Author Archives: Tereza Ma

Bishop, superintendent support school choice effort

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By Maureen Smith
JACKSON – Bishop Joseph Kopacz and Diocese of Jackson School Superintendent Catherine Cook signed a letter urging Mississippi Lawmakers to expand school choice in the state by passing Senate Bill 2623. The bill made it out of the committee process, but as of the publication day for this issue, the House has not debated it.
SB 2623 would expand eligibility for the state’s existing Education Savings Accounts (ESA) to all public school students, students entering kindergarten or first grade, students in foster care, children of active duty military, and siblings of eligible students. The ESA would be funded at $6,500 for special needs students and at 95 percent of the state’s formula for all others, which comes to about $5,700.
Basically, parents who qualify would get access to an account or debit card to use for their child’s education. The bill gives preference to students with special needs. Two-thirds of the Catholic Schools in the diocese serve special needs students and stand ready to enroll more.
The letter from Bishop Kopacz and Cook states, in part, “The Catholic Church teaches that parents are the primary teachers of their children and that public support should empower their choice to send their children to schools that fit their conscience. Expanding eligibility for the ESA, while prioritizing those students with special needs and from low-income families, will allow parents a real option in choosing an education that best fits their child’s learning needs.
“The Catholic schools of Mississippi have long served the neediest students and communities, educating Catholics and non-Catholics across income-levels and racial groups. Our schools have offered a well-rounded education to Mississippians for generations, and we stand ready to give an opportunity to the families who would benefit from an expanded ESA.”
The bishop and Cook got some unexpected assistance in this effort this year thanks to a mission appeal trip the bishop took to Indianapolis. When Bishop Kopacz was preaching in Indiana he met Brittany Vessely, executive director of Catholic Education Partners, a non-profit organization whose mission is to help more families have access to Catholic education. One of the services Catholic Education Partners offers is advocacy and education in states where school choice could help the community.
The organization sent Greg Dolan to Mississippi. He delivered the letter to lawmakers, helped answer questions and visited Jackson area schools during Catholic Schools Week. He explained that the current bill is not a new program. The state already has ESAs. This bill simply expands the categories of eligibility.
“This program is in existence and functionally it wouldn’t change very much. Really, the same process would go on in that parents are given a portion of the funds used for their public education,” he explained. Dolan added that school choice programs are about empowering parents to make decisions in their children’s best interest regardless of their income or location.
“We don’t do this (support school choice) because we want Catholic schools to have higher enrollment. We do it because this is what the church has taught for at least 150 years in our modern schooling environment – that the state should support parents in choices they make for good education. I happen to think personally that more people, if they had the option, would choose Catholic schools,” said Dolan.
The letter was only part of the effort to support this issue. Students from across the diocese attended a School Choice rally at the capitol on Tuesday, Jan. 23. Wearing bright gold scarves, the students provided a backdrop for advocates to speak to lawmakers about the bill.
A group even came down from Greenwood St. Francis of Assisi. St. Francis principal Jackie Lewis said she believes parents should have the right to choose the education best for their students. “My child might need something different from your child. You have to look at the specific child and the specific family and find the school that fits,” said Lewis. “Public school is not one-size-fits-all, nor is private or parochial school,” she added. The advocacy group Empower Mississippi helped organize the trip for the St. Francis students.

