Team building programs offered
GREENWOOD – Dr. Gay Saxon from Hinds Community College leads a workshop at Locus Benedictus Retreat Center. The center has started providing comprehensive team-building training for businesses. (Photo by Magdalene Abraham)
SPIRITUAL ENRICHMENT
BROOKSVILLE Dwelling Place Retreat Center, private or directed retreats, June 8-16 or July 14-21 (schedule 3, 5 or 8 days within this block of time). Donation: $90 per day. Director: Clare Van Lent, founder. A directed retreat is a personally guided prayer experience following the Spiritual Exercises adapted to your needs. Enjoy a time of solitude and prayerful reflection primarily using Scripture. Meet daily with the director for guidance and mutual discernment. Join the community in daily Worship. Details: (662) 738-5348 or dwellpl@gmail.com.
John of the Cross – Hope in Our Darkness, June 22-23. Though John of the Cross lived in the 16th century, he has left us a treasure in understanding the spiritual life and leading others in growth in prayer. As we struggle with the normal dry spells in prayer, John gives us deeper insight into that darkness and dryness, encouraging us in our desire for an ever-deeper relationship with God. He urges us to carve out silence in the midst of all the noise in our culture. Presenter: Father John Bohn, pastor of Jackson St. Richard Parish, a long-time student of Saint John of the Cross. Donation: $100. Details: (662) 738-5348 or dwellpl@gmail.com.
PARISH, SCHOOL AND FAMILY EVENTS
AMORY St. Helen, English as a second language class meets Fridays, 10 a.m., at the parish hall. Details: (662) 256-8392.
CLARKSDALE St. Elizabeth, Dutch luncheon at the Ranch sponsored by the Ladies Auxiliary, Tuesday, May 15, at 11:30 a.m. Details: Joyous Sbravati at (662) 624-6185.
CLEVELAND Our Lady of Victories, Ladies Bible Study will be studying the book “Walking with Purpose.” Resumes Wednesday, June 6, at 6 p.m. Details: Jenifer Jenkins (662) 846-6273.
HERNANDO Holy Spirit, Pentecost celebration, Sunday, May 20 at 4 p.m., Special celebration for all six parishes. Details: church office (662) 429-7851.
Open House for new chapel and hall that is being renovated, Sunday, June 10, 10:30 – 1p.m. Details: church office (662) 429-7851.
JACKSON The president of the National Society of St. Vincent de Paul, Ralph Middlecamp, will be speaking at St. Richard Parish on Thursday, May 24, at 4:30 p.m. in Glynn Hall. His topic is the strategic plan of the National St. Vincent de Paul Society in the United States. All are welcome. Details: George Evans, 601-707-3218.
PEARL St. Jude Parish international Pentecost celebration. Saturday, May 19, 5:30 p.m. Stations representing peoples’ countries of origins will feature food and cultural heritage representations. The party is open to all and celebrates the founding of our church. Please note Mass will be at 4 p.m. this day. Details: (601) 939-3181.
YOUTH BRIEFS
GREENVILLE St. Joseph School, Color Me Cured – 5K Color Run Run/Walk for Aries Cotton, a St. Joe student, Thursday May 31, at 5:30 p.m., Benny Strazi Football Field. Special pricing on early registration by May 16. Details: school office (662) 378-9711.
Mini Cheer Camp, June 4-6, 8 – 11:30 a.m. Ages 3-12 years. Cost: $50 per camp, includes T-shirt if registered by May 21, snacks and drinks. Details: Perlita Dixon (662) 378-9711.
Tennis Camp, June 18-20. Mark Apartments Tennis Courts, 481 Cyress Lane, Greenville. Camps for 4-6 years, 7-9 years, 10-12 years and 13 years and older. Cost: $40 due with application to ensure place at camp. Details: school office (662) 378-9711.
Football Camp, June 4-6, 8-11 a.m. St. Joseph School Field House, coach John Baker.
Basketball Camp, June 4-6 12 noon – 3 p.m., St. Joseph School Gymnasium, Coach James Hunter.
Softball Camp, June 11-13, 8-11 a.m., St. Joseph School Softball Field, Coach Billy Ainsworth.
