The Message -- for Catholics of Southwestern Indiana
--- Taking the time to make a difference-
Prayer and works on a snowy day"
It's snowing, Lord;
there's a white miracle outside!
The snow is covering everything,
the grass, the trees,
the buildings, and streets.
It reminds us of your love:
Like this magical snow
your love covem and surrounds us
and everything around us.
These opening lines of a prayer
by Kathleen Finley came to mind
several times during the last few
weeks of winter weather in the
midwest.
Finley's prayer is from a small
book entitled, Dear God: Prayers for Families with
Children. The snow that snarls streets and school
days may seem to parents more of a curse than a
blessing, but it certainly seems different from a
small child's point of view.
It is magic. Or so it once seemed. Remember?
There was a time when snow was for sledding
and not for shoveling. When hands were warm in
multi-colored mittens, not in gray or brown work
gloves.
One of the fondest memories in my family is of
a deep and heavy snow when our sons were small.
The snow I shoveled from the driveway became a
fortress. And in it were tunnels, and over it were
places to slide.
God's love then was everywhere, but especially
By PAUL
R. LEINGANG
EDITOR
in the magical mound of snow
transformed by imagination into
mountains and cities and a whole
new world of mystery. God's love
was there, too, at the end of the
day, after the play, in the warmth
of the home -- the kitchen, the
bath, and the bed.
Not everyone has pleasant
memories of snow and winter. The
signs of God's love in the world are
perhaps as varied as are the fami-
lies of believers.
Perhaps the moment of grace
in a child's life (and in ours) comes
at times which are significant only to one person or
to one family -- not necessarily in a snowstorm
which covers half of the United States.
Finley's book suggests prayers for many occa-
sions in a a child's life. There's one on receiving a
new riding toy: "Pleas6 keep those who ride on it
happy, healthy and safe." Another on losing a tooth:
'rhank yo u for signs like this tooth which remind
me that I'm changing and growing up."
Dear God: Prayers for Families with Children
by Kathleen Finley (ISBN: 089622-673-5 paper, 88
pp., $7.95) is available in religious bookstores or
from Twenty-Third Publications, P.O. Box 180, Mys-
tic, CT 06355.
Take some time this week to
holy times you have experienced in
haps you may recall your childhood
in the lives of your children.
Tell your stories to your family
encourage them to reflect on the si
ments in their everyday lives.
Finley points out that it is
we first find, or do not find, a
God in your home?
Where do families find God in
your neighborhood? How can you
or your friends to feel and Celebrate
Finley says that family prayer
make family life holy, but rather,
that holiness is already there. If
an act of charity -- doing good
the same basis. A hungry person is
sympathy, an occasion for a person
good. A hungry person is hob In
with the hungry and the
and the lame, we believe we
one who redeemed us.
Take the time to celebrate the
prayer and good works -- in
lives of your neighbors.
Questions and comments are
Christian Family Movement, P O. Box
Iowa 50010
Washington Letter
Timing: It's everything for pro-life march scheduled in
By PATRICIA ZAPOR
Catholic News Service
WASHINGTON (CNS) --
With just a difference of two
weeks, the Jan. 7-8 blizzard
that buried much of the East
Coast would have been crip-
pling, though probably not
fatal, to an annual national
march against abortion on the
Capitol.
Participants in the annual
March for Life, from the White
House to the Capitol each Jan-
uary, have gathered through
rain, bitter cold and several
inches of snow before, but
never quite as big a storm as
the two-foot walloping of this
year.
"We would have marched
anyway" if the blizzard of '96
had coincided with the event,
said Nellie J. Gray, president
of March for Life.
Each year since Jan. 22,
1973, when the U.S. Supreme
Court handed down the ruling
in Roe" vs. Wade that legalized
abortion throughout the coun-
The MESSAGE
4200 N. Kentucky Ave.
Evansville, IN 47711
Weekly newspaper of the
Diocese of Evansville
Published weekly except last week in
December by the Catholic Press of
Evansville
i
Publisher .............. Bishop Gerald A. Gettetfinger
Editor ....................................... Paul R. Leingang
Producn Techcan ............... Joseph Dietnch
Advectng. ................................... Paul Newland
Staff Writer ............................. Mary Ann Hughes
Address all communiations to P,O.
