 |
| |
| |
| Shortly after the founding of Our Lady of Mercy Parish, in September 1953, Father Louis Schwebius, our first pastor requested from his Bishop, the Most Rev. Thomas E. Molloy, Bishop of the Diocese of Brooklyn, permission to form a Holy Name Society in our parish, then in the Brooklyn Diocese.
A parish Holy Name Society requires two important essentials, canonical authorization from the Bishop of the Diocese and a charter issued in the name of the Parish Church from the Master General of the Dominican Order.
Archbishop Molloy, in January 1954, granted canonical authorization for the Holy Name Society at Our Lady of Mercy and with the issuing of a Holy Name Society Charter by the Dominican Order, the Society became a reality in the Parish. This Holy Name charter is permanently hung in the Church Sacristy.
The charter members of the Our Lady of Mercy Society had been leading members in St. Ignatius Holy Name Society, the parish that formerly served parishioners in the Hicksville/Plainview area of Nassau County. This fellowship of Catholic men elected as their Society’s first president, Don Dugan; the Spiritual Advisor for the Society was Father Schwebius.
There have been two time lines in the life of our parish Holy Name Society. During most of the first two decades that led up to 1973, the Society members were essential to the parish fund-raising campaigns, primarily the solicitation of family pledges, first for their church, then for their school and lastly for the new Rockville Centre Diocesan High Schools, all tirelessly involved in building and supporting this new parish.
Even so during this time period of a developing parish, the members did not forgo the principle purpose for their Holy Name Society, honor for the Holy Name of Jesus. Regularly scheduled was the monthly corporate Communion Mass with Society members serving the Mass; established was a nocturnal adoration group with nighttime hourly devotion held once a month; held yearly was a Communion Breakfast with a guest speaker; a weekend retreat for the members was carried out yearly; (Read More)
|
|
|
|