Newspaper Page Text
PAGE 8 — The Southern Cross, February 5,1970
Macon Nuns Hold Weekly Services
By Monsignor
Andrew J. McDonald
Dean, Savannah Deanery
(ED. NOTE: The
following sermon was
preached by Msgr. McDonald
in Blessed Sacrament Church,
Savannah, on Sunday, Jan. 4,
1970.)
“YOU ARE A PRIEST
FOREVER ACCORDING TO
THE ORDER OF
MELCHIZEDEK.” “BY
THEIR FRUITS, YOU
SHALL KNOW THEM.”
The untimely death of
Monsignor Toomey causes me
to say a few words today
about a subject near to my
heart and yours, the
priesthood of Jesus Christ.
It is difficult to define a
priest. He is one who offers
sacrifice and prayers of
praise. Consequently, he
begins every morning of his
life, clothed in the sacred
robes of the Mass. He stands
at the altar and receives the
power of Christ Himself, the
bread becomes the Body of
the Lord; the wine becomes
His Blood.
A priest is one who ever
stands ready to extend to you
the mercy of God’s
forgiveness in the Sacrament
of Confession. As often as
you approach the
communion railing, the priest
nourishes your body and
your soul with the Body and
Blood of the Lord.
A priest is one who stands
with you in your happiest
moments. He blesses you and
your marriage when you
begin your family life. In
your moments of tragedy, the
priest comes to you to anoint
you with Holy Oil in the
Sacrament of the Sick; in
tragedy, he stands with your
loved ones to share their
burden of sorrow and
suffering. However, he is even
more than all this. He is also a
prophet, a spiritual
soothsayer. He guides and
directs the flock on all the
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great issues of our times.
A priest, then, must speak
out on the family, the basic
unit of our society. He will
forever extol the role of
husband and wife; he will
forever point out the nobility
of Christian Motherhood and
Fatherhood; he will forever
help you in the spiritual
development of your
children. A priest must speak
out on the issue of war and
peace; he must speak out on
race, black and white. A
priest must be the voice of
the poor, the forsaken and
the forgotten of this world. A
priest is like Melchizedek. He
is a figure from the Old
Testament. He had no
beginning and no end. He
alone in the Old Testament
offered gifts of bread and
wine. Like Melchizedek, a
priest is timeless. He stands
alone. To the worldly, he will
forever be a mystery. He is a
mystery to himself. He will
never understand why God
has chosen him.
This past decade brought
forth three men bearing the
name of John, who have
touched our lives. On an
international level, we have
that Sainted Pontiff, John
XXIII, who literally changed
for the better the ^religious
atmosphere of the world. On
a national level, we have our
late President, John F.
Kennedy, who touched us in
the field of politics and
government; on the local
level, we have a priest of God,
Monsignor John D. Toomey.
Each of us is better and closer
to God because we walked
the earth with these men.
Let us pray that God will
raise up young men in our
midst to serve as holy priests.
You parents must pray that
God will touch the heart of
your son. You young boys
must leave your souls open to
God’s grace; you must be
ready to reply as did Samuel,
“Here I am, Lord; for Thou
hast called me”.
I never grow weary of
repeating the description of
the priesthood given by the
great French pulpit orator,
Lacordaire. I hope you never
grow tired of hearing it: To
live in the midst of the world
without wishing its pleasures.
To be a member of each
family and yet belong to
none. To share all suffering;
to penetrate all secrets. To
heal all wounds. To go from
men to God to offer Him
their prayers, to return from
God to men to bring pardon
and hope. To have a heart of
fire for charity and a heart of
bronze for chastity. To teach
and to pardon, console and
bless always. My God, what a
life! And it is yours, O priest
of Jesus Christ!
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For Inmates At Bibb County Jail
SISTER CELESTE sings along with a group of prisoners in the Bibb County jail in Macon, where
she and three other Sisters of the Blessed Sacrament hold religious services weekly. The four sisters
have done rehabilitation work in prisons and jails throughout the country. (Macon News Staff
photo by Phil Dodson.)
BY GRACE T. CRAWFORD
KNIGHT NEWSPAPERS
STAFF WRITER.
A young nun strummed a
guitar. Another joined her,
and the service began.
The chapel portion of the
room was empty, with the
exception of a gray haired
man who sat on one of the
green pews.
But there was
singing .. .from all sides and
from above . .“Allelu, Allelu,
everybody’s singing allelu.”
The singers, more than 50,
shadowed by the green bars,
represented a wide span of
ages.
There was a blond boy,
who smiled as he chanted the
words and bobbed his head to
the tune of the folk hymn. A
tired looking man, his head
turned to one side, joined in
the chorus, and several
younger men sang loudly,
clomping their feet to the
time of the music. Some of
the men just looked and
listened, but most of them
were smiling.
