Dear Parishioners of Mary Immaculate and Saint Rose,
This past weekend I spent a good bit of time celebrating the gifts to us from the past.
On Saturday I went to St. Joseph Church in Edina to concelebrate a Mass with Bishop McKnight, Fr. Franklin, and Fr. Paul Clark.  It was to mark the 175th anniversary of the founding of the parish.  That makes St. Joseph one of the oldest parishes in our diocese.
Before the Mass started, I took a quiet stroll through the cemetery.  I have a favorite spot there.  In one of my first visits to Edina when I was first assigned to Kirksville, I discovered the graves of four nuns buried very near the convent.  These four graves have been a source of inspiration to me in my mission to northern Missouri.  The nuns buried here are Sisters of Loretto who range in age from 24 to 55.  The grave stones have been recently cleaned so they are much easier to read.  These women died between 1867 and 1892. These graves are both a reminder of how hard life must have been in those mid to late years of the 19th century, and also a tribute to the dedication and faith of these religious women.  They truly left everything to bring the Catholic Faith to the people of northeast Missouri. The celebration of 175 years is a celebration of the faith of all those who have gone before us. 
On Sunday I celebrated Mass at St. Mary’s Church in Adair.  This parish was founded from Edina in the 1860s.  The beautiful wooden church is the only building remaining of a once thriving Catholic community.  It was from this church that the parish of Mary Immaculate (although that was not the original name) was started.  So you might say that St. Mary’s in Adair is our Mother Church and St. Joseph in Edina is our Grandmother Church!
All of this just goes to show that we are not so much celebrating what was there before, as we are celebrating that because of what was once there we have our Catholic Faith in the present.  We are celebrating the stewardship of the Faith.  Those who have gone before us lived the Faith and passed it on to us and we want to live the Faith so we can pass it on to those who come after us.
Lord, make us truly grateful for what we have received.  May we live our Catholic Faith wholeheartedly so that others may receive a faithful witness of what it means to be Catholic.                                                                                            Msgr. Cox

 Photo/Michael Kipley From the Quincy Herald-Whig ( https://www.whig.com/article/20100213/ARTICLE/302139975)
 
Thumbnail credit By Ken Mitchell - Own work, CC BY-SA 4.0,