Gulf Pine Catholic

Gulf Pine Catholic • April 5, 2019 19 D iocesan H appenings St. Joseph Chapel, Pearlington St. Thomas the Apostle Parish, Long Beach Jennifer Williams, Director of Catholic Charities for the Diocese of Biloxi, spoke to the St. Thomas Life Teen group recently during their Life Night. The title of the night was “Poor Me” and the teens explored the issues of poverty and homelessness. The goal of the night was to humanize the plight of those in poverty and to identify ways that young people can help. A public Rosary Rally was sponsored by St. Joseph Chapel in Pearlington in unison with 108 different “St. Joseph Rosaries for Traditional Marriage” held throughout the United States on Saturday, March 2, at noon. After the rosary hot dogs, chili, buns, drinks and desert were enjoyed. Photo/Warren Gravois Dr. Philip Kolin, a University of Southern Mississippi Distinguished Professor of English (Emeritus) and a member of St. Fabian Catholic Church in Lamar County, has pub- lished his ninth collection of poems, Reaching Forever , in the highly respected Poiema Poetry Series of Cascade Books. Kolinʼs 67 poems are anchored in Scripture -- parables, settings, characters, metaphors, voices, -- and are organized according to Biblical topics, such as Where Water Flows , Sheep , Wolves , Godʼs Voice , and Toward Forever . But Kolin provides new ways of looking at Holy Writ by recasting Biblical parables and characters in the contempo- rary world. As Kolin points out, ‟The poems show how the sacred, the transcendent, is manifested in the flux of time and place; they expand what Martha Serpas calls ‛the ‛alreadyʼ which is also the ‛not yet.ʼ” In ‟Noahʼs Neighbors,” Biblical characters talk and act as if they came from the film Deliverance . A poem on the Samaritan woman from John 4 is paired with one about a homeless woman who lives in post offices in three different zip codes to avoid ‟the leprous jaws of the winter wind.” ‟A Night in Lisle,” an orphanage outside Chicago, was prompted by Kolin ʼ s reading the Book of Deuteronomy exhorting readers to care for widows and home- less children. And in ‟Saving Sammy,” a teenage girl trying to abandon her newborn is called to Hannah's faith in 1 Samuel. Kolin has won high praise for Reaching Forever. George Kalamaras, Poet Laureate of Indiana, honored Kolin for his ‟meticulous attention to the natural world” and for ‟blending moments of emotional exile” with the ‟compassion of deep communion.” Joseph Bathanti, author of The 13th Sunday After Pentecost , lauded Kolin for his ‟beautifully sacramental” language. Dr. Mary Ann Miller, founding editor of Presence: A Journal of Catholic Poetry , declared that Kolinʼs poems ‟help us hear Godʼs voice in the twenty-first century” and Father Anthony Schueller, editor of Emmanuel Magazine , claimed, ‟Reading this collection of Kolin's sublime verse, I felt I was on holy ground.” Kolin is an international authority on Tennessee Williamsʼ life and works and also edits the Routledge Shakespeare Criticism Series. Reaching Forever is available from Cascade Books or Amazon. Kolin publishes new book of poems, Reaching Forever Ted Longo presented the Silver Beaver Award Ted Longo was presented with the Silver Beaver Award by the Pine Burr Area Council on March 8 at the Thad Cochran Center in Hattiesburg. This is the highest award the council can give to an adult volunteer. Longo earned his Eagle Scout from Troop 210 in Waveland in 1979 and has been a “behind the scenes” supporter of scouting in South Mississippi. Among the awards Longo earned while becoming an Eagle Scout was the Ad Altare Dei (to the altar of God) award in 1978. The purpose of the Ad Altare Dei program is to help Catholic youth develop a fully Christian way of life in the faith community. The program is organized in chapters based on the seven sacraments. The Ad Altare Dei was presented to Longo by Bishop Joseph Lawson Howze. Ted Longo