JACKSON – On Wednesday, Sept. 12, St. Richard School participated in a 70-year old Catholic tradition by blessing and praying for first responders at a “Blue Mass.” Above, local officers, deputies, paramedics and firefighters receive their blessing. At right, fourth-grader Aiden Wheatley reads scriptures at Mass. After Mass, the Knights of Columbus provided a breakfast for the guests.(Photos by Wendi Shearer)
The Diocese of Jackson Office of Youth Ministry welcomes middle school students to this year’s fall retreat with the theme ‘In His image,” on Saturday and Sunday, Oct. 13-14 at Lake Forest Ranch in Macon. The retreat will include games and fun as well as reflection time, an opportunity for Reconciliation, Mass and prayer time.
It is open to all seventh and eighth-graders. A team from NET Ministries will lead the retreat. To register, contact your parish youth minister or email the youth ministry coordinator, Abbey Schuhmann at abbey.schuhmann@jacksondiocese.org.
By Maureen Smith
WEST POINT – Corgan Elliot made history on her summer break. The Fifth Street Junior High seventh-grader competed at National History Day Competition in Washington, DC. Elliot, a member of Immaculate Conception Parish, where she is an altar server, won the state essay competition last year, making her eligible for the national finals. When she wrote the essay she was attending Central elementary School.
National History Day is non-profit organization based in College Park, Maryland, that operates an annual project-based contest for students in grades 6-12. Last year, the theme was conflict and compromise. Students could write an essay or complete another project to explore the theme.
Elliot wrote an essay about Lucy Maude Montgomery, author of the famed Anne of Green Gables books. She examined how Montgomery had to face conflicts and come up with compromises in her life as a orphan and a woman who wanted to be a professional.
“Montgomery was special because she had different labors and problems, and she had the courage to be a female author and take on those additional struggles. She also had the courage to be known as a female author. Some female authors of her time wrote books under a male name, hiding their identity of being a female author in order for their pieces to have a better chance of being published,” wrote Elliot in her essay.
Her mother, Penny, said while Corgan did not bring home a trophy, the trip to the national competition was well worth the effort. “The competition was great. Corgan met a lot of students from around the world. She competed against over 100 students from around the US and world from grades 5-8. She did not place, but it was a wonderful learning experience. She enjoyed meeting other students with her interest in history. She is already planning for this year’s competition,” wrote Penny Elliot in an email to Mississippi Catholic.
The theme for 2018-2019 is triumph and tragedy in history.
By Joan Thornton
VICKSBURG – During the summer, Vicksburg Catholic School, in partnership with Families First for Mississippi, developed a program entitled ‘Mother Teresa Tuesday.’ Each week student and adult volunteers worked at various locations such as Vicksburg
Community Garden, Good Shepherd Community Center and Warren County Humane Society. Groups even traveled to Blair E. Batson Children’s Hospital in Jackson and Our Daily Bread Mississippi located in Canton. There were weeks when 40 volunteers went out on projects.
At the hospital, volunteers participated in the Adopt-A-Floor Program, which provides snacks free of charge for the family members of patients. Groups collected approximately $3,000 worth of snacks which they delivered July 11.
The goal at Our Daily Bread “Bring awareness of healthy eating and to aid in hunger relief in our local communities through God, good works, and deeds.” Student and adult volunteers prepared and served about 90 hot meals for the needy in the community of Canton as well as unloading delivery trucks and organizing their pantry.
Students plan to continue Mother Teresa Tuesdays throughout the school year and encourage all members of the community to join them as together they build up the Kingdom of God through service.
(Joan Thornton is the head of the theology program for Vicksburg Catholic Schools)
By Junno Arocho Esteves
VATICAN CITY (CNS) – Being a Christian isn’t just about not doing evil, but it is a daily exercise in loving others through good works and deeds, Pope Francis said.
Many times, Christians can be tempted to “think they are saints” and justify themselves by saying, “I don’t harm anyone,” the pope told thousands of Italian young adults Aug. 12.
“How many people do not do evil, but also do not do good, and their lives flow into indifference, apathy and tepidity! This attitude is contrary to the Gospel and is also contrary to the character of you young people who, by your very nature, are dynamic, passionate and courageous,” he said.
