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Students celebrate pastoral leadership
By Ambria Hammel, ahammel@catholicsun.org
May 1, 2008
Preschoolers and kindergarteners at Our Lady of Joy in Carefree spent the week leading up to Good Shepherd Sunday decorating small rocks for their priests.
The students inscribed each rock with a trait they saw in Fr. Bud Pelletier and Fr. Herb Hauck, the shepherds of their parish school. They presented the priests with the rocks and prayed for them.
These gifts were among the many tributes Catholic school students gave their pastors on and around Good Shepherd Sunday April 13.
“It was great to get a blessing from the kids,” said Fr. Tom Hever, after an April 9 Mass at Our Lady of Perpetual Help Parish in Scottsdale. The weekday liturgy also focused on the image of the Good Shepherd.
Nearly 500 students commended Fr. Hever for his leadership and extended their hands over him to ask for God’s blessing.
Dozens of students walked down the aisles on behalf of the whole school delivering handmade cards to Fr. Hever.
Maggie McGoldrick and fellow eighth-graders made a class card thanking Fr. Hever for being their good shepherd.
“He’s really dedicated and he spends a lot of time doing things for us and for our school that we don’t always realize,” McGoldrick said.
Each classroom at St. Theresa School created a spiritual bouquet for their pastor, Fr. Chuck Keiffer. Instead of living flowers, the students made their own and wrote what prayers they would offer for Fr. Keiffer’s intention, said Maureen Vick, principal.
Students in San Francisco de Asís Parish’s school and religious education program in Flagstaff presented Fr. Patrick Mowrer with handmade paper flowers and a basketful of more than 900 personal cards and letters during an April 13 Mass.
One child wrote, “Thank you for guiding us through all our days when anger comes upon our flock. You will take all the anger and throw it in the dust.”
“It is so good to know I have touched so many of their lives personally,” Fr. Mower said.
To further show their appreciation for Fr. Mowrer, seven students held a letter placard high above their head spelling out his favorite greeting, “U R loved.” They used each letter to describe a gift that he brings to the community — “E” for “Eucharist” and “D” for “Disciple,” for example.
“It was so beautiful. There wasn’t a dry eye in the place,” parishioner Audrey Dugan said.
Catherine E. Hanley in Flagstaff contributed to this story.
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