Hope Haven doubles capacity, expands services

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By Maureen Smith
JACKSON – Catholic Charities’ Hope Haven Residential, the only crisis stabilization unit for adolescents in the state of Mississippi, will double the number of teens it can serve thanks to a new facility. The new home can accommodate 16 young people and will have an exercise room and a space for arts and crafts as well as group activities.
On Thursday, Jan. 25, a moving crew along with the staff of Hope Haven and other Catholic Charities programs rolled up their sleeves to haul beds, dressers, couches and everything else needed to make a home. They set up bedrooms, common areas, offices and more in hopes of having the new facility up and running by mid-February. The Knights of Columbus from Flowood St. Paul Parish followed to paint and make repairs.
Michelle Hamilton is the director of Hope Haven. She said the new home is more conducive to the needs of the program and she is very excited about expanding. Teens in acute crisis spend 14 days in Hope Haven. “They receive individual and group therapy. We give them a physical and a TB test. They meet with our psychiatric nurse practitioner to review their medications, if they have them, or consider if they may benefit from medication,” she explained.
The teens aren’t the only ones who get care. “We take in the youth and their families,” said Hamilton. Therapists work with the whole family to determine what has caused the behavior or situation that prompted the teen to go to Hope Haven. They then work with both the teen and family to resolve conflict and develop coping skills to help everyone in the future. The family participates in the therapy so healing and progress can continue beyond the stabilization period.
If a teen needs more residential treatment after two weeks, “we help find the right place for them. We provide referrals and facilitate the move,” said Hamilton.
Being able to expand services at Hope Haven will make the therapy done there stronger. “We are very excited about the exercise room and the arts and crafts,” said Hamilton. “The teens need to figure out new coping skills. That looks different for different people. Some have never been taught coping skills at all,” she added. She said when a child finds the right activity – a long walk, painting or drawing or exercise or meditation or any number of other things, he or she knows immediately when it’s the right coping skill for them. Being able to offer a variety of things to try makes Hope Haven an even better program.
“We are very excited to move into a larger facility that will allow us to provide more services and reach more children who need help,” said John Lunardini, COO for Catholic Charities. “With so few options in the state for teens who need mental health care, this expansion makes sense. It also fits into the mission at Catholic Charities to reach out to the most vulnerable. When we see a place where we can do more, we are going to step up and expand or improve our offerings,” Lunardini added.
The new facility will also have a clothing closet for the teens. Hamilton said Hope Haven would welcome donations for the closet, arts and crafts room, snacks for the residents and even gift cards. “Gift cards for restaurants and movies help us because we like to take outings with the residents,” said Hamilton. Those who wish to donate can contact Hope Haven at (601) 371-1809 or email michelle.hamilton@catholiccharitiesjackson.org or tammie.harper@catholiccharitiesjackson.org

Peregrinación por la vida en Locus Benedictus

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Por el padre Michael McAndrew, CSsR
GREENWOOD – El 20 de enero, unas setenta y cinco personas asistieron a la segunda Peregrinación por la Vida en el Santuario de María, Madre del Delta, para celebrar la vida desde la concepción hasta la muerte.
La peregrinación celebra la valoración de la “prenda perfecta” de la vida; un término acuñado por el cardenal Joseph Bernardin en una conferencia de 1983, afirmando que los obispos deben considerar como cuestiones provida no solo el aborto, pero tambien la inmigración, la atención a los ancianos, la pena de muerte, la proliferación nuclear y otros asuntos que amenazan el respeto de vida humana.
El día incluyó una caminata de tres millas, con cinco paradas para reflexionar sobre los valores de la vida que incluían el derecho a la vida como un niño; la dignidad y el respeto de las personas de todas las culturas, idiomas y razas; lo sagrado de nuestro medio ambiente; respeto por los ancianos y aquellos que sufren enfermedades; y celebrando la juventud.
Bailarines aztecas de Jackson dirigieron la ruta. Después de la caminata, testimonios fueron brindados por una persona quien sobrevivió cáncer tres veces, un médico, un capellán de la prisión, un ministro de la juventud y un niño (un ciudadano de los EE. UU.) cuyo padre se encuentra en medio de un proceso de deportación. Todos estos testimonios exigen celebrar la vida, la dignidad humana y la fe.
Los participantes viajaron desde Jackson, Greenwood, Greenville, Cleveland, Vardaman, Memphis, Batesville y otros lugares. El obispo Kopacz cerró este día de celebración y oración con el santo sacrificio de la misa.

(El padre redentorista, Michael McAndrew, vive en Greenwood como parte de la comunidad de sacerdotes que sirven a los hispanos en el Delta)

Fotos por Hermana María Elena Méndez, MGSpS

Abbey Youth Fest invitation

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Excitement is growing for Abbey Youth Fest 2018 which will be held Saturday, March 17, at St. Joseph Abbey, Covington, La. Youth in grades eight-12 can attend. There is a $40 registration fee plus the cost of meals. Abbey Youth Fest was established in 2001 as an apostolic outreach of the Saint Joseph Abbey and Seminary College.
It is designed to provide young people with an opportunity to experience a day of prayer and faith formation with an exposure to the Benedictine tradition. Are your youth registered?
Contact Abbey Schuhmann at abbey.schuhmann@jacksondiocese.org for more information. The Diocese of Jackson will sponsor bus transportation.

