On July 20, 2017, our Knights provided a fried chicken dinner in Little Rock for our homeless vets. We were assisted by the American Legion of HSV.  Thank you 4th Degree Knights and parishioners who helped with this worthy endeavor.

St. Francis House Dinner July 20

St. Francis House Dinner July 20

Blind Bowling Camp 2017

Once again, the Knights of Council 10208 who helped with this magnificent event had a great time with the campers this year.  The camp hosted 68 campers with 56 of them coming to Fiesta Bowl at least once during the first four days.  On the fifth day the top sixteen bowlers had a roll-off to establish who among them earned the bragging rights.

We had a good turnout of volunteers consisting of: 19 Knights, ten spouses, three relatives and also eight members of the Lion’s Club.

 Our event coordinator, Mike Frantz, received  a “Thank You” from many of the bowlers and volunteers alike, and he offers his sincere appreciation to each and every one who contributed to this successful event.  

Bernie and Marilyn Bauers

Deacon Bernie is one of the kindest gentlemen that I have ever met. Of course he is a charter member of our Knights of Columbus Council 10208. Deacon Bernie is much more than that. He served our Parish and our Community with honor for over 25 years. He still came to Cortez golf course for his regular round of golf with Dale Hamby, where everyone loved and admired him. There is no one that has ever had anything but kind words to say about Deacon Bernie. He is what we all strive to be; the light of Christ to everyone that we come in contact with in an often darkened world. 

Deacon Bernie, we all wish you and Marilyn the peace that belies all understandin, the peace of Christ, all you enter the next stage of your pilgrimage on this earth.

Awards for Council 10208

On a rainy, stormy night in Ft. Smith on Saturday April 29, a years worth of effort, hard work, and team execution paid off for Council 10208.  The Council received the Church Award for the outstanding efforts in one of the order's main missions, Building the Domestic Church.  Next was the Family Life Award, for the oustanding work in the area of Pro-Life; from protecting the unborn, to ministering to those living in our midst who are most in need.  Then came the CPID award, for the Councils outstanding fund raising for Children with Intellectual Disabilities.  Roughly $26,000 was raised by many dedicated Brother Knights.  Finally, the culmantion of it all, was the Large Council of the Year Award.  This prestigious award was well earned, and a tribute to the leadership and team work of this Council in all areas.

These awards of course as wonderful as they can be to receive, are only the superficial; the much deeper and more meaningul reward are those kind smiles and thank you's of all the lives that this Council touches each year.  The lives made so much better by so many works of mercy, genrosity, and love.

A huge salute to Council10208 as they continue to spread Chirsts message to the this community and to the world!

Sister Isabel Alontaga

Cebu, central Phiilipines is not unlike many cities in the United States. It is crowded, people walking, shopping, many food vendors line the streets. At night the "Red Light" district in the east part of the city becomes increasingly crowded. Again, while clearly immoral and wrong, not unlike so many American cities. The biggest difference? Many of these "working ladies' should be in middle school.

Now enter Sister Isabel Alontaga and her small band of nuns. These brave ladies form rescue operations alongside the roads in a community called Camagayan, a hotbed for the Fillipino sex trade. These rescue teams consist of up to six nuns, trained volinteer lay people and are part of an Apostolate that reach out to prostituted women and girls. They distribute rosaries; phone numbers where the girls can get help. Most of all they distribute love. They distribute hope.

The groups foundress is a lady named Coazon Salazar who started the Apostolate in 1996 as a lay woman. In 2000, it was officially established as Mary Queen of Heaven Missionaries by Cardinal (retired) Ricardo Vidal. In 2003, Ms Salazar, was an officially professed Sister and the order was canonically erected as a Public Association of the Faithful.

The Mission of this order is to "seek the lost and fallen by the wayside, and work to bring them back to the bosom of the Father so that there may be one flock under one Shephard",

It seems to me that is exactly what we try to do as Brother Knights. Let us pray that this mission be successful so that all innocence lost will somehow be found again, and that no child shall have to lead a life of prostituion, or indentured labor of any kind.

Pope Francis

After the Sabbath, as the first day of the week was dawning, Mary Magdalene and the other Mary went to see the tomb” (Mt 28:1). We can picture them as they went on their way... They walked like people going to a cemetery, with uncertain and weary steps, like those who find it hard to believe that this is how it all ended. We can picture their faces, pale and tearful. And their question: can Love have truly died? Unlike the disciples, the women are present – just as they had been present as the Master breathed his last on the cross, and then, with Joseph of Arimathea, as he was laid in the tomb. Two women who did not run away, who remained steadfast, who faced life as it is and who knew the bitter taste of injustice. We see them there, before the tomb, filled with grief but equally incapable of accepting that things must always end this way.