Twenty-six Years and Two Months!

The telephone rang.  It was an ordinary day in mid-September 2009.  Seton Associate Carlos Ann Sanders from Amory, Mississippi was calling Sister Marie Gilligan.  “Sister Marie!  We would like you to come down to St. Helen’s for a while and serve as our Ecclesial Minister because our current pastoral leader is ill and will need to return to her religious community for medical attention.  Everybody wants you to come, and the Parish Council already voted on it!  We will get the appropriate approval of the Bishop of our diocese for you to be the interim Ecclesial Leader!  Do you think you can come?”

The glint in Sr. Marie’s eye and the smile on her face were a little broader than usual from that day forward.  Of course she said YES with no hesitation, at the age of eighty-one, and made her second missionary journey to serve at St. Helen Catholic Church, a priestless parish for the past seventeen years in the Diocese of Jackson, Mississippi.

Sr. Marie’s original call to her missionary journey in the deep South was in 1973 together with Sister Rosemary McNabb. Later she was joined by Sister Peggy Fitzgibbon for four years and then by Sister Kathy Quigley for nineteen years. As Ecclesial Leader of the church from 1992-1999, Sr. Marie was responsible for the building of a new church.

So with reckless abandon, Sr. Marie boarded the plane and the second journey began. She was met at the Memphis Airport by parishioners who drove the two hour ride to Amory.  Sr. Marie’s home for the next two months was the same Parish House (former priest’s rectory) that she and Sr. Kathy lived in ten years earlier.

Sr. Marie found the spirit of St. Helen’s very much alive!  The people continue to carry out all the areas of responsibility for parish life, participating on the Parish Council, the Finance Council, teaching Religious Education every Sunday, RCIA, preparing music for liturgy and the liturgical environment and gathering the children weekly for crafts and games to promote Catholic identity.  Sr. Marie was welcomed with open arms and on her first Sunday back led the Rite of Acceptance during Mass for five adults who will be coming into the Catholic Church. “The parish has grown in the past ten years,” Sr. Marie commented.

This small community of Amory in rural North East Mississippi has approximately seven thousand residents.  Great strides in race relations have occurred in the past twenty-five years, largely through the conscious efforts and relationships of the Sisters of Charity and the Catholic Community of St. Helen’s Church. When asked what were some of the highlights of her experiences, Sister Marie replied, “I attended the ceremony which honored a 95-year-old Tuskegee Airman, a resident of Amory, who had a street named after him for his heroic service in the Second World War.”

“I was also privileged to attend the funeral service of Susie Mae Pack at St. Paul Missionary Baptist Church.  Susie Mae is an African-American woman who had been a Girl Scout leader for many years.  And I visited a friend, a young black male at the County Jail who was recently incarcerated.”

Another highlight of the eight-week experience was to visit the Amory Food Pantry which had been initiated and established by Sr. Marie and Sr. Kathy.  The volunteers and leaders are members of all the area churches. “One of the parishioners gave me a substantial donation and I delivered it in person.  I received a very warm welcome.  The Food Pantry has quadrupled in size, need and service since we left the area.  It was a great sight to see retired doctors, high school principals and, of course, all the women who keep it functioning with love and compassion.”

The Spirit of Charity is alive and well in Amory, Mississippi.  Ten Seton Associates and many others who are not formally associated are carrying on the leadership of the Meals on Wheels program, visiting the sick in nursing homes and distributing communion, leading “Why Catholic?” a program of Renew International, and distributing food baskets and gifts to the poor together with the youth of the parish.  Some attend weekly prayer with other churches for the express purpose of inclusion of the Black community.  The images of Vincent de Paul and the pelican feeding her young which are emblazoned in the stained glass windows of the church shine a little brighter during this 150^th Anniversary year!

There is no doubt in this priestless area that the highlight of each week is Sunday liturgy.  The priest comes twice a month and there is Sunday worship in the absence of a Priest on the other two Sundays. There is also no doubt that a highlight, according to the people of St. Helen’s during these two months, was to have Sr. Marie Gilligan lead them in word and deed.  Marie’s ability to break open the Word during Sunday worship was only surpassed by deeds done in love each day among the people.  For the people in Amory, Mississippi, Sr. Marie Gilligan is a special presence that allows their faith to grow and their spirit to soar!

                                                             Sister Kathleen Quigley