Soccer Camp, June 25-27, 8-11 a.m., St. Joseph School Practice Field, Coach Craig Mandolini.
Above four camps are for 5-12 years, boys and girls. Cost: $50 per camp. Includes T-shirt if registered by May 21, snacks and drinks. Details: school office (662) 378-9711.
HERNANDO Holy Spirit, Christian Service Initiative – Putting Mercy in Motion. June 3-8 for girls and June 17-22 for boys. For youth currently in high school to spend the week at Sacred Heart Southern Mission’s Volunteer House in Walls, helping clients in need with odd jobs. Deadline is May 20. Details: church office (662) 429-7851.
MADISON St. Francis of Assisi, Class of 2018 Senior appreciation Mass and reception on Sunday, May 20, 5 p.m. Reception to follow. Details: (601) 856-5556.
PEARL St. Jude, Homework mission experience for youth, June 27-30. Instead of traveling out of this community for a trip this summer, our youth will have a mission experience in our own backyard, reaching out to our parish, our community and the diocese. It will include service work, spiritual reflection and a lot of fun. Details: church office (601) 939-3181.
POSITION AVAILABLE
JACKSON Mississippi Catholic seeks Spanish Language content manager/office manager. Reporting to the Director of Communications, this position oversees content for Mississippi Catolico, the Spanish language paper for the diocese, as well as providing translation services as needed. The candidate must be fluently bilingual. Limited travel. Experience with writing and photography beneficial. The office manager for the department of communications is responsible for the day-to-day business operations. This includes managing the subscription database, billing, record-keeping and office maintenance. Candidate will also provide some clerical support for the office of vocations. Application deadline: June 1. Send resumes, writing samples to editor@mississippicatholic.com.
JACKSON – Catholic Charities still has spots avaiable for the Catholic Day at the Capitol Mental Health Conference set for Wednesday, May 23, at the Cathedral of St. Peter the Apostle.
The conference, originally scheduled for January but postponed due to bad weather, will focus on the need for mental health care reform in the state.
Keynote speakers include Joy Hogge of Mississippi Families as Allies and Angela Ladner, executive director of the Mississippi Psychiatric Association, will offer insight into what reforms are needed and how people can support them.
The day starts at 9 a.m. and wraps up around 3 p.m .and includes lunch. Register online at www.catholiccharitiesjackson.org.
By Maureen Smith
JACKSON – On Sunday, April 29, the dream of opening a new shelter for those fleeing domestic violence almost went up in flames. Catholic Charities was only a few weeks away from opening a new shelter in Jackson when an abandoned house next to the facility caught fire. The flames were so intense, they jumped to the roof of the facility.
“It was pretty devastating,” said John Lunardini, COO of Catholic Charities Jackson. Investigators continue to look for a cause, but Lunardini said the blaze may have started when a vagrant started a fire inside the abandoned house to stay warm on the cold night.
Catholic Charities was going to purchase the house and tear it down to put in a play area for children, but did not yet own the property. This move has been about four years and a million dollars in the making. When the previous shelter was facing some costly repairs, the Catholic Charities board looked at all the available options and decided moving to a new facility was the best approach.
After an exhaustive search, Charities found a new site and started work more than a year ago. The new facility, once renovated, could house nine families at a time. The building included rooms for staff members to be housed on-site to assist victims 24-hours a day. Other amenities include a therapeutic group and counseling area, a suite of offices, a family room, commercial kitchen facilities, a dining area and bathing facilities. The shelter will serve Copiah, Hinds, Rankin, Madison, Issaquena, Sharkey, Simpson, Yazoo and Warren counties.
Workers had begun to move in furniture and plans were in place to tear down the house next door when the fire erupted. Fire damaged the roof and firefighters had to smash a window to get inside to douse the flames. There is also water damage inside, but cleanup started within 12 hours of the fire under the supervision of Restoration 1 and program directors are hopeful they can evover.
The Domestic Violence program offers more than just shelter. Case workers and counselors work with survivors, usually women and their children to start a whole new life. Families must attend counseling. Survivors get childcare, help finding a new job and a new place to live and have access to resources even after they leave the shelter.