Every child ‘precious gift from God,’ Trump tells pro-life rally

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By Julie Asher
WASHINGTON – In remarks broadcast to the March for Life from the White House Rose Garden, President Donald Trump said that his administration “will always defend the very first right in the Declaration of Independence, and that is the right to life.”
He invoked the theme of this year’s march, “Love Saves Lives,” and praised the crowd as being very special and “such great citizens gathered in our nation’s capital from many places for one beautiful cause” – celebrating and cherishing life.
“Every unborn child is a precious gift from God,” he said. His remarks were interrupted several times by applause from the crowd gathered on the National Mall. He praised the pro-lifers for having “such big hearts and tireless devotion to make sure parents have the support they need to choose life.”
“You’re living witnesses of this year’s March for Life theme, ‘Love Saves Lives,’” he said. His remarks were broadcast to the crowd live via satellite to a Jumbotron above the speakers’ stage, a first for any U.S. president, according to March for Life.
During their tenure in office, President Ronald Reagan, President George H.W. Bush and President George W. Bush all addressed the march via telephone or a radio hookup from the Oval Office, with their remarks broadcast to the crowd.
Trump spoke with a crowd surrounding him in the Rose Garden, including 20 students from the University of Mary in Bismarck, North Dakota. One of those standing next to the president was a Marianne Donadio, a top official with Room at the Inn, a nationally accredited Catholic ministry based in North Carolina that serves homeless, pregnant women and single mothers with children.
Vice President Mike Pence, who addressed last year’s March for Life in person at Trump’s request, introduced the president as the “most pro-life president in American history,” for among other things issuing an executive memorandum shortly after his inauguration to reinstate the “Mexico City Policy.” The policy bans all foreign nongovernmental organizations receiving U.S. funds from performing or promoting abortion as a method of family planning in other countries.

Pro-life advocates watch U.S. President Donald Trump during a live broadcast to the annual March for Life rally in Washington Jan. 19. (CNS photo/Tyler Orsburn)

Trump also has nominated pro-life judges to fill several court vacancies and a day before the March for Life the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services announced formation of a new Conscience and Religious Freedom Division in the HHS Office for Civil Rights. Its aim is to protect the conscience rights of doctors and other health care workers who do not want to perform procedures they consider morally objectionable.
For the first time in a recent memory, the weather in Washington was more than tolerable for March for Life participants as they gathered on the National Mall to mark the anniversary of the 1973 U.S. Supreme Court decision legalizing abortion.
The sun was shining and the blue sky was cloudless. By the time the speeches ended and the march to the Supreme Court started, the temperature had reached 50 degrees. March officials estimated that more 100,000 were in attendance.
Jeanne Mancini, president of March for Life, opened the rally by calling on everyone in the crowd to text the word “March” to 7305 and to show their commitment to ending abortion and join their voices in calling on Congress to defund Planned Parenthood.
“Do you agree that’s important?” she asked the crowd. “Yes!” they shouted. March for Life, she said, is about educating people about abortion and mobilizing to end it and to love all those women and families who are facing a troubled pregnancy and other needs.
“’Love Saves Lives’ is this year’s theme,” she added. “Love and sacrifice go hand in hand It is not easy. No one ever said it was, but it is the right choice … the self-sacrificial option.”
In an interview with Catholic News Service before the march began, Mancini said that as a pro-life Catholic she believes “100 percent” in church teaching that the sanctity of all life, from conception to natural death, must be protected.
But she said the annual March for Life has a singular purpose – to mark the anniversary of the Supreme Court’s 1973 Roe decision legalizing abortion through nine months of pregnancy nationwide. She believes abortion is “the single most significant social justice cause of our time.” 
As a small nonprofit with a staff of six, the March for Life organization has to “stay focused” on its mission, she said, which is to educate people about abortion and activate them to stop abortion. Mancini also told CNS she was “grateful to the leader of the free world” for deciding to address the rally from the Rose Garden.
House Speaker Paul Ryan, R-Wisconsin, was among several others who addressed the crowd from the speakers’ platform.
“Thank God for giving us a pro-life president in the White House,” the Catholic congressman said.
“Your energy is so infectious,” he told the crowd, praising them for being “the vigor and enthusiasm of the pro-life movement.”
Seeing so many young people “is so inspiring because it tells us this a movement on the rise,” he said. “Why is the pro-life movement on the rise? Because truth is on our side. Life begins at conception. Science is on our side.”
Rep. Jaime Herrera Beutler, R-Washington, gave an emotional speech about the troubled pregnancy she faced about four years ago. She and her husband, Dan, were told their unborn child had severe defects, that the baby’s kidneys would never develop and the lungs were undeveloped because of a rare condition. Abortion was their only option, they were told.
Today, that baby is 4-year-old Abigail. She and her younger brother and their father stood on the stage with the congresswoman.
“Dan and I prayer and we cried (at the news of their unborn child’s condition) … and in that devastation we saw hope. What if God would do a miracle? What if a doctor was willing to try something new? Like saline infusions to mimic amniotic fluid so kidneys could develop?” she recalled.
With “true divine intervention and some very courageous doctors willing to take a risk we get to experience our daughter, Abigail,” Herrera Beutler said. She is a very “healthy, happy 4-year-old big sister who some day is going to be ‘the boss of mommy’s work,’” she said.
Herrera Beutler asked the crowd to imagine that 45 years of legal abortion had not existed and that 60 million babies had not been lost to abortion, and if out of those people had come those who could cure cancer and correct all manner of disabling conditions, including those that exist in utero, and eradicate poverty.
“What richness we would we get to see instead of two generations missing,” she added.
Another Catholic member of Congress and longtime pro-life advocate, Rep. Chris Smith, R-New Jersey, described the last 45 years of legal abortion as Orwellian.
“Every one of you here today” and millions of others throughout the country and world, he said, “are an integral part of the greatest human rights struggle on earth. Because we pray, because we fast, we will win. Babies will be protected.”

