (to bury the dead and pray for the dead) and support the deceased person's family who are almost always guests in our parish.
In a special way, I ask you to consider coming to the 9:00 a.m. Mass this coming Tuesday, August 16, as we have the funeral Mass for Mary Margaret (Marge) Coyle. We are having her funeral at the time of our regular daily Mass in large part because Marge (as I have come to know her) was fearful that given her age (97) and the fact that most of the people she knew in the Village had preceded her in death, and her family is small (only one daughter and a few grandchildren), that there wouldn't be many at her funeral Mass. Marge always prided herself as being a "charter member" of Sacred Heart Parish. She lived in the Village before there was a Catholic Church bulding and was one of the families that promoted to the bishop having Mass in the Village on weekends. She said she and her husband were key in bringing Father Frank Draude to serve in this parish. She and the early pioneers of the parish supported the building of the first church building that is now our Perpetual Eucharistic Adoration Chapel. Marge also took wonderful care of her dear husband until he finally went to be with the Lord. I took Communion to Marge here in the Village and at her final home at West Shores in Hot Springs. Her faith was strong, and she remarkably stayed strong in mind almost to the end of her life. She always enjoyed and appreciated my visits and the contacts she had with a few of our parishioners, including Ann Bowman who e-mailed her everyday. Marge was a dear lady, whom I truly miss seeing. May God bless her soul and give her everlasting peace and joy. Hope to see some of you for her funeral Mass this coming Tuesday at 9:00 a.m. I told here that we are all brothers and sisters in the Lord, and that we would be there for her as we lift her up to the Lord.
In a special way, I ask you to consider coming to the 9:00 a.m. Mass this coming Tuesday, August 16, as we have the funeral Mass for Mary Margaret (Marge) Coyle. We are having her funeral at the time of our regular daily Mass in large part because Marge (as I have come to know her) was fearful that given her age (97) and the fact that most of the people she knew in the Village had preceded her in death, and her family is small (only one daughter and a few grandchildren), that there wouldn't be many at her funeral Mass. Marge always prided herself as being a "charter member" of Sacred Heart Parish. She lived in the Village before there was a Catholic Church bulding and was one of the families that promoted to the bishop having Mass in the Village on weekends. She said she and her husband were key in bringing Father Frank Draude to serve in this parish. She and the early pioneers of the parish supported the building of the first church building that is now our Perpetual Eucharistic Adoration Chapel. Marge also took wonderful care of her dear husband until he finally went to be with the Lord. I took Communion to Marge here in the Village and at her final home at West Shores in Hot Springs. Her faith was strong, and she remarkably stayed strong in mind almost to the end of her life. She always enjoyed and appreciated my visits and the contacts she had with a few of our parishioners, including Ann Bowman who e-mailed her everyday. Marge was a dear lady, whom I truly miss seeing. May God bless her soul and give her everlasting peace and joy. Hope to see some of you for her funeral Mass this coming Tuesday at 9:00 a.m. I told here that we are all brothers and sisters in the Lord, and that we would be there for her as we lift her up to the Lord.