Maryknoll Church Talks 9-12 June 2006

Henrietta, Texas Area

The first of the mission talks (what Maryknoll calls "church dates") that I was asked to do this year was in the Henrietta, Texas area in the north central part of the state near the Oklahoma border.  My home base for the weekend was St. Mary Parish in Henrietta, a town of about 3000 people.  I had one mass there and then drove to three other communities to the east on a 78-mile circuit.  I flew to Dallas and rented a car to drive two hours north to Henrietta.  Monday morning I had to leave at 3:00 AM to drive back to Dallas for the return flight to Louisville via Chicago.
	Henrietta is where Fr. Stephen Berg, the pastor of the group of four churches, actually lives, at St. Mary Church.  He was on vacation at his family home in Montana the weekend I was there so my coming served a double purpose and let him get away, a difficult task in these days of priest shortages.
	The mass on Saturday evening was in Bowie, Texas, at St. Jerome Church.  I was struck by the fact that all four churches had character and good design architecturally.  That isn't always true in what many dioceses consider mission areas.
	On Sunday morning, after an 8:00 AM mass at St. Mary's in Henrietta, Deacon Russ Detwiler drove me to a 10:00 AM mass at Nocona, about 25 miles away. All four churches were also very well organized with efficient ministers and good music.
	The next stop was at St. William Church in Montague, 9 miles to the south.  I had a surprise here where I found out the Hispanic community was also expecting me for their 12:30 PM mass, so I had two masses back to back. I felt sorry for the Hispanic community because I had to do their liturgy in English.
Scenes from North Central Texas Carmelia and Robert Fenoglio were my most gracious and generous hosts and guides for the two days I spent in Henrietta. On Sunday, at the end of the Hispanic mass in Montague, Karina celebrated her fifteenth year in a traditional Hispanic custom. Tornadoes are frequent in north central Texas and every home has an underground shelter like this one. There are few hills and lots of sky in this part of Texas, and many oil wells like this one.

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