St. Christopher Parish dedicates new Glenmary Hall

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By Mike Talbert
PONTOTOC – Gaudete Sunday, the third Sunday of Advent, was an appropriate day for the standing-room crowd of 250-plus at Pontotoc St. Christopher Parish to dedicate the new multipurpose parish hall.
The dedication activities were centered around a bilingual Mass celebrated by Bishop Joseph Kopacz. He noted that this Sunday was part of the celebration and preparation for Christmas, a time for thanksgiving.
“The Mass is always a prayer of thanksgiving,” the bishop said. “We give thanks a little more so because of the dedication of this building.”
The building was named Glenmary Hall in honor of the Glenmary Home Missioners, who helped found and build St. Christopher during a 50-year period from 1965 to 2015. The church grew from a storefront mission to one of the larger Christian congregations in Pontotoc County. Liz Dudas of the Glenmary Home Office in Nashville represented Glenmary for the dedication. Dudas has long been active in North Mississippi mission activities.
Joining as concelebrants of the Glenmary Hall dedication mass were Glenmary priests, Father Gerry Peterson (known in the community as Father Pete), whose Hispanic ministry operated for 13 years out of Pontotoc, retired Glenmary President, Father Robert Dalton of Houston, and Father Tim Murphy, the current pastor..
In honoring the effort so many that went into the new structure, that replaced an aging doublewide trailer, Bishop Kopacz, in his dedication, asked a “blessing for all the labor that went into the building and the building itself.”
In recognition of those efforts, Danna Johnson, Coordinator of Hispanic Ministry at St. Christopher, revealed plaques, one in English and one in Spanish, that will be a permanent part of Glenmary Hall entryway. The plaques demonstrate that the building of Glenmary Hall was a community effort involving many contributions of money and personal effort.
Among those honored on the plaque were those whose donations helped make the construction possible, including Elmon and Bonnie Thomas, and the Hodges family Zeke, Karen and Billy, who made their donation in memory of their late nephew Robert E. Woolard III.
“Their financial generosity was a great blessing,” Johnson said.
Also honored were those who provided at lot of the hands-on work on the new hall, including much of the carpentry, roofing, painting and finishing work.
“They were our Saint Josephs, our expert carpenters,” Johnson said. “Their work is a testimony to God’s presence among us.”
Those “St. Joseph” workers include Martin Jara, the Marcelino Ramos family, Luis Gordillo, the Oscar Zuniga family and the Miguel Torres family.
Also among those honored were the George Adrian memorial that allowed the completion of landscaping work, and David and Teri Strange, who donated sound equipment. David, with his brother Danny installed the sound system for the new building, which will not only be a parish hall but will service for Sunday Hispanic mass. Segio Vega and Mi Pueblo Restaurant donated kitchen equipment.
Inclosing the presentation, Johnson said, “We also want to thank Father Tim Murphy, our pastor, whose dedication and support made this possible.”

(Mike Talbert is a retired newspaperman who grew up attending Mass at the original storefront church in Pontotoc!).

