Prayer of
Blessing Bless, Almighty God, +
these farmers and ranchers in all they do. May health and purity, goodness and meekness, and every virtue reign on their farms and ranches. May they be filled with faithfulness to Your law and with thanksgiving to You, the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit. May this blessing remain on their farms and ranches and all who dwell there. Through Christ our Lord. Amen.
Longtime Jim Wells County farmer Lawrence Pawlik thanks Bishop Mulvey for best Mass he has attended in a long time. He said he was grateful for the bishop thinking about farmers and ranchers.
This dependence on God and the elements underscore the character of farmers who must possess humility, trust and thanksgiving, the bishop said. Their humility comes from the understanding that as people who work the land they are “children of God and…depend on our Heavenly Father.” They also have to trust God, “even when crops fail.” Bishop Mulvey said God “will never harm us” but will at times test our faith and our perseverance. “We are trusting people,” Bishop Mulvey said. People this “close to the elements God has given us” are also people of “thanksgiving,” the bishop said.
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SOUTH TEX AS CATHOLIC | JUNE 2012
Alfredo Cardenas, South Texas Catholic
“When we are working the land, we are near the elements of Creation, such as you are here. You realize that in that humility of spirit, as a child of God—trusting in the Father—that He will give what we need that when we receive, we also give thanks,” Bishop Mulvey said. The Mass was celebrated at St. Elizabeth of Hungary, with its Pastor Msgr. Leonard Pivonka and Fathers Julian Cabrera, Romeo Salinas and Tom Showalter, SOLT, concelebrating with Bishop Mulvey. Father Joseph Lopez was Master of Ceremonies and Deacon Jim Carlisle also served. St. Elizabeth parishioners hosted a reception for the farmers and ranchers in the parish hall after the Mass. www.SouthTexasCatholic.com