Box 4169, Evansville, IN 47724-0169
Subscription rate:
$17.50 per year
Single Copy Price: $.50
Entered as 2nd class matter at the post
office in Evansville, IN 47701. Publica-
ton number 843800.
Postmaster: Return POD forms 3579
to Office of Publication
C 1995 Press of Evansvi
try, as many as 75,000 people
have come to Washington on
the anniversary of the ruling
or the weekday closest to it
if it falls on a weekend -- to
protest the decision and lobby
Congress, the president and
the high court to reverse it.
In 1987, participants arrived
in town to falling snow, with
about half a foot on the ground
by the time the march started
and an accumulation of 11
inches by the end of the day.
Miss Gray said it's impossible
to reschedule an event that in-
volves as many people from so
many states.
"So, we do the best we can
with the weather we are
given," she said.
The prospect of having even
a scaled-down crowd of a few
thousand people try to descend
upon the Ellipse behind the
White House during a blizzard
was too imposing to contem-
plate for Sandra Alley, public
affairs director for the Na-
tional Park Service of the Na-
tional Capitol Area.
She was back in her office
Jan. 11 for the first time after
three days of storm-closings
and three weeks of budget-cri-
sis furlough. A new storm the
next day closed the federal gov-
ernment again, making the re-
turn of federal workers to
Washington offices short-lived.
Had the government been on
furlough the day the march
was scheduled, it would have
been up to Park Service and
Concern: Special ed
To the editor:
Recently I wrote a letter to
the Catholic Diocese of
Evansville about my concern of
the lack of special education
available in the Catholic school
system .... I find it hard to be-
lieve that a city with over 15
Catholic grade schools only has
one with special education pro-
grams. Are we saying that spe-
cial needs children don't de-
serve a Catholic education?
Yes my children attend C.C.D.
and it is a good program but
one hour a week for children
with learning disabilities is not
enough. I do my best to lead by
example and educate them in
the Catholic ways but I also re-
alize I cannot teach tern as
well as the schools.
As I stated in my letter to
the Catholic Diocese of
Evansville I am sure I am not
the only parent with this con-
cern. I would like to know
what I can do as a parent and
what we as a Catholic commu-
nity do to offer these special
needs children a Catholic edu-
cation.
Vickie A. Hunn
Evansville
Accuracy doubted
To the editor:
In his letter to the editor
(Message, Jan. 12, 1996),
Robert A. Brown states that
the Latin Tridentine Mass is
"the only Mass recognized for
about 2000 years."
If anyone believes this per-
haps such a person would also
believe the rest of his letter.
Rev. William J. Deering
Diocesan Director of
Worship/RCIA
District of Columbia police to
make a decision about asking
organizers to cancel in the
event of a big storm, Ms. Alley
said.
"What we look at is health
and safety and whether we
could handle it," she said.
"Chances are you couldn't get
into the Ellipse if there was
this much snow anyway."
Ms. Alley said as far as she
knew, the Park Service had
never asked such a large event
to cancel because of the
weather, partly because the
March for Life is one of the few
regular large-scale activities
during the winter. But he
lessons of January's blizzard
raised plenty of "what if' ques-
tions, she acknowledged.
For starters, how would
marchers even get in to town
and where would they go?
Buses that bring in people
from across the country park
outside the city at lots at the
Pentagon
and
"They're
around to
there are
, Ms. Alley
Four days
side streets
ington
causing tr!
streets tha
Even if
for a
storm,
would be
The city'S
was
bination
snowed
yards and
gers who
home. Even
and manY P
day off Jan.
mobile
lays of two
trips
See
Bishop's s
The following activities and events
schedule of Bishop Gerald A. Gettelfinger: :