40 Days uses Lenten season to support suspense

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Book review:

By Donna Biggert
With his latest novel 40 Days, Joe Lee has created another page-turner set in the fictitious Mississippi town of Oakdale. The story begins with the protagonist, Duane Key, starting to realize he must make some drastic changes to set right the results of a life of bad decisions. Joe writes him with an all-too-believable list of screwed-up relationships, but gives him true-to-life redeeming characteristics while he surrounds him with a faithful lifelong friend, a sincerely loving girlfriend, and a precious six year old son.


Additional characters like Duane’s self-centered egotistic career-minded wife Toni, his crazy ex-girlfriend and Oakdale’s librarian, Candi Redding, as well as the individuals they each interact with, also display an overabundance of mixed-up personalities indicative of real life. As with his other seven novels, Lee develops his characters to the extent that you feel you know them. With his meticulous descriptions and every-day life details, he makes Oakdale seem like many a small Mississippi town, with colorful and off-color citizens, nosy neighbors and a laid-back pace.

The faith-based element of this story makes it a little different from Lee’s previous novels. With references to the Catholic Church, a tremendously understanding priest, and the Lenten Season, this book is a good representation of a lay Catholic’s grasp of God’s love. Particular descriptions about Duane’s baptism, the church, and God’s love and forgiveness are comforting reading for a believer. The entire story is built around an almost unbelievable numerical countdown that Duane experiences which only he can see. Lee even numbers the chapters in descending order to accentuate the countdown of forty days, emphasizing that time is running out. As the suspense builds with the countdown, so does the sense of urgency for making amends for past misdeeds.

The all-too-lifelike unpredictability of troubled individuals is played out in several scenarios. Virtues like hope and charity as well as the determination to correct past misdeeds are demonstrated all through the story.

As Duane, the protagonist, deliberately and methodically sets about making many big and positive changes in his life, the writer uses the countdown to underscore the sense of urgency Duane feels. True remorse, forgiveness, and redemption are threaded throughout the pages.

40 Days, like Joe Lee’s other novels, is an easy and entertaining read. The characters are at once familiar and believable and while they don’t necessarily behave in a moral way, the reader is left with insight into the rightness of making amends while there is time.

(Donna Biggert is a parishioner of Madison St. Francis of Assisi. Joe Lee is a Madison author and publisher.)

Getting organized for love

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Sister Constance Veit

Little Sisters of the Poor
By Sister Constance Veit, l.s.p.
I began the new year with 8,000 college students at the Student Leadership Summit (SLS18) of the Fellowship of Catholic University Students (FOCUS). It was an inspiring event that enabled us Little Sisters to engage with hundreds of enthusiastic young people on fire for their Catholic faith.
As exciting as the whole event was, the most moving moment for me was completely unexpected. During Eucharistic adoration, Jesus Christ present in the monstrance started moving through the crowd, carried by a team of bishops and priests. An entourage of altar servers led the procession with candles and incense.
What caught my eye was one of the white robed altar servers walking backwards, swinging a thurible from which billowed sweetly scented smoke, his attention firmly fixed on Christ in the Eucharist. The only thing that kept him from stumbling into the crowd of young people was a second altar server who kept his hand firmly planted on the first man’s shoulder to direct his every move.
It was a highly choreographed and striking scene – this entourage of clergy and altar servers walking together in perfect unity, leading one another, supporting each other’s efforts to carry Christ! I was profoundly struck by this “holy teamwork,” which must have required significant practice and single-minded focus.
This Eucharistic procession was a fitting metaphor for the ideals of solidarity and union of hearts and minds in continuing our Lord’s mission on earth. Imagine the wonderful things we could do for Jesus if each Catholic apostolate, religious community or lay movement were this well ordered and united around a common purpose! In his encyclical on love, Pope Benedict XVI said, “As a community, the Church must practice love. Love thus needs to be organized if it is to be an ordered service to the community.”
As we head into Lent this month, we first celebrate the World Day of the Sick on Feb. 11. Just as the procession I witnessed at SLS18 kept Our Eucharistic Lord at the center as it moved through the crowd of young people – a veritable field hospital of souls – Catholic health care is called to place the human person at the center of all its activities, projects and goals.
In his message for this year’s World Day of the Sick Pope Francis wrote, “Wise organization and charity demand that the sick person be respected in his or her dignity, and constantly kept at the center of the therapeutic process.”
Our Holy Father continued, “Jesus bestowed upon the Church his healing power … The Church’s mission is a response to Jesus’ gift, for she knows that she must bring to the sick the Lord’s own gaze, full of tenderness and compassion. Health care ministry will always be a necessary and fundamental task, to be carried out with renewed enthusiasm by all, from parish communities to the largest healthcare institutions.”
Pope Francis recognized the invaluable contribution of families, “The care given within families is an extraordinary witness of love for the human person; it needs to be fittingly acknowledged and supported by suitable policies.”
He also speaks of healthcare as a shared ministry: “Doctors and nurses, priests, consecrated men and women, volunteers, families and all those who care for the sick, take part in this ecclesial mission. It is a shared responsibility that enriches the value of the daily service given by each.”
As we observe the World Day of the Sick and then begin our Lenten practices of prayer, penance and almsgiving, let’s resolve to keep Jesus Christ and the human person at the center of our spiritual efforts and works of mercy.
And let’s endeavor to give the world a striking witness of the unity of Christ’s disciples. May the world be able to say of us, “The believers are of one heart and mind … sharing everything they have” (cf. Acts 4:32). May our united efforts to serve the poor, the sick and the most vulnerable among us lead others to believe in the power of God’s love at work in the world!

