News

Rural Life Days take months of preparation

By Joanne Flemming
Compass Correspondent

Rural celebration What: Rural Life Days When: 10:30 a.m. Wednesday, April 18 Where: St. Martin Church, Cecil How: Mass celebrated by Bp. David Zubik, followed by the blessing of seeds and farm implements, lunch and a presentation. Rhonda Strebel, rural health coordinator for Shawano County, will discuss "Living Well is a Choice." Who: Open to the public Tickets: $6 per person (includes lunch) available through the host parish, (715)745-6681. Tickets must be purchased at least seven days before the event. Information: Br. Steve Herro, diocesan social concerns director, at (920)272-8310 or toll-free 877-500-3580, ext. 8310, or e-mail sherro@gbdioc.org.

Months of preparations go into planning the Rural Life Days the Green Bay Diocese holds every spring to pray with and for farmers as they prepare for another planting season.

Someone has to arrange for the animals that Bp. David Zubik or Auxiliary Bp. Robert Morneau bless after the Mass. And someone has to bake all the desserts served at the noon meal.

This year Rural Life Days were March 27 at St. Therese Church, Stangelville, and will be April 18 at St. Martin Church, Cecil.

Work at St. Therese began before Christmas, said Anna Mae Schlies, parish religious education coordinator. St. Martin started its planning about six months ago, Dcn. Thomas Craig, parish director, said. Both celebrations use a set format from the diocese and include prayers to St. Isidore, patron of farmers, whose feast is Oct. 25.

Move to spring

The diocese has been celebrating Rural Life Days in the spring for more than 20 years, said Br. Steve Herro, O.Praem., diocesan liaison to the rural life committee, who helps with planning. Bp. Paul Rhode appointed the diocese's first rural life director - Fr. Peter Salm - in 1940.

In the 1950s, the diocese celebrated with a single event in Green Bay for farmers around the feast of St. Isidore, Br. Herro said. Then Bp. Stanislaus Bona changed the one-day observance to four institutes held throughout the diocese.

Three Rural Life Days were held each spring from 1989 through 2000, Br. Herro said. In 2001, that was reduced to two - one in the eastern half and the other in the western part of the diocese.

Chance to gather

Rural Life Days are an opportunity for people in and outside "the rural community to come together in a day of prayer, a day of socialization and a day of learning to celebrate" the rural community's gifts to the greater diocese, Br. Herro said.

Dcn. Craig said Rural Life Days are "good times for farmers to gather and celebrate how important they are to the community and for them to pray for good weather and good harvest. They remind the local communities how important farmers are to them."

Schlies said Rural Life Days emphasize the relationship between God and farmers and how farmers rely on God for rain and favorable weather. "I think a lot of prayers go into that," she said.

Br. Herro said Rural Life Days are held between mid-March and the beginning of the planting season based on the schedules of Bp. Zubik, Bp. Morneau and the farmers. Rural parishes are always chosen for the celebrations. A parish may host two years in a row.

Parishes in Seymour, Kellnersville and Bear Creek have hosted Rural Life Days most often, Br. Herro said; Seymour and Kellnersville hosted them exclusively between 1983 and 1988. The celebrations include Mass, blessing of animals and farm implements, dinner and a speaker, Br. Herro said. A committee at the parish plans the event.

The celebration

One of the bishops celebrates the Mass. The parish supplies the music and musicians. Dcn. Craig said St. Martin invited singers from small neighboring parishes to help make up the Rural Life Day choir.

Before Mass, representatives from parishes participating in a Rural Life Day process into church carrying their parishes' banners. These are placed around the church's periphery, Schlies said.

During the presentation of the gifts, a gift basket from the parish to the bishop - usually filled with his favorite foods - is brought up with the bread and wine, Schlies and Dcn. Craig said.

The blessing of the seed and soil takes place in the church after Mass. Farm animals and implements are blessed outside in the parish parking lot.

Schlies said St. Therese places a request for animals and implements in the parish bulletin. Dcn. Craig said at St. Martin they asked some members to bring them. The animals remain in trailers while they are being blessed, he said.

The dinner may be catered and/or prepared by women of the parish. Topping the menu at St. Martin will be ham, Dcn. Craig said. "There will be more milk and mashed potatoes than usual" because most attendees will be farmers, he said.

At St. Therese, the chicken and hot dogs were catered, but the parish women prepared the rest - Jell-o salads, desserts and kolaches - in the basement of the parish's St. Lawrence site at Stangelville. Kolaches are the pastry specialty for which the Bohemians, who founded the parish, are famous.

After dinner, door prizes are awarded. The speaker this year is Rhonda Strebel, Shawano County rural health coordinator, on "Living Well is a Choice."