By Maureen Smith
JONEST0WN – How can you save a town in the Mississippi Delta steeped in poverty, facing problems with drugs, lack of education and a lack of access to resources? “One child at a time,” said Sister Teresa Shields, a Sister of the Holy Names of Jesus and Mary, outgoing director of the Jonestown Family Center for Education and Wellness.
Sister Teresa has done her part in that effort, but her time in the Magnolia state is coming to an end. She is looking back on 30 years in the Mississippi Delta as she prepares to retire back to her home state of Washington and her board searches for her replacement. She said she has been talking to her board of directors about retiring for a while, but had to set a date to make the plan a reality.

Shields

She came in 1984 to teach in Clarksdale at Immaculate Conception. When that school closed, she taught in Mound Bayou for a few years. When St. Gabriel School closed, “I still didn’t want to leave so I asked if I could stay and tutor. The (religious) community agreed if I could raise my own salary. So I wrote a grant to Our Sunday Visitor and got $10,000. I thought, that’s easy, to get money. So I did a little needs assessment and started an after school program,” said Sister Teresa.
A preschool followed along with programs to help educate and empower mothers. Helping teenagers transition into womanhood and manhood were the next programs added.  Sister Kay Burton continues to work with teens and mothers in the community. Sister Deanna Randall, BVM, who had Montessori training came and helped the preschool embrace that program. In 1994, Sister Teresa led the charge to raise money to build a building for the Montessori program.
Tina Crawford works in the toddler program and drives a bus for the center. “This place means a lot. When I first came, most of the talk in town was about the sisters. They brought so much to the community,” said Crawford. She said the Montessori school offers children a chance to get ahead of their peers. “They are learning on a third and fourth grade level. They are doing actual math in there and actual science,” she explained. “The work is hands-on and the kids can work at their own pace,” she added.
Parent and teacher Lakisha Egans put two of her children through the school. “This program is very valuable,” Egans said. “It opens up another whole door for kids. They need that in a small town. Education is a big issue here in the Delta,” she said. Egans credits some of the success with parent involvement. “The parents are more involved because of how close this community is,” said Egans, adding that the compassion Sister Teresa and her community offer draw people to the center.
Young children are not the only ones served by the center. In 2005, the Jonestown Family Center got a grant for health and wellness and added a fitness center, located in a former nightclub. Director Lady Jackson welcomes all comers with a smile and plenty of encouragement.

A grant helped secure a bus the Jonestown Center can use to pick up the children who attend the Montessori and preschool programs. (Photos by Maureen Smith)

Jackson said Sr. Teresa had a good reason to branch into fitness. “She had the vision of fitness center so we can educate not only the mind of the child, but the wellness of the body – getting people to eat right and exercise and take care of their bodies,” said Jackson. The fitness director inspires people with her own story of her journey to good health. “I found out my cholesterol was up and I’m not good at taking medication. That day I came home and I moved my furniture out of the way and I started working out,” said Jackson. She will support anyone who wants to turn their lives around.
She does not use one set program, instead letting people pick the type of exercise they want to try and encouraging them to try several before they settle on what works. “I don’t push what I do on other people, I let it be your choice. You want to walk. I let you walk. You want to ride the bike, you ride the bike. I just want you to do something.” Jackson said she knows of children in her church who suffer from diabetes and obesity and wants to offer an alternative. “Your body is a temple of God. You keep it healthy – you work on keeping it holy,” she said.
Not all of Jackson’s work is related to exercise. She also offers teenagers and young people a safe place to gather.

Grants and donations provided equipment for the Fitness Center, one of the newer programs in Jonestown.

“I love it. Sometimes people come here – they don’t come to work out, they have a lot of stuff on their mind. They want to talk,” she explained. “A lot of young men come down here to workout and stay out of trouble. The teenagers come and I help them. We talk about their goals, their future in life- where they want to be – what plans have they set in place to get to where they are going,” said Jackson. She encourages the young people to set both long and short term goals and then works with them on achieving the smaller milestones on the way to their ultimate dreams.
During the summers, she runs a program for kids that includes trips to nearby towns and team sports activities. Jackson said one of Sister Teresa’s gifts is being able to find just the right person for each ministry of the Jonestown center. Jackson started in the preschool program, and tried to retire, but Sr. Teresa kept bringing her back until she found the perfect fit in the fitness center.
Both Eagans and Crawford said Sister Teresa’s compassion sets her apart. Crawford said she is always willing to talk to anyone who needs her. Both hope compassion will be a hallmark of the new director for the center.
In 2012 a man from Jonestown broke into Sister Teresa’s home and stabbed and robbed her. “When I was hurt, everyone said they thought that was the end of the community center, but I did come back. I told the board, now is not the time, but maybe in a few years,” explained Sister Teresa. When she returned home after recovering from the attack she hosted a healing ritual in her home, sealing the four corners with oil and hanging up the hundreds of cards and letters she had received while she was away. She knew she wanted to continue the work of the Jonestown center, but also knew it was time to start urging the board to think about succession planning.