(Sister Constance Veit is director of communications for the Little Sisters of the Poor.)

Reclaiming call to lives of service for laity

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Guest Column
By Cathy Hayden
Catholics these days are fortunate in that we have many resources available to us to strengthen our faith. My favorite resource is Give Us This Day Daily Prayer for Today’s Catholics published by Liturgical Press.
One of the features I always enjoy reading is the daily “Blessed Among Us” column written by Robert Ellsberg featuring a saint, church father, martyr or even politician, activist or civic leader whose life offers inspiration. If you read these over time, you can see it’s an eclectic group of people, many Catholic but also some of other faiths.
Their lives are inspiring, but one frustrating thing for me is that their accomplishments are often so lofty they seem out of reach for me. Many of them do big and great things in leading people to Jesus, often being martyred for their actions. Some of their lives and accomplishments are so long ago, and often foreign in their significance, that I can’t relate. Where are the praiseworthy people whose lives more closely mirror mine?
That’s why the presentation of Dr. Tom Neal, academic dean and professor of spiritual theology at Notre Dame Seminary in New Orleans, made me sit up and take notice. He was a speaker in the very last breakout session of a pithy three-day Go! Gulf Coast Faith Formation Conference for catechists on Jan. 11-13.
Neal’s talk was called “Saints for the World: Discovering Anew the Secular Mission of the Laity.” Among his points were that “the call to holiness is lived out in the secular world” and “the laity is not the second shift.”
Church employees, he said, are not the primary workers in God’s vineyard. Instead, “the role of the church is to support the laity.”
“Be a secular genius,” he said. Change the culture where you are. In other words, bloom where you are planted.
Neal wrote about the talk the next day in his regular blog called “Neal Obstate Theological Opining”:
In Catholic Culture, deeply influenced by the hostility of atheistic secularism to theistic secularism, we tend to think of “secular” as a pejorative, i.e. as hopelessly tainted, of less importance than the “spiritual,” as intrinsically alienating from God, or maybe at best as just neutral “stuff” we have to endure or use as we make our way toward the eternity of heaven, which is obviously not secular. So devout Catholics tend to say things like, “I don’t get involved in secular things like I used to,” or “I used to be totally secular but now I am much more spiritual.” So when Vatican II says that “what is peculiar to the laity is their secular genius” and that their path to holiness is found in “secular professions,” it all seems so, well, wrong.
If we re-claim the Catholic sense of secular, we realize that such negative statements are misguided …
I think this is an exciting reminder for those of us whose livelihood and daily lives exist in the secular world. Oh, sure, we know this in some ways already, right? But Neal’s talk reminded me that my work in being the leaven in the secular world is needed and is important. It’s not just an afterthought. I can’t leave the work of Jesus to my pastor on Sundays. After all, I’m the one in the trenches during the typical workday in an environment where not everyone follows, or even knows, Jesus. It is up to me to show them who he is with my love.
Perhaps that is why this part of the conclusion to “Everyone’s Way of the Cross” has always appealed to me so strongly. I always savor this with extra conviction:
So seek me not in far-off places.
I am close at hand.
Your workbench, office, kitchen,
These are altars
Where you offer love.
And I am with you there.
Especially as we head into the Lenten season, that is my call to action. And yours too!

(Cathy Hayden, a member of the RCIA team at St. Jude in Pearl, received a Master of Theological Studies degree from Spring Hill College in May 2017. She is director of Public Relations at Hinds Community College.)