Knights of Columbus

Council No. 10901

Once again the fish-frying season has come and gone. I want to thank everyone who supported this effort by purchasing dinners, and I especially want to thank all of you who spent your time preparing, serving, and cleaning up.

All of you who signed up for the 31 Club remember to offer your mass, rosary, or other prayers for vocations on your designated day every month.

Over 50 youth from around the state participated in the March 2^nd event. Congratulations to this year’s state winners of the Basketball Freethrow Championship:

11 Jacob Simmons, Southhaven Holli Smith, Bogue Chitto

13 Justin Siablich, Ocean Springs Ariana Bryant, Biloxi

Our annual Tootsie Roll Drive to benefit the Scott Center will take place May 4^th. Please contact Mark Shows and volunteer an hour or two to assist with this effort.

Goodbye to Father Bob. Father Robert Schlitt died at age 77. He was ordained to the priesthood 46 years ago in Oklahoma City. He was pastor of St. John University parish in Stillwater, which is where I met him. Always zealous in encouraging young men to consider the priesthood, he caused OSU to become a major source of Catholic priestly vocations. Many of the men who were eventually ordained came to the school as Protestants, and they became Catholic through his example and guidance. In Fr. Bob’s memory I ask you to consider contributing to the Infirm Priests’ Fund of the Diocese of Tulsa.

Welcome home and happy birthday Lydia McDaniel Supple. Lydia is the newly adopted daughter of Sandra and John Supple, granddaughter of Joe and Peggy Supple. Lydia will be one year old on April 23^rd.

There were many components of this trip which added to the retreat atmosphere. The very first one being that Richard Popernik’s Memorial Mass was scheduled for that Saturday morning. The students were relieved to know that we would delay our departure until after the mass. Richard had been a large part of their lives and they wanted to give their respect to him. We left after the luncheon and arrived in Jackson, TN to attend mass at St. Mary’s Catholic Church.

This was our second retreat opportunity. The pastor at St. Mary’s gave his homily on the readings and then continued with an exhortation to his congregation on the proper use of the church facility, the improper use of cell phones at mass, and the lack of reverence by the people when arriving for mass. I don’t believe the pastor had intended his talk to be an exhortation but the fact that a cell phone went off just after the greeting at the beginning of the mass added to his desire to discuss the problems. The students were surprised that a priest would vent his anger on the people and be so "demanding". Their comments ranged from "Can a priest do that?" to "I thought the priest was supposed to address the readings in his homily" to "Well we walked into that one." The students had also been visiting in the pew prior to mass. Well we had a lively drive after that with much discussion. Arriving at the house in Gatlinburg it was quite late so we had a short evening prayer time with prayers of thanksgiving for a safe journey.

The next morning was spent in breakfast and skiing preparations. We had morning prayer prior to our departure for the day. I asked the students to be mindful of God’s presence as they spent the day on the slope. "There is something about being with God on a mountain and you will find when it is just you and God and the mountain something awesome happens."

We had a safe enjoyable day and went back to the cabin to get ready to go into town for some sightseeing and supper. On the way down the mountain we saw a bus which had careened off of the winding road and crashed into the trees. Luckily it had not gone down the side of the mountain. During supper the waiter informed us that the bus had been full of youth that had come up for a ski weekend. Several of the children had to be flown to Knoxville for treatment. On the way back to the house after supper we again passed the bus with workers trying to untangle it from the trees. Adam began the Our Father and we all joined in to lift a prayer for these who had come for fun as had we but who had ended on such a sad note.

Our evening prayer on this our last night included a reflection on the day and the weekend. I asked the students if they had met God on the mountain? "Oh, yes!" was the definite answer. "God is always so close." "When I was coming down the slope I was so scared all I could say was Oh God, Oh God and I made it safely." "When I rode the scenic lift to the top above the area and saw all that beauty, I thought, Wow, God you did all of this." "When I was skiing out of control and ran into this man he flew up and landed in my arms. I bet he was saying Oh God too and there I was." Even when we are out having fun and being daredevils God is still in our midst and ever on our lips. When no one else can help us God is just a call away.

Thanks to the generosity of the Knights of Columbus of St. John’s the transportation need to and from the Ski Trip/Retreat Weekend was met.

For their participation and leadership in the Lenten Fish Frys

Dennis and Carrie Ott, Family of the Month

For his diligent work on reports and updating the web page

James Reid, Knight of the Month

Every fourth baby dies from abortion in the United States. That is 1.4 million babies each year, 4,000 each day, 1 every 22 seconds.

Please pray that the abortion-minded women of our area will find this ministry to get complete information, and hear the gospel of Jesus Christ.

The K of C Insurance program is a non-profit organization and doesn’t pay dividends to shareholders, but does provide proceeds to allow the Knights of Columbus to…

Make available to dioceses and religious institutions a mortgage loan program at favorable interest rates. Over the years $245 million were provided to 271 entities, mostly local parishes.

Won’t you consider being a part of this program?

Please contact your field agent, Pick Noble, at 662 842 8333 with any insurance questions.