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Show ) •• f MESSAGE # 14, DECEhBER , 1973 from Father Liebler Brother Juniper at ilelen ::: turges Joan Eskell HAT ROCK VALLEY RETREA'r CENTER , P.O. Box 5 Monument Valley, Utah 84536 * * * * * Messages I - 13 were issued semi-annually since September, 1966. Most back numbers are available. Just ask. THE BIG NEhlS t hi s time is about saint r Christop~er' s Mission a t Eluff -- the place we four came from ,.hen ''Ie Settled he're more than s even years ago. "The Mission was without a resident pr1est, after Father Wayne left, for about sevel Itlonths, during which time there was a sad falling off, 'the People felt that ·they had been abandoned. As we said in our las t Message, Fr Liebler went there every Sunday for an afternoon Mass, but in t he nature of the case he coule do no real pastoral work, and congregations were pitiful.ly small, with a tiny (aithful group managing to get there every .Sunday. The ~hoice of a new priest was probably the most important action of 'the all-Navajo 'Nission Council up to. that time; the Bishop nominated four priests who had expressed a willingness to take over the job, and the council's debate was lively, ana the decision was not hastily reached. Fr W. Herbert Scott was eventually unanimously chosem, and report was made to the Bishop, who appointed him. Fr Scott arrived in Holy Week and plunged at once into the life of the Mission. Remember him in )Our prayers--he has a most difficult task before him. He came to us here on OCtober 4 to celebrate Fr Liebler's 59th anniversary of ordinaticm, bringing a small bus-load of Bluff Nava jos. His picture is shown above. Visitors? Yes, from many parts of the country and the world--not only from Utah and adjoining three States, but from Florida, Germany, Austria, Hawaii, ~'lashington DC, New York alJlrl Minnesot·a. Does that give you an idea for )Our plans for next Summer? Thei1- comments about "the most beautiful church in the world" make you not want to wait until next Summer? • • • And that reminds mel we still have the cQ10red post cards of the church interior--sorry, but we have to get 15¢ each, in any quantity. FR LIEBLER SAYSI I've been doing a bit of ~isiting myself, thanks to kindness of some friends-spent the greater part of June on the East coast--first in Connecticut where I had the pleasure of spending my time in myoId home in Riverside as guest of the present owners, Mr. and Mrs. Miles Trumble, offering Mass daily in myoId church in Old GreenwichJ. ~hen hopped.a plane for Florida with all-too-short stop-over in l'lashington ::1;,0 ehat with reJ,.atives and our old friend, Clyde Stovall, and so to Florida where time was divided between families of three sons. Home on the last d~y of June • . ' I' My co-workers here had not' been idle. Fr Hultgren offered Mass while I was away and the congregat~o,ns ,l].eld up bravely. Years of irrigation have ·'paid off"--for the first time since we planted the trees there was no ki~ling . frost to nip the blossoms and we had bushels of apricots and peaches. 'I( .only canning jars were availablel But we wasted nothing--even drying much· fruit. " . ~ |