According to the Vatican, an estimated 90,000 people were in St. Peter’s Square for the pope’s address and Angelus prayer after an outdoor Mass celebrated by Cardinal Gualtiero Bassetti of Perugia-Citta della Pieve, president of the Italian bishops’ conference.
Filling the square and the main street leading to St. Peter’s, the weary pilgrims braved the scorching summer temperatures of Rome and were cooled off by the cascading spray of water from Vatican fire department hoses.
After the Mass, the pope arrived in his popemobile and greeted the crowd, occasionally catching items that young people would throw toward the moving vehicle or stopping to bless babies and young children.
Pope Francis greets pilgrims as he arrives in St. Peter’s Square at the Vatican Aug. 12, after an outdoor Mass celebrated by Cardinal Gualtiero Bassetti of Perugia-Citta della Pieve, president of the Italian bishops’ conference. (CNS photo/Max Rossi, Reuters)
The Italian pilgrimage, which included an evening meeting in Rome with the pope Aug. 11, was part of the Italian church’s preparation for October’s Synod of Bishops on young people and vocational discernment.
In his talk before the recitation of the Angelus, Pope Francis reminded the young men and women to live their lives “in a coherent way, not with hypocrisy” by renouncing evil and doing good.
“To renounce evil means saying ‘no’ to temptation, to sin, to Satan,” the pope said. “More concretely, it means saying ‘no’ to a culture of death that manifests itself in escaping from reality toward a false happiness that expresses itself in lies, fraud, injustice and in contempt of others.”
Pope Francis invited the youths to repeat the words of St. Alberto Hurtado as a reminder of their baptismal call to action: “It is good to not do evil, but it is evil to not do good.”
He also urged them to be “protagonists of good” and to not be satisfied with simply not doing bad things.
“It isn’t enough to not hate, you need to forgive; it isn’t enough to not hold a grudge, you need to pray for your enemies; it isn’t enough to not be the cause of division, you need to bring peace where there is none; it isn’t enough to not speak ill of others, you need to interrupt when you hear someone bad-mouthing another,” the pope said.
(Follow Arocho on Twitter: @arochoju)
PEARL – St. Jude Parish has a whole new set of altar servers to join their “veteran” servers thanks to a day-long training and retreat Saturday, August 4. The day included fun as well as prayer and lessons. (Photos by Rhonda Bowden)
MERIDIAN – Nine young people and two adults from the Catholic Community of Meridian traveled to Knoxville for the Alive In You Catholic Camp and Conference, June 19-24 for a week of service work. One of the projects was at the Knoxville Dream Center, a homeless outreach and food distribution Center. Students helped load a food truck and then helped give out the food to residents at a low income apartment complex that was in a so-called “food desert” area with no grocery store nearby. That afternoon the students helped the Center with various projects around their warehouse. At left, (l-r) Jean Karol Mayo, Kirstie Graves, Serena Sanders and Edwar Hernandez stand across the table from Cassy Klutz, Colby Evans and Mason Daniels. The youth were stuffing ziplock bags with condiments and utensils for the center’s upcoming Independence Day dinner for the homeless people under the bridge in Knoxville. (Photo by John Harwell)
VARDAMAN – The Catholic Charities Northeast Office ended its three-week summer program for 40 students from kindergarten through seventh grade with a big celebration Thursday, July 26. The center partnered with local businesses to offer classes in art, gardening, civic involvement and culture. Bancorp South and Topashaw Farms both donated to the program. In photo above, Father Tim Murphy learns about the flowers the children have planted. (Photos by John Lundardini)
SOUTHAVEN – A work crew lowers a new air conditioning unit into place after removing the one that died beyond any repair on July 23, just weeks before school started at Sacred Heart School. The crew had to use a crane to lift the unit over a fence onto the roof. (Photo by Sister Margaret Sue Broker)
VICKSBURG –At left, Father Tom Lalor extends a blessing to the children of his parish, St. Paul, on Sunday, August 5, at the 10:30 a.m. Mass. Many of these children attend Vicksburg Catholic School, which started classes Tuesday, August 7. (Photo by Allyson Johnston)
PEARL – At right, Father Lincoln Dall snaps a photo of backpacks waiting to be blessed at St. Jude Parish while the director of religious education, Stacy Wolf, begins the blessing service. (Photo by Rhonda Bowden)
