Our very first Holy Week–with heartfelt gratitude to CMRI priests Fr. Stephen Sandquist and Fr. Timothy Geckle, Mater Dei seminarians Dominic Lehnen and Philip Lawrence, Congregation Mater Dei Sisters Mary Catherine and Josephine Marie, and our own Ben Geckle for making all our ceremonies especially reverent and lovely.
On this First Friday of the new year, we look forward to the installation of our Sacred Heart statue. He is 50 inches tall and arrived in Omaha on the First Friday of December, new and unpainted. The CMD Sisters finished painting him this week.
Slowly, but surely, we are transforming our plain box of a building into a Catholic chapel. Soon Fr. Geckle will start saying Mass on First Fridays for us. Deo gratias!
In this 20-minute sermon, Fr. Benedict Hughes, CMRI, explains the history of the devotion to the Sacred Heart.
Last Sunday two Congregation Mater Dei Sisters traveled to us from Omaha to teach catechism before mass. They brought two lovely young ladies from Mater Dei Academy with them who joined the sisters in choir. Such sweet pure voices! We were blessed once again also with the presence of seminarian Carlos Zepeda, who served at the altar.
Afterward we had cake and socializing to celebrate our one-year anniversary as Our Lady of Fatima Mission Chapel, under the pastoral care of the CMRI. Our chapel blossomed from the former St. John Fisher chapel in Tulsa when it was abandoned without warning by the SSPX last year.
There is much to celebrate! Not only have we procured our own property, Fr. Geckle told us that the Sisters are planning to come to us every third Sunday to teach catechism! Deo gratias! And Bishop Pivarunas has twice generously sent us seminarians to help remodel our church. In those two visits, they helped put down the flooring, modify the pews, and put up new sheetrock. We feel so loved and cared for. Thank you, Bishop Pivarunas!
Our Lady of Fatima Mission Chapel 