Deo Gratias!
Fr. Geckle made the momentous announcement this past Sunday that it would be our last mass in our temporary setting in Tulsa.
On Sunday, September 9, we will have mass in our very own church–same time as usual: 1:00 confessions, 1:30 mass.
The one-acre property is on Oklahoma Hwy. 28-A, off of historic Route 66 near Chelsea, OK. It is also easily accessible from Interstate 44 (Will Rogers Turnpike), Adair exit. It can be found on a GPS under its former name, Good Hope Church. Or if you navigate by landmarks, look for the giant totem pole!
This new location is why we have chosen “4statesfatimachapel” as our url. Northwest Arkansas, southwest Missouri, southeast Kansas, and northeast Oklahoma are within reasonable driving distances for those determined Catholics who are holding fast to the true Faith as it was practiced at the time of Pope Pius XII.
On the other hand, with its rural location 45 minutes from downtown Tulsa, it might be the place you’ve been looking for to raise a large family in the country with easy access to Sunday mass and other Catholic families. Real estate prices are reasonable, and plenty of family recreation opportunities are nearby.
We have a work party scheduled for this Saturday to take up the carpet, install laminate flooring, shorten the pews, and get the altar and confessional set up. We’ll be placing the altar on the wall facing the road.
Father is bringing some seminarians to help, and we will be serving lunch under our wonderful pavilion. There is a hall with a kitchen, but the kitchen will need to be gutted before we can use it because a pipe burst in the wall behind all the appliances. The property has been vacant for about two years, so there is much repair, maintenance, and clean-up to do in addition to Catholic beautification projects inside and out. But we’re so excited to get started and begin enjoying Catholic community.
We hope that our good news encourages our friends to persevere. May God bless each and everyone of you. Our Lady of Fatima, pray for us!
Well, one explanation was given by Abbot Suger of St. Denis, back in the twelfth century “The dull mind rises to the truth through material things” and even more fully, in answering some of his own minimalist contemporaries (they had them then too) “To be sure, those who criticize us argue that holy mind, pure heart and faithful intention should suffice … These are, we agree, the things that matter most; yet we profess that we should also serve God with the external ornaments of sacred vessels, in all internal purity and in all external nobility, and nowhere is this to be done as much as in the service of the holy sacrifice. For it is incumbent upon us in every case to serve our redeemer in the most fitting way for in all things, without exception, he has not refused to provide for us, has united our nature with his in a single, admirable individual, and “setting us on his right hand” he has promised “that we will truly possess his kingdom” (Mtt. 25:33f.).” ~ 
Our Lady of Fatima Mission Chapel 