Counselors told Mississippi Catholic in 2016 that it can take time for a woman to transition from feeling like a victim to taking charge of her life. She needs support and sometimes some practical knowledge to break the cycle of violence and control abusers use against them.
The program can still use furniture and cash donations to get the renovations back on track. Insurance will cover repair to some of the damage to the building, but the agency will need to cover the gap and the program is always looking for items for the families who stay with them such as toiletries, clothing, gift cards for stores and toys for the children. To make a donation, call 601-355-8634 or donate online at www.catholiccharitiesjackson.org.
The Eagles have landed
Due to the hard work of Ed Marsalis and his family, the bronze eagles are in place on top of the western entrance pillars of St. Anthony School. Ed Marsalis, Knight of Columbus Council #9543, was the project manager and supervised everything from beginning to end. The final stage of the placement took four hours on Saturday March 24. For the installation, a steel template had to be made on which were fastened the eagles with four bolts per eagle. These steel frames where then fastened to the concrete top of the pillar with bolts, which in turn were added further 18 inch bolts and the center of the standing pillars were filled with concrete and the mounted eagles, together with the concrete slabs were hoisted by an excavator to their position on top of the pillars and the projecting 18 inch bolts inserted into the fresh concrete to make the eagles a permanent fixture. It was a family affair with the following members participating; Ed Marsalis and his wife Corley, his daughter Paige and her husband Mason Spratlan, together with their children Megan, Marleigh, Matthew and Mason Jr. Mason and his family provided ground work and form assembly for the concrete work and brought the excavator to the site. John Ramsey of Pelahatchie was the equipment operator, concrete man and technical expert who placed the eagles in position after they were assembled on the ground. The excavator was provided by Gamma Enterprises of Madison. The attached photos give insight to the work in progress.
GREENWOOD – Chris Mathis, WABG meteorologist, hears from St. Francis School students about their use of a wind vane and anemometer to measure wind speed and direction. Father Camillus Janas, OFM, Andrew Lopez, Makayla Robinson and Zuri Brown all listen and watch. Mathis visited the school in early April to talk about weather awareness. (Photos by Sister Kathleen Murphy, OFM)
Two Diocese of Jackson students have been named STAR Students by the Mississippi Economic Council M.B. Swayze Foundation. STAR, an acronym for Student Teacher Achievement Recognition program, selects students on the basis of academic excellence and allows them to name a teacher who had a positive influence on their academic achievements.
Greenville St. Joseph School’s STAR student is Sarah Hayek. She named math teacher Celeste DeAngelo as her STAR teacher.
Madison St. Joseph’s honoree Franco Frascogna selected AP math and science teacher Chance Theriot as his STAR teacher.
The Mississippi Economic Council and its M.B. Swayze Foundation sponsors the STAR Program in an effort to encourage scholastic achievement among the state’s high school students. The STAR Program is meant to emphasize scholastic excellence and encourage greater scholastic effort among Mississippi students and recognize the teaching profession.
All the STAR students in the state were honored Thursday, April, 12, at the Jackson Convention Complex.
JACKSON – Second-graders at St. Richard School who received First Communion this year were honored at a school Mass. They got to wear their First Communion outfits and were treated to a reception after Mass. At left, Father John Bohn, pastor, hands out rosaries to Vinnie Milton, Jakob Sistrunk, Loftis Garner and George Decker. The Lunardini family had them blessed by the Pope on August 30 of this year and shared them with the school. (Photos by Wendi Shearer)
MADISON – Above left, students play games during BruinThon, an eight-hour dancing fund-raiser for the Blair E. Batson Children’s Hospital. At right, editorial cartoonist Marshall Ramsey spoke at the event. Students used the theme ‘for the kids’ to recruit sponsors and offered up art for sale. They raised a total of $12,471 during the event. (Photo by Kathryn Sckiets)
RIPLEY – Several dozen teenagers from several area parishes attended a retreat at St. Matthew Parish offered by the National Evangelization Team (NET) on April 21. NET teams travel across the country to lead Catholic retreats for young people. (Photo by Madeleine Hale)
