Legion of Mary

Melbourne Senatus

Prayer with Action

REPORT ON PPC TO ELMORE IN NOVEMBER. 2007

Six women and two men commenced the PPC at Elmore on Friday 16th November.

Three women were accommodated at the Convent of Our Lady of the Sacred Heart at which there are two beautiful genuine old Nuns who have spent many years on the Mission Field. They certainly knew how to share with us and we were blessed to have the most beautiful Chapel with Our Dear Lord present in the Tabernacle.

The two men stayed at the lovely old Presbytery with Father Jim Nihill who was equally hospitable, kind and generous.

There is a Legion of Mary Praesidium at Elmore and two of the legionaries attended our first meeting but due to ill health were not able to participate in the visitation. However, they have already commenced follow-up work from our notes provided to them.

The weather was extraordinarily hot for this time of year and after a very hot first day we had our first casualty in Sister Antoinette who had to be taken to the Rochester Hospital for an overnight stay following an angina attack. However, back on the road next day.

Both the paramedic and doctor, who attended her, advised that we should not be out visiting in the heat of the day and we had to restructure our visitation accordingly on the subsequent hot days (which were most of them).

Elmore is a large and sparse Parish which takes in also a lovely quaint bluestone Church in Muskerry which is a deserted outback area, very popular now for brides looking for a quaint church.

Several couples worked the township of Elmore and others with cars ventured into the outback areas, some going for hours without finding a house, let alone someone at home, or better still, a Catholic family. Later in the week the whole team ventured down to Goornong and Barnadown, the southern extremity of the Parish but, like Elmore, a lot of people go out to work or have, left the district or are only using the homes for part of the year and subsequently a high rate were not at home.

Each day began with our breakfast at 8.00, our meeting at 9.00 and Mass at 10.30 a.m. We then went out on the field and came back for lunch at 1.00pm, except for several who took their lunch and stayed out for the day because of long distances.

We were commissioned by Fr. Jim at the Vigil Mass on Saturday 17th November and also attended the Muskerry Mass the following morning at 9.30 a.m. This was a wonderful experience as the Church is over 125 years old and has beautiful statues and atmosphere. It is named after St. Martin of Tours and there were actually as many or more people present there than the night before at Elmore.

Some of us spent the rest of the day visiting locals at Muskerry and saw the receipts for payment of the building 127 years ago of the Church which cost $ 1,500.00. We were joined by some local legionaries of the Sandhurst Diocese from Shepparton and two very new ones from Eaglehawk which was a great blessing for all concerned. Marie left us on the Sunday night and Caroline joined us on Monday morning for several days.

Chris Bright arrived on Tuesday and stayed to the end of the visitation. We were fed grandly by donations of casseroles from Parishioners from both Elmore and Muskerry and a magnificent leg of lamb for our traditional roast meal cooked by Sr. Cunningham. We were also treated to a most magnificent barbecue meal supplied and cooked by the Parishioners at the conclusion on Thursday night

The visitation was concluded after a seven straight day program with 700 homes visited, 359 not at home, 231 not catholic and 110 Catholics. The township of Elmore was revisited at evening to find some home that had been missed the first time. A supply of Miraculous Medals, Rosaries, Prayer Cards and other material was handed out and some good contacts were made.

As a result of our experience of the heat at Elmore, negotiations have taken place to change the date of the White Hills, Bendigo PPC to April rather than February.

Many thanks to all who participated, especially the Office Bearers Sr. Maureen  Cantwell as Secretary, Br. Philip Hennequin as Treasurer, Sr. Marie Callander and Sr. Antoinette Waite as Vice-Presidents. A great team effort.

Alison Buman, President.

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