On a Monday afternoon,
persons in Bibb County
Courthouse might wonder
about the four sisters in the
sheriffs office. But this
weekly visit is just one phase
in the busy schedule of the
Catholic Sisters of the Blessed
Sacrament, members of an
order of sisters who devote
their lives to teaching, social
work and counseling.
Founded in 1891 by
Mother Katherine Drexel,
daughter of wealthy
Philadelphia banker, the
Sisters of the Blessed
Sacrament are a community
dedicated to the interracial
apostolate in the United
States. The greatest portion
of their service has been
among Indians and black
people throughout the
nation, for whom a large
portion of the Drexel fortune
was used to establish schools
and churches.
For more than 55 years,
the Sisters of the Blessed
Sacrament of the Indians and
Colored People have been a
part of the Macon
community. There are more
than 500 of them in more
than 50 locales in 20 states,
and four are assigned to St.
Peter Claver Catholic School
at 133 Ward St. here.
Sister Celeste, the
principal and superior, said
that when the first sisters
came to Macon in 1915,
tuition for non-Catholic
students at the school was 10
cents a week, while Catholic
children paid 10 cents a
month. No more than 20 of
the 250 children in the school
that fust year were Catholic.
Today, the tuition of the
eight-grade school is much
higher and Catholic and
non-Catholic children still
attend classes together. The
school has an active Civics
Club, whose members keep
track of needy families in the
community and help
maintain a clothing bank at
the school. Students also
participate in the Junior Fire
Marshall and Junior Deputies
programs, and during the
summer, serve as Red Cross
volunteers.
The big brick school house
and the convent adjoining St.
Peter Claver Church have long
been a community center,
and the sisters fill the role of
friend, adviser and trouble
shooter in every conceivable
type of situation, and some
not so conceivable.
“We’re never surprised
when some new crisis arises,”
said Sister Celeste.
A call for help might come
from a sick mother, an
alcoholic with a problem or
some elderely resident of one
of the streets packed in
behind the tall columned
houses on Vineville Avenue.
Or, a request could come
from a small boy who rings
the convent bell on a
Saturday afternoon .. .“-
Sister, my mama wants to
know if you have any
curtains or blankets here.”
In addition to their
teaching, Sister Celeste, Sister
Sandra, Sister Geraldine and
Sister Evelyn visit the sick of
the community, the families
of the school children and
work with the Alcoholics
Anonymous Chapter they
recently helped organize.
The Sisters of the Blessed
Sacrament are just one of the
many groups which provide
religiuos services for prisoners
in the Bibb County jail, but
they are the only Catholic
sisters ever to visit the jail
weekly.
Sister Sandra, blond, with
a sprinkling of freckles across
her nose, usually provides
guitar accompaniment at the
services conducted for the
male prisoners in both
sections of the jail.
“And afterwards, we talk
to the men about anything
they might want to discuss,”
said Sister Celeste. “We assist
them in any way we can.”
Sometimes, this counseling
just involves listening, when a
man may be desolate over
some problem regarding his
family, or apprehensive over
his future when he leaves
prison.
The sisters, women of
great enthusiasm and
compassion, have counseled
many a prisoner in recent
years. When they are
transferred to a new area, one
of the first visits is the local
jail.
Working on her master’s
degree in guidance, Sister
Celeste has served as a
rehabilitation worker during
the summer in the New
Orleans Parish Prison while
studying at Xavier University.
Sister Geraldine worked in
the New York house of
dentention known as “The
Tombs.” Sister Evelyn has
visited the Cleveland, Ohio
city jails, and the Atlanta
Federal Penitentiary is well
known to Sister Sandra and
Sister Celeste.
Most prisoners do want to
do better when they are out,
they say, but the social
situation, once they’re on the
streets, is not always fair.
The weekly service in the
Bibb jail is attended by
persons of various
denominations, and when the
mass is not said, it includes
scripture readings, hymns and
a brief talk. Mass is said in the
jail weekly by the Rev.
Micahel O’Sullivan, associate
pastor of St. Peter Claver
Church.
Bibb Sheriff Jimmy
Bloodworth believes that the
sisters have just the right
combination of compassion,
humor and objectivity.
“I can’t begin to say how
they boost the moral of the
prisoners,” he said. “These
men know that the sisters are
their friends.
“It was a good day when
the nuns came here,” he said.
MARI SAMULSEL
‘Homemaker Of Tomorrow’
Mary Samulski, on the
basis of her score in the
homemaking, knowledge and
attitude test taken by senior
girls December 2, 1969 is
Aquinas High School’s 1970
Betty Crocker Homemaker of
Tomorrow, it has been
announced. In addition to
receiving a specially designed
silver charm from General
Mills, sponsor of the annual
homemaking education
program, Mary is now eligible
for one of 102 college
scholarships totalling
$110,000.
