Today we pray for Rev. Daniel Dempski OSB and Rev. Robert Levesque OMI.
Fr. Dempski was ordained to the priesthood in 1979 having professed solemn vows in 1978. He passed to his eternal reward in 2007 having last served in several capacities at St. Anselm’s College.
I am able to find very little about Fr. Levesque aside from having served as the director of the shrine to Our Lady of Grace in Colebrook. Any additional information you can provide would be most appreciated.
Today we pray for Very Rev. Dennis Audet, V.F. and Rev. Robert Kemmery.
Fr. Audet was ordained in 1978 and is pastor of St. Charles Borromeo’s Parish in Meredith and is also the Director of Permanent Diaconate Formation for the Diocese.
Fr. Kemmery was ordained in 1954 and is now retired.
May God grant them strength in their ministry, patience in trial and an ever increasing conformity to our Savior Jesus Christ, and may they always find their inspiration in the example of Mary followed her Son with patience and gentleness and took all these things to her heart.
It’s interesting how life comes at you from multiple directions sometimes. This weekend in our RCIA class the fiancee of one of the inquirers suggested that he had been taught that the soul exists before the body, quoting Jeremiah 1:5 “before you were formed in the womb I knew you” as a basis for his understanding. Trying to explain God’s existence outside of time became a rather interesting experience in explaining something one knows he cannot ever fully understand himself.
Now, and if you know me you won’t be surprised, that poor attempt at an answer has been gnawing at me ever since. So tonight I sat down with my Logos and determined to read up on the whole issue. After digging through Origen, Tertullian and Irenaeus I came across the following from St. Gregory of Nyssa, from his On the Making of Man. It’s amazing how well it contrasts with Nancy Pelosi’s recent attempt at patristic research.
But just as we say that in wheat, or in any other grain, the whole form of the plant is potentially included—the leaves, the stalk, the joints, the grain, the beard—and do not say in our account of its nature that any of these things has pre-existence, or comes into being before the others, but that the power abiding in the seed is manifested in a certain natural order, not by any means that another nature is infused into it—in the same way we suppose the human germ to possess the potentiality of its nature, sown with it at the first start of its existence, and that it is unfolded and manifested by a natural sequence as it proceeds to its perfect state, not employing anything external to itself as a stepping-stone to perfection, but itself advancing its own self in due course to the perfect state; so that it is not true to say either that the soul exists before the body, or that the body exists without the soul, but that there is one beginning of both, which according to the heavenly view was laid as their foundation in the original will of God; according to the other, came into existence on the occasion of generation.
He says it, without surprise, far better than I ever did.
Today we pray for all the deceased priests and religious of the Diocese. Lord, let the light of your countenance shine on them, forgive them their sins and lead them forever into your Kingdom.
Requiem æternam dona eis, Domine, et lux perpetua luceat eis. Te decet hymnus Deus, in Sion, et tibi reddetur votum in Ierusalem. Exaudi orationem meam; ad te omnis caro veniet. Requiem æternam dona eis, Domine, et lux perpetua luceat eis.
In Latin:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JW_dTOW-mD4Or, if you prefer, shorter and in English:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FCT_KQo4uxgToday we pray for Rev. Andre Bedard and Msgr. Charles Crosby.
Fr. Bedard was ordained in 1957 and is a retired priest in residence at Blessed John XIII’s Parish in Nashua.
Msgr. Crosby was ordained in 1956 and is the rector of St. Patrick’s Parish in Hampton Beach.
May they continue to strive to conform themselves ever more closely to the one High Priest, Jesus Christ, and may they always grow deeper in their love for Him and His Church through the intercession of Mary.
Today we pray for Rev. Thomas Bresnahan and Rev. William Babineau.
Fr. Bresnahan was ordained in 1960 and is now retired.
Fr. Babineau was ordained in 1968 and is a retired priest in residence at St. Peter Parish in Auburn.
May they both in their retirement years find new ways to live their ordination as alter Christus and to grow ever closer to Him whom they brought to parishioners over the years through the example of Mary, Mother of all Priests.
Today we pray for Bishop Odore Gendron, Bishop Emeritus of the Diocese of Manchester.
He was ordained to the priesthood in 1947 and ordained to the episcopate in 1975. He retired as Bishop of the Diocese in 1990.
As a successor to the apostles let us pray his retirement is used in powerful witness to the continual conversion to Christ to which we are all called.
Today we pray for Rev. John Wright and Rev. Edmund Babicz.
Fr. Wright was ordained in 1982 and is now retired. I am unable to find any information on where he served while in active ministry.
Fr. Babicz was ordained in 1984 and is pastor of St. Joseph’s Parish in Center Ossipee and St. Anthony’s Parish in Sanbornville.
May God watch over them in everything they do, may they always imitate Mary in her acceptance of all things for and in Christ and may they grow ever more conformed to her Son, Jesus our Savior.
Today we pray for Fr. Armand Turgeon and Fr. James Walsh.
Fr. Turgeon was ordained in 1943 and is now retired. He served the Diocese at both St. Joan of Arc’s Parish and Infant Jesus Parish.
Fr. Walsh was ordained in 1973 and is pastor of Sacred Heart of Jesus Parish in Greenville and Sacred Heart Parish in Wilton.
May Mary shelter them under her mantle and always point them and those entrusted to their care to her son, Jesus in His Heavenly glory.
