TWO COUNTRY PARISHES GET THEIR OWN HYMN AND PRAYER

 

As many of my readers know, I have recently finished a major project down in Meade County at my home twined-parishes of St. Theresa of Avila in Rhodelia (1818) and St. Mary Magdalen of Pazzi in Payneville (1872) turning the old now-closed St. Theresa School and Rectory into a new St. Theresa Family Life Center and Guest House to serve both parishes and the surrounding communities. 

With those renovations now completed, I turned my attention toward producing a new shared hymn and writing a new shared prayer that will help teach and re-enforce the details of our own histories in the minds of our parishioners, as well as inspire them going forward.  

Having sung the new hymn and said the new prayer in both parishes last Sunday, today I want to share that new hymn and that new prayer with my blog followers.  The lyrics of this new hymn can be used with at least four traditional hymn tunes. The version below uses the Ode to Joy hymn tune. Hymn tunes Nettleton, Beach Spring and Beecher can also be used.  

The "Augustus Tolton" and "Martha Jane" mentioned in the second verse are part of St. Theresa's sad mid-and-late 1800s slave-owning history. "Martha Jane" was born, baptized and raised a slave at St. Theresa's until she was 17 years old. Martha Jane was then taken to Missouri by her "owner" (Ann Manning) and her new husband (Stephen Elliot) after their marriage in Meade County. While in Missouri, young Martha Jane had at least three children. After Martha Jane escaped across the Mississippi River with her three children to the free state of Illinois, one of her children named "Augustus" went on to become our country's first recognized black Catholic priest. Father Augustus Tolton, having already completed the first two steps toward canonization, is on his way to soon being declared a saint. Just to think his Catholic faith was passed on to him from my home parish through his mother, Martha Jane! 

WITH US THEN AND WITH US STILL

A Prayer for the Spiritual Health of St. Theresa’s and St. Mary’s

Loving God, alive in our PAST, fill us with gratitude for those in our history who founded our parishes, built our churches and schooled our young. Prevent us from ever taking for granted the faith, courage and sacrifices they made to pass on to us the ancient faith that was passed on to them.   

Loving God, alive in our PRESENT, inspired by the drive of our early missionaries, show us today how to seek out and welcome back those who have drifted away from our parish communities and those who have been hurt by some of our leaders or some of our members. Inspire us today to strengthen our families by mentoring our young, encouraging our singles, honoring our elders, comforting our sick, heartening our lonely and accepting God’s mercy so that we can become vibrant faith communities to which new members are attracted simply because our faith is so zealously lived and willingly shared.

Loving God, alive in our FUTURE, teach us, in an unsettled world, how to build stable and welcoming parishes where our spirits are lifted and our souls find rest. Bless our renewed efforts to celebrate our sacred histories. May we pass those histories forward to yet another generation so that they too, inspired by the determination, inspiration and vision of the past, may again take the gospel to a troubled world. We ask this in faith through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen

St. Theresa Church was founded by Fr. Robert Abner Abell in 1818

Fr. Augustus Tolton’s mother, Martha Jane Chisley, was born in Mooleyville in 1827

The Sisters of Charity of Nazareth arrived at St. Theresa in 1870

St. Mary Magdalen of Pazzi Church was founded by St. Theresa's pastor, Fr. Jule Pierre Raoux, in 1872