St. James Mission ‘good, tight community’ VIEW GALLERY (use arrow keys to navigate)
MAGNOLIA — These days women wearing hats to church on Sundays is often associated with the past.
In ancient times, St. Paul wrote in 1 Corinthians 11:5: Any woman who prays or prophesies with her head uncovered dishonors her head ....
Until the recent past, most Catholic women religiously covered their heads in church.
And still today, in church or social settings some women don’t consider themselves properly dressed without a hat.
But on Sunday, April 6, neither ancient law or tradition nor fashion dictated the headdress of a number of parishioners at St. James Mission.
Without saying a word, the hat-wearers proclaimed their camaraderie with cancer fighters everywhere.
Most were members of Hearts and Hands, a women’s organization at the parish established in 1999, but everyone is encouraged to participate. A few girls and men (outside) donned hats.
“It makes me feel so much better, even today, two years later,” said June Waldron, a breast cancer survivor. Hearts and Hands started wearing hats to support her in her battle against cancer. Undergoing chemotherapy, Waldron lost her hair.
“She didn’t want to wear a wig, so she started wearing hats,” said Carole Thomas.
“To make her feel comfortable, we decided to wear hats on the first Sunday of the month. Now, thank goodness she’s well and back to normal but we still wear hats in honor of all those fighting cancer and cancer survivors.”
With about 20 families, St. James is small but a “good, tight community that loves their church,” according to Father Bill Henry, pastor. “That is very obvious to me.”
The community might be small but Waldron said she could feel her community’s concern for her. “I received extra support from my church family and I very much appreciate it. I could feel people praying for me. And the power of prayer is awesome. And then I saw people wearing hats to help me, support me. It was really wonderful.”
St. James is a mission of St. Teresa Parish in Chatawa. Due to the priest shortage, no resident priest was appointed to St. Teresa after Father Pat Smith was appointed pastor of Woodville St. Joseph Parish and its two missions, Gloster Holy Family and Fort Adams St. Patrick in 2007.
Instead, Father Henry was appointed pastor of St. Teresa and St. James, in addition to duties as pastor of McComb St. Alphonsus.
At both St. Alphonsus and St. Teresa one weekend Mass was eliminated to make it possible for Father Henry to celebrate the Eucharist at all three churches.
Additionally, Divine Word Father Malcolm O’Leary was appointed chaplain at St. Mary of the Pines Retirement Center.
“We can’t expect Father Bill to do everything by himself,” said David Whittington, chairman of the building committee. “The lay people have got to start taking more charge of things. We have a priest who’s pastor of three churches and a school. He can’t do everything by himself.”
Whittington said Father Henry can not be expected to attend every meeting, visit every sick parishioner in the hospital, or every grieving family at home.
“There is just not enough of Father Bill to go around,” he said.
“We’ve just got to step up. It’s time for the lay people in the Diocese of Jackson to step up to the responsibilities in their church,” he said.
Whittington’s words resonate those of Bishop Joseph Latino who in a recent letter to pastors/parish leaders asked for information from all parishes and missions about their plans in addressing the impending priest shortage.
“We want to preserve this church and our community,” he said. “We don’t want to see our church padlocked and sold on the auction block because of the priest shortage.”
What the future holds for St. James in regard to the priest shortage is discussed at the meetings of the building committee with the pastoral and finance councils of St. Teresa/St. James, Whittington said.
Renovations to St. James Parish Hall, next to the church, and future work on the church building are in the works.
“We want to be really careful about this because we really don’t know where we might be headed. In a small community like ours we may be looking at a priest coming from Brookhaven and going all the way over to the Louisiana state line,” he said.
“We don’t think that is too far off.”
Whittington said he’s not frightened about the challenges ahead. “I have a lot of faith in this community. We’ll get everybody involved and we will be okay.”
A short while back he expressed his concerns about the priest shortage to a priest. The priest just stood their smiling, Whittington said.
Wondering if he wasn’t clearly communicating his concerns, Whittington asked the priest why was he smiling.
“He said the church is a couple of thousand years old, that we’ve had some tough times before and we are going to get through this one.
“Now, he is a man of true faith,” Whittington said. “We all need to be like that.”
It was the faith of Catholics brought to Magnolia by the Illinois Central Railroad around 1864 that led to them organizing as a group.
Later on the Redemptorists Fathers established a seminary in Chatawa in 1869 and took charge of the congregation.
In 1872 the Redemptorists started the construction of the church which was named for St. James the Great.
Darlene and Ray Breaux left Baton Rouge in 1990 and settled in Magnolia.
“It’s amazing how far St. James has come. When we moved here they were renovating the church, there were no pews so we sat on folding chairs. On a good Sunday we had 15 to 20 people,” she said.
“Now on some Sundays there is only standing room even with the folding chairs all out. Our numbers have just grown.”
Breaux estimates only about five percent of the parishioners are actually from Magnolia. “The rest are from Louisiana, like us, or transplants from somewhere else.”
She said the impetus for starting Hearts and Hands came from the desire to establish a sense of family at the mission church.
The group started by beautifying the church with flowers, then landscaping the grounds and additional improvements over the years.
They get their funds from donations and fund-raisers. In 2007 the group published a cookbook, “Church Ladies: Hearts and Hands Cookbook” which sells for $10 and is dedicated to deceased members Anaise Mabile and Dorothy Rodriguez.
Other ministries include donating to charities such as the McComb Interdenominational Care Association (MICA), Fill In the Gap (FIG) and a nearby mission parish.
“We also have a blog (www.ourcatholiccommunity.blogspot.com) for our church which we are using until we get an official website,” according to Terry Simmons.
She said St. Teresa and St. James, or the Pike County Catholic Community, is comprised mainly of older adults working together in ministry and fellowship activities.
“The sisters (School Sisters of Notre Dame) at Chatawa add a lot to our community and they are loved,” said Simmons. “We’re grateful for the work they do for the parish and the greater community.”
On that note, Sister Mary Clared Coyne plays the organ and piano for Sunday Mass at St. James.
Simmons said Father Henry’s homily that day helped her appreciate even more what she learns in Bible study.
“He said we need to do more than just come to church on Sundays, that we need to read and study the word.
“All of us in the Bible study group have noticed that when we hear news about Iraq, Iran and other lands in the Middle East we realize that’s where a lot of Biblical history was made,” she said.
Simmons said they all have a better appreciation for the Mass.
“We recognize those places as places where the beginnings of our Catholic history was written. It gives us a more open understanding of what’s going on. It has opened up things for us in all aspects of our lives,” she said.
After Mass on first Sunday, St. James parishioners provide breakfast for everyone in the parish hall.
“We’re a rural community,” said Whittington. “We don’t have a lot of affluent people here and we’re used to getting by with what we have. That’s a big help for us in meeting challenges.”
The food for the breakfast is all homemade, from the cookies and pastries to the egg casserole. “It’s not catered,” Whittington said. “Everybody chipped in a little something and see what we have, a feast. It works out.”
All of that adds to the fun of first Sunday, said Breaux. “You can’t put on a hat without dressing up. So at least on first Sunday you dress up and feel a little special.”
Of course for Waldron, first Sunday will always be special.
“It’s a great support for me and really anyone who has undergone chemotherapy. It makes you aware of other people’s feelings and concern for you.
“It’s a blessing to me and I appreciate it. So I’m just going to keep wearing my hats,” Waldron said.
Hearts and Hands started wearing hats to support her in her battle against cancer. Undergoing chemotherapy, Waldron lost her hair.
very much appreciate it. I could feel people praying for me. And the power of prayer is awesome. And then I saw people wearing hats to help me, support me. It was really wonderful.”