Maxine Kinnard, Montessori teacher, helps Josiah L. get settled while Edith R. watches. Some of the children in the program are second generation attendees.

Sister Teresa said she would like to see the Jonestown Family Center offer even more to the community. “We need a clinic. We need a bank. We need social services. We need a counselor, we need addiction counseling, so there are many needs,” said Sister Teresa.
Many of the children in the Montessori and Mothers as teachers programs now are the second generation to attend. Sister Teresa leaves knowing that the legacy of education and service has already made a positive impact on this community. “I think there are a lot more people that see another way of life is possible.”
The board hopes to have a new director in place in April or May. The Jonestown Family Center relies on donations  to maintain its programs. To learn more about how to help, visit online at www.jonestownfamilycenter.com.

One of the most visual differences in Mass in the Extraordinary Form is that the priest celebrates with his back to the people. (Photo by Gene Buglewicz)

By Gene Buglewicz
OXFORD – Father Scott Thomas celebrated Mass in the Extraordinary Form at St. John the Evangelist Catholic Church in Oxford in November. The Mass wasn’t “extraordinary” as we usually define it, but the Mass was the Extraordinary Form, commonly known as the Latin Mass.
The Latin Mass as many Catholics know it came from Pope Pius V, who mandated a single form of the Mass at the Council of Trent (1545 – 1563).   The Second Vatican Council (1962 – 1965) instituted a new, simplified liturgy that also substituted Latin for common language as well as restored a few elements which had been lost over time. In 2007, Pope Benedict XVI announced that the Extraordinary Form of the Mass could be practiced by individual parishes without permission, in part to better connect Catholics to the historical traditions of the church.
What are the differences a modern Catholic would see in the Mass in the Extraordinary form? As a bell rings, the priest enters the sacristy from the side of the altar and stands with his back to the congregation. The priest prays the Mass in Latin with English spoken only during the homily when the priest faces the congregation and addresses them.
Communion is taken at a communion rail which separates the altar from the congregation or at a kneeling bench in front of the priest. Rather than receiving the sacred Host in the hand, which is common today, the Host is taken directly on the tongue.
Worshiping at the Extraordinary Form of the Mass was offered as a special event for the University of Mississippi Catholic Campus Ministry students at St. John the Evangelist.  Approximately 40 students made up the 125 parishioners and visitors who attended the Latin Mass.
Father Thomas, pastor of Clarksdale St. Elizabeth Parish, travels throughout the Diocese of Jackson celebrating the Extraordinary Form of the Mass for parishes who request it.

By Elsa Baughman
JACKSON – The first celebration of the feast of Our Lady of Guadalupe in the Diocese of Jackson was held on Dec. 16, 1979, in the Cathedral of St. Peter the Apostle. Every year many of the parishes and missions hold in her honor mañanitas, a sunrise service on Dec. 11, Masses, processions and skits about her apparition. In some communities the faithful pray a novena of rosaries at different homes or in the church leading up to the feast day.
Saturday, Dec. 12, marks the 484th anniversary of her apparition to the Indian San Juan Diego in Tepeyac, Mexico.
In 1754 Pope Benedict XIV declared for Dec. 12 a special Mass and Office proper to the celebration on her feast day. In 1945, Pope Pius XII designated Our Lady of Guadalupe the Empress of the Americas noting that she had been painted “by brushes that were not of this world.” The following year he declared her to be the Patroness of the Americas. In 1988 the liturgical celebration on Dec. 12 was raised to the status of a feast in all dioceses in the United States.
For Mexicans living in the Jackson diocese the celebration has special meaning.
Herminia Martínez, a member of Hazlehurst St. Martin of Tours Mission, says that the feast of Our Lady of Guadalupe is a very special day in her native country, Mexico. “On Dec. 11 people decorate the front door of their houses with lights of different colors and with images of the Virgin of Guadalupe,” she said. Around 11 p.m. people gather in churches to sing songs and to pray the rosary, a tradition known as mañanitas.

Members of the Cathedral of St. Peter the Apostle process with the statue of the Virgin of Guadalupe around the Smith Park every year praying the rosary before the 2 p.m. Mass.

