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A few thoughts on the renaming of our parish inclusive of St. John/Ogden, St. Malachy/Madrid, and Sacred Heart/Boone as directed by the Pastoral Plan for our Boone County Catholic Community. Please remember the physical church is a sacred building and the ‘parish’ is the parishioners and visitors who worship there. Once a church building has been dedicated, (as has the three worships sites), it keeps its name. As the diocese moves our cluster into a unified parish we are tasked to provide a name that in someway reflects the character of who we are as a faith community. Possibilities would include a title of Christ already accepted in the liturgy or that speaks of the mystery of His life; a title of the Blessed Virgin Mary accepted in liturgy; the Trinity; the Holy Spirit; a canonized saint or one of the angels. In considering a name and offering a suggestion(s) may it please reflect the charism if you will of our faith community, or that of a saint representing a certain cultural or ethnic perspective unique to our area. Any suggested name must have a feast day for the new parish to celebrate. For example, St. Joseph the Worker is May 1st on the Calendar of Feast Days. In turn, the three most popular suggestions will be given to Bishop Nickless who then will choose one for our faith community. He asks that we not forward a name that is already part of a parish. Thank you for your thoughtfulness and consideration with the suggestions you offer. By next Sunday we will stop taking suggestions, and provide a listing of the five or six most popular suggestions for parishioners to vote on.
During this ‘Marian Month’ there is an interesting footnote on one of the many titles for Mary. Mary, Queen of Peace, a popular reference to our Blessed Mother has its roots in a simple humble gesture at a wedding. In the early sixteenth century a groom, Jean de Joyeuse, presented a wedding present to his bride to be, Francoise e Voisins on their wedding day. A gesture common to French weddings at the time, he presented her with a unique statue of Mary: she was holding an olive branch in her right hand and the ‘Prince of Peace,’ the infant Jesus held in her left arm. Over time the statue became a family heirloom and a grandson who inherited it took the statue with him as he entered the Capuchin order in Paris. (A Franciscan community, the Capuchins date back to the 16th century noted for their simplicity, poverty, and outreach to the alienated.) In time the unique and popular statue of Mary was renamed, Our Lady of Peace. In 1906 Pope Piux X approved the renaming of the original statue, from ‘Our Lady of Peace’ to ‘Our Lady, Queen of Peace. In January of ‘41 the Diocese of Honolulu was established under the auspices of Pope Pius XII, and their Cathedral was named Our Lady of Peace, leading to the official date of this feast day on our Catholic calendar as January 24th. Coincidently, later that year, on December 7th, the naval base at Pearl Harbor—near Honolulu—was attacked leading to our participation in WWII. Considering the first war now taking place on European soil since VE Day, with the Russian invasion of Ukraine, Pope Benedict XVI’s words seem so very relevant at this time. “Mary was the first person to take the 'way' to enter the Kingdom of God that Christ opened, a way which is accessible to the humble, to all who trust in the word of God and endeavor to put it into practice. . . .Let us entrust to her intercession the daily prayer for peace, especially in places where the senseless logic of violence is most ferocious; so that all people may be convinced that in this world we must help each other, as brothers and sisters, to build the civilization of love.”
Mother’s Day. Remembering those mothers who were seated with their families in the pews next to the one I gravitated to for Sunday morning Mass at St. Joseph, my hometown parish: Beatrice, Sally, Geri, Mary Jo, Anne, Esther, Imogene. Many are deceased, yet each one had a calling to nurture the gift of life within their particular strengths and struggles but nonetheless faithful to what God asked of them. I was privileged to share in their faith and prayers. And I took for granted their nurturing gift to build a foundation of faith within their respective families. No mother is alike in their strengths and struggles, their circumstances and family; yet each has been endowed with a gift only God can provide. “But there's a story behind everything. How a picture got on a wall. How a scar got on your face. Sometimes the stories are simple, and sometimes they are hard and heartbreaking. But behind all your stories is always your mother's story, because hers is where yours begin.” (Mitch Albom, author)
To the Moms Who Are by Hannah Kardon, Methodist pastor
To the Moms who are struggling & to those filled with incandescent joy.
To the Moms who are remembering children who have died, and pregnancies that miscarried. To the Moms who decided other parents were the best choice for their babies & to the Moms who adopted those kids and loved them fierce.
To those who mothered neighborhood kids—children & teens—and anyone who needed it. To those remembering Moms no longer with us.
Today is a day to honor the unyielding love and care for others we call 'Motherhood,' wherever we have found it and in whatever ways we have found to cultivate it within ourselves.
God bless & blessings upon all mothers, Fr. Tim
“And when it rains on your parade, look up rather than down. Without the rain, there would be no rainbow.” (G.K. Chesterton)
