Pro-life Event a Success!

The pro-life German sausage supper for Kansas Right to Life was successful tonight. There were plenty of volunteers to serve approximately 500 people who attended the supper, which was held in the parish hall. Bill and I were active in variety of tasks there. The food -- German sausage, sauerkraut, real mashed potatoes, and cooked apples were delicious, but the fellowship was even better. We are so blessed to live here!

The parish where it was held is a small, rural German Catholic Community and the church was so similar in many ways to the one I attended in my youth -- with beautiful stained glass windows of the saints, several life sized statues of the Blessed Virgin Mary -- including Our Lady of Victory, the Pieta, Our Lady of Lourdes, and the Immaculate Conception. Brilliantly colored paintings of Sts. Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John covered the walls along with pictures of other saints like St. Elizabeth, and there was even a Communion rail with soft upholstered kneelers still intact. What amazed me the most was the presence of the old-time Confessional booths with red curtains. The Lourdes Shrine, which is located outdoors near the front of the church is lit up at night. On the outside, at the top of the church, near the bell tower, is a life-sized statue of St. Mark with a lion. This brief description doesn't do this gorgeous house of God justice.

The church is on the National Register of Historic Places. I felt as if I had been taken back in time to the 1950's again just being there. Outside were the old-fashioned swings and the merry-go-round identical to the ones I played on as a child. It was fun to go for a swing and to have Bill give me a ride on the merry-go-round. I closed my eyes and was six years old again.