Martínez remembers fondly the year she participated in the “Guadalupan torch run” when she was a teenager, walking and running with a group of friends from her home in San José Chiapas Puebla to the Basilica of the Virgin of Guadalupe in Mexico City, a journey that took all day and night. There, youth groups from different parts of the country lit their torches and then brought them, burning, to their local churches.
“You feel something special when you are running with that torch in your hands,” she said. “It’s a great joy to participate in this relay race.”
Martínez added that she has also participated in that event here in the United States when the “Guadalupan Torch Relay Race” has passed through Hazlehurst on its way to New York. “We received the lighted torch, we remember the tradition and we think about the message the runners bring.”
The International Guadalupan Torch Relay Race is sponsored each year by the Tepeyac Association of New York. The race begins in October at Our Lady of Guadalupe Basilica in Mexico City, progresses through several states in the United States and ends on Dec. 12 at St. Patrick’s Cathedral in New York City.
For the feast this year, Martínez is preparing the children of the parish to present a Guadalupan dance on Friday, Dec. 11, during the 6:30 p.m. Mass in honor of the Virgin of Guadalupe. “We will bring her flowers, we will sing and dance in her honor,” she said.
For Martínez, Dec. 11-12 are also special days of remembrance in a different way. Eleven years ago her father was dying on Dec. 11 but it seemed like something was holding him in this world. On that day, she prayed to the Virgin of Guadalupe that if her father was afraid of dying, to help him go in peace. “And he died that same day,” she said.
Growing up in the small town of Allende, in the state of Coahuila, Mexico, Blanca Cantu would pray the rosary to the virgin with her parents and siblings at different homes. “We prayed 46 rosaries, one daily for each star in the Virgin’s blue mantle, ending on Dec. 12 before the Mass on her feast day,” Cantu said.

BELMONT – On Thanksgiving Day, Sandra Hernández with the help of her family, erected an altar for the Virgin of Guadalupe in the front lawn of her house. She posted this photo in Facebook with the cutline, “My little Virgin of Guadalupe is ready to be celebrated on her feast day.”

On Dec. 12, she added, the people would gather at 5 a.m. at the entrance of the town to walk for two hours toward their church, praying the rosary led by their pastor and singing songs. The Mass was celebrated at 7 a.m. followed by dances and a meal. “This is one of my most cherished childhood memories,” Cantu said.
As a member of Batesville St. Mary, Cantu is one of the organizers of the celebration in her parish, a tradition that began in 2009. She said that before the 7 a.m. Mass the congregation participates in a short procession from the parish center to the church. The adults and the children, many dressed as St. Juan Diego and others wearing Mexican dresses, bring flowers to the Virgin at the beginning of the celebration. This year the Mass will be on Saturday, Dec. 12.
This past Thanksgiving Day, Sandra Hernández and her family prepared an altar for the Virgin in the front lawn of their home in Belmont.
Her devotion for the Virgin of Guadalupe comes from her father who used to pray daily for her intersession. Hernandez’s father had a small statue of the Virgin and a crucifix on his night stand. “I was very young but I remember  him praying everyday, in the morning or at night, calling the Virgin ‘My Lupita,’” she said. Lupita is a nickname for Guadalupe. Hernández said her father named the last of his seven daughters, Guadalupe.
“My mother taught me to pray the rosary, she has a big devotion for Mary. But my father passed on his faith and love for the Virgin of Guadalupe to me,” she explained.
She remembers that in her native town of Cuitlahuac, Veracruz, the community assembled close to midnight on Dec. 11 to pray the rosary and sing mañanitas. “I went with my family to this celebration which was always very well attended and afterwards we shared a meal,” she said. On the 12th we gathered again for Mass.
Gerardo Hernández of Jackson grew up in a small town in the state of Juanajuato in Mexico. During the months of November and December he took part in the “Hermandadez (Brotherhood) activities in Rincón de Alonso, his town, for the feast of Our Lady of Guadalupe.
“We processed from one town to another taking a statue of the Virgin on a pedestal to the small chapel in each community,” he said. Sometimes the group walked for two hours or more praying the rosary and singing songs written for the Virgin. The statue stayed in each town for several days and then it was taken to the next town until Dec. 12 when it arrived at the main church in the district.
As a member of the Cathedral of St. Peter the Apostle’s Hispanic ministry, Hernandez participates in the procession around Smith Park while praying the rosary and singing songs led by a group carrying a statue of the Virgin. This year the celebration is set for Sunday, Dec. 13, beginning at 1 p.m. with the procession. Bishop Joseph Kopacz will be the main celebrant.