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PROFILE:Everything I have done, I have done as a response to someone who asked, someone who inspired
By SUSAN DE MATTEO
LONGVIEW – Being a teacher of her faith has made Pauline Beaumier Green a student of her faith.
Pauline, 52, is
administrative assistant to Amy Allen, principal of St. Mary Catholic
School in Longview. She also has served for some 25 years as a
catechist, youth minister, director of religious education RCIA
coordinator and trainer in the diocesan Ethics and Integrity program.
All of that, she said, has led her down a lifelong journey of learning.
“I was born and
raised Catholic,” said Pauline, a native of Houston, “but my parents
weren’t what you’d call devoted churchgoers. They are very fine and
decent people, and they gave us a wonderful upbringing, but we just
didn’t go to Mass regularly. They did make sure, though, that we had
all our sacramental preparation and that we went to CCD. So I at least
had that.”
Even so, she admits, it was a sketchy foundation.
“I made my
first Holy Communion, and then Vatican II hit, so nobody knew what they
were supposed to do for years,” she said.
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With willing hands at work on wings, heart takes shape itself
By JO ANNE FLORES EMBLETON
HOLLY
LAKE – A leaded-glass window that graces Holy Spirit Church hall is a
labor of love built by the local community led by an artist with close
ties to the Catholic church.
Eric Hurley, husband of parishioner
Linda Hurley, designed the four-foot circular window and led a team of
volunteers over several months to produce the piece, called “The Love
of the Holy Spirit.”
The window was installed Aug. 19, and is
expected to be blessed by Bishop Álvaro Corrada, SJ, during an Oct. 11
confirmation, said Father Ron Diegel, pastor.
The project first
took shape about a year ago, when the parish began planning
construction of the new hall, Hurley said, recalling a dinner he and
his wife had with the priest at which the discussion rolled around to
the window.
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Bishop joins St. Ann in triple celebration
WINNSBORO
– Bishop Álvaro Corrada, SJ, joined the parishioners of St. Ann Church
in Winnsboro in a triple celebration Aug. 16, and his homily reflected
the three-fold occasion.
The parish gathering marked the Silver Jubilee of the small faith
community, and also served to dedicate a church cemetery and the new
St. Ann Family Life Center.
As Catholic Christians, the bishop said, “We are here to encounter
Jesus Christ, to follow Jesus Christ, to imitate Jesus Christ.”
Throughout his homily, the bishop interweaved both his theological
points, and reminders of the earthly events the congregation had
gathered to celebrate. “Twenty-five years or more ago,” he said, “this
plot of land was bought by the Diocese of Dallas. At that time people
thought there were very few Catholics in East Texas. They said this
would never be built. But when you encounter Jesus here every Sunday
you know they were wrong.”
In a tribute to the Blessed Virgin Mary, whose Feast of the Assumption
was Aug. 15, the bishop said the idea for a Winnsboro church came out
of a women’s prayer group.
Just as the Blessed Virgin Mary encountered Jesus and conceived him in
her womb, he said, “The ladies had a prayer group and out of this
prayer group came the decision to have a church.”
The bishop gestured to his miter, which had an image of Mary being
assumed into heaven, and said, “Of all humans, she encountered Jesus in
a deeper form than any other human could.” Then Bishop Corrada waved
his hand at the congregation, the gold threads on his vestments
glittering, and added, “but through her, we came to know we could
encounter him.”
The bishop turned slightly and gestured at the altar, saying, “We
experience something of what Mary experienced when we receive Jesus in
the Eucharist.”
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Sen. Ted Kennedy laid to rest in Arlington National Cemetery
By CNS
BOSTON
(CNS) – Sen. Edward M. Kennedy was mourned at a Boston church and laid
to rest at Arlington National Cemetery Aug. 29, amid words of comfort
from the Book of Wisdom, Paul’s Letter to the Romans and the Gospel of
Matthew, and recollections of his life by his sons, his pastor,
President Barack Obama and Cardinal Theodore E. McCarrick.
During
the funeral Mass for the senator at Boston’s Basilica of Our Lady of
Perpetual Help, Father Mark Hession, pastor of Our Lady of Victory
Parish in Centerville, Mass., linked the Scripture readings – chosen by
Kennedy, his wife, Vicki, and their family – with elements of the
senator’s own life and faith.
“St.
Paul states our case with his usual confidence,” Father Hession noted
of the reading that opens: “If God is for us, who can be against us? He
who did not spare his own son but handed him over for us all, how will
he not also give us everything else along with him?”
Father
Hession said “that confidence (that) the triumph of life over death is
rooted in the central belief of Christian faith” is the conviction on
which all Christian faith is built – “that Christ who passed through
death to new life will, as he promised, lead us through death to new
life as well.”
“We
hold the life of Sen. Kennedy with reverence and respect,” Father
Hession continued. “We also recognize that like all of us his life has
a destiny beyond history, destiny of risen life in the kingdom of God.”
Boston
Cardinal Sean P. O’Malley presided over the funeral and said the final
prayers of commendation. Boston College chancellor Jesuit Father J.
Donald Monan, a longtime friend, was the main celebrant.
Four
other priests concelebrated: Father Raymond Collins, pastor of the
basilica, also known as the Mission Church, and the senator’s longtime
friends Father Gerry Creedon, pastor of St. Charles Borromeo Church in
Arlington, Va.; Father Percival D’Silva, pastor of Holy Redeemer Church
in Kensington, Md.; and Jesuit Father Donald MacMillan, chaplain at
Boston College.
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