[StBernard] Fr. Tomasovich

[Westley Annis]

Again, I am still clearing old emails.  This one seemed to be a good
candidate for a re-run.
 
Syl


-----Original Message-----
For those who were at OLPS from 1961 to 1971, you were treated to a mass
with your former pastor, Fr. Tomasovich, the first pastor of OLPS. Now in
his 80's, it was a real joy to have him officiate, and although I didn't
come to St. Bernard until 1972, my husband and others had fond memories of
him and enjoyed the familiar face of the pastor who helped them through
Hurricane Betsy. 
 
He told a story about the two large oak trees on the riverside of the church
lawn. He said he planted those saplings in 1961, and one shriveled up to
die. He cut it back to the root, and watered it every day. Many people
thought he was crazy, watering a brown stub every day. But one day a small
shoot of green emerged, and then, very slowly, branches came. Today, the two
huge oak trees are the same size and you can't tell which one fought the
odds because someone cared and nutured it.
 
I took his story to mean that we should look at our community. It has been
broken down to its roots, submerged under saltwater, and left to wither.
Despite many who could not come back, would not come back, discouraged
others from coming back, enough of us did come back. Year one after the
storm was about rescue and recovering what little we could. Trying to
survive, and fighting for our existence as a community. We were contaminated
with oil, had gaping holes where levees and floodgates once stood, and we
were soiled and stained, as were our few belongings, as being Katrina
"victims".  But year two has been about re-building. We continue to fight
for our right for LRA funds, insurance, SBA loans, interim levee protection,
and saving our wetlands, as we rebuild our homes, our schools, our churches,
and our organizations that are the fabric of who we are.  
 
Will 40 years from now we stand as vibrant as other communities, such that
August 29, 2005 is just a bad memory for a bunch of old folks?  Will
generations to come see no more evidence of our being ground down to a stump
than they see with that majestic oak tree towering on Paris Road? 
 
 Look at the fires raging in the mid-west; the floods sweeping across the
Texas plains; the tornadoes destroying in seconds and without warning an
entire town in the mid-west. Has anyone asked if they should return? Has
anyone doubted their sanity as they pick themselves up and start over?  No,
they have not. Look at the people of England, flooded in an hour with
rainfall that normally takes a month. Have they lbeen told to leave their
homeland and not return because it will happen again?  
 
The world is a violent planet and mankind has tried to tame it since it left
the cave behind and ventured out. There are far worse periods and places in
history that we could have lived than St. Bernard in 2005, but was there or
will there be any better? ddk