From school winners in
the state, a State Homemaker
of Tomorrow and runnerup
will be selected within the
next few weeks. The state
winner will be awarded a
$1,500 scholarship and the
runner-up a $500 educational
grant. In addition, the school
of the state Homemaker of
Tomorrow will receive a
complete set of Encyclopeida
Britannica from Encyclopedia
Britannica, Inc.
Mary is the daughter of
Mr. and Mrs. Ted Samulski of
433 East Avenue, North
Augusta, South Carolina. She
has been recently named
among the Outstanding
Teenagers of America.
This spring, the 51
Homemakers of Tomorrow
representing every state and
the District of Columbia,
each accompanied by a
school advisor, will join for
an expense paid educational
tour of Wasnington, D.C. and
Colonial Williamsburg, Va.
Climax of the tour will be
announcement of the 1970
Betty Crocker All-American
Homemaker of Tomorrow.
Selected from the 51 finalists
on the basis of original test
scores and personal
observation and interviews
during the tour, she will be
awarded an increase in her
scholarship to 5,000 dollars.
Begun by General Mills in
the 1954-55 school year to
emphasize the importance of
homemaking as a career, the
Betty Crocker Search is the
only national undergraduate
scholarship program
exclusively for high school
senior girls. During its 12 year
history, more than 7 million
young women have
participated in the program
and scholarship awards, with
this year’s grants, will total
over $1,700,000.
A record 646,041 senior
girls in 15,040 of the
country’s high schools were
enrolled in this year’s Search.
MIRROR RORHIM
OF THE WORLD ClJflOW 3HT TO
Your Catholic Press...
Obituaries
* Mr. George Zigrine formerly of Augusta, January 28th
* Mrs. Christine Coyle of Savannah, February 1st
* Mr. Carl J. D’Esposito of Savannah, February 1st
Marriages
Miss Virgina L. Mayo of Holyoke, Mass., formerly of
Augusta, Ga., and Mr. Armand M. Perrier, January 24 in the
Sainte Rose de Lima Church, Holyoke, Mass.
Miss Marcia Gladys Strickland and Mr. Clarence Eugene
Sauers III, both of Savannah, Ga., January 31 in the
Cathedral of St. John the Baptist, Savannah.
Necrology
* Very Rev. Peter Whelan, February 6, 1871.
Adult Sunday School
The Reverend Kevin Boland, Diocesan Chancellor, will be the
speaker at Blessed Sacrament Adult Sunday School on Sunday,
February 8th in the school library, from 10:00 A.M. to 11:00
A.M. Father Boland will give two book reviews, Belief in Human
Life, by Rev. Anthony T. Padovane, and The People are the
Church, by Rev. Eugene C. Kennedy. All interested adults are
cordially invited.
St. Teresa Mardi Gras
The Ladies Auxiliary of St. Teresa of Avila, Augusta, is
sponsoring a Mardi Gras to be held on Saturday, February 7
from 12 noon until dark at their Parish Center on Pleasant
Home Road. Mrs. Bonnie Hill, Chairman, said some of the
features will be train rides for children, games, prizes, bazaar,
white elephant, target shooting, fortune teller, auction, cake
walk, doll auction, doll clothing, movies, drawing for a color TV
set and refreshments. Fun for the entire family. Proceeds will be
used to furnish the kitchen in the new Parish Center.
Lenten Program—
(continued from Page 1)
Various types of programs
will be offered for adults.
Film, filmstrips and taped
lectures have been suggested
as the basis for discussion.
Another approach offered is
“problem solving.” A small
group is presented with a
problem taken from ordinary
life. By studying it and trying
to find solution they are led
to a better grasp of the
theological point being
studied that week.
Watch for what is being
offered in your parish.
Students both in Catholic
schools and CCD programs
will have an opportunity to
explore further into the
theme of each week. Various
suggestions for things to do in
religion classes to bring out
each weekly theme have been
prepared by a group of
elementary and high school
religion teachers.
The five areas to be
studied are: First Week -
Worship Means Group
Celebration; Second Week -
Sin and Repentance; Third
Week - Believing Means a
Deep Personal Communion
with God, Nourished
Especially by the Bible;
Fourth Week - The Christian
Mission to Prepare the World
as a Gift for God; Fifth Week
- Communion with Jesus
Means Loving All Our Fellow
Men.
Bringing Lituigy to Life is
being co-sponsored by Bishop
Frey, the diocesan Liturgical
Commission, the Dept, of
Catholic Schools, the
diocesan office of the Social
Apostolate, and the
Department of Christian
Formation which prepared
the materials.
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