Onto the Southwest Corner of the Diocese...
When I was enjoying my summer stays in Camdenton as a seminarian, Fr. Powers took me to Hermitage for a daily mass. Fr. Powers was an avid golfer, but we didn't play golf that day. Rather, we had a meeting after mass about the new church addition. At that time as a seminarian, that didn't mean a whole lot to me. Going back to Hermitage as vocation director seeing the beautiful church brought back those memories of the mass and meeting.. and of Fr. Powers, may he rest in peace. There is no priest stationed in either Hermitage nor Climax Springs. There is a priest who lives in another town who does cover both of those parishes each weekend. So, I took that priest's place for the weekend. I met the person who was going to make sure I had a place to stay and food to eat while I was in Hermitage and Climax Springs.
Climax Springs has one mass per weekend: 3:30 Saturday afternoon. What is really cool about that mass and community: there are two vans who go down to the local boat dock and pick up those who come off the water to mass. (It's Lake of the Ozarks.) Yes, even from Climax Springs I met a Freshman in high school who people thought -- after he finishes his RCIA -- should consider the priesthood. And, when I went to another parish, there were two people from Hermitage who people thought should be considering the priesthood. Hermitage understands what it means to reach out to the poor in the community. Each weekend for several months, parishioners get up at 4AM to make doughnuts. The doughnuts are sold after mass. The money raised goes to purchase Christmas gifts for the poor children of Hickory County.
I would say these two parishes really feel the priest shortage. They are far away from other parishes and most of the people in the parish are elderly and already drive a great distance to this parish. Each parish had its own "town hall meeting" to discuss what could be done about vocations and each parish had a daily mass that week. It was great to be with them. No matter what size the parish they come from each family should allow their children to conisder the call to priesthood and religious life and support their child in that call.
Climax Springs has one mass per weekend: 3:30 Saturday afternoon. What is really cool about that mass and community: there are two vans who go down to the local boat dock and pick up those who come off the water to mass. (It's Lake of the Ozarks.) Yes, even from Climax Springs I met a Freshman in high school who people thought -- after he finishes his RCIA -- should consider the priesthood. And, when I went to another parish, there were two people from Hermitage who people thought should be considering the priesthood. Hermitage understands what it means to reach out to the poor in the community. Each weekend for several months, parishioners get up at 4AM to make doughnuts. The doughnuts are sold after mass. The money raised goes to purchase Christmas gifts for the poor children of Hickory County.
I would say these two parishes really feel the priest shortage. They are far away from other parishes and most of the people in the parish are elderly and already drive a great distance to this parish. Each parish had its own "town hall meeting" to discuss what could be done about vocations and each parish had a daily mass that week. It was great to be with them. No matter what size the parish they come from each family should allow their children to conisder the call to priesthood and religious life and support their child in that call.
posted by Fr. Joe Corel at
4:35 PM
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