38) DATE: 17 February 2008 Second Sunday in Lent!
TO: My Son, OSB/SNDdeN, Extended Family, Friends and Strangers- No- Longer!
(This is the latest edition of ‘Happenings’ that I send periodically about my tendings and doings! It is a link on my Web of Gratefulness www.leadkindlylight.net that speaks to my little way of posting information! So many good things to do, to tend…the vineyard is indeed a beautiful place, row by row!
May the souls of the faithful departed through the mercy of God rest in peace! Amen!
+ My son, Antoine, gave to his MAMA THE most beautiful and perfect of Christmas gifts 2007! Please see his new Main Page offered at www.leadkindlight.net and enjoy the new current web address!
‘Sayings of Mom and Dad!’ ~ # 650!!!…eight years to date!!
‘Remembrances of Mom and Dad!’ ~ always writing as Arthur Avenue continues to give!
“I’ve Been Thinking!’ ~ always ‘thinkin!’
‘Room by Room!’ of Arthur Avenue ~ text and photos! Special link indeed!! This is what all visitors, especially Silent Retreatants, marvel in while reading everything and ask beaucoup questions to boot!! They also love this home and return when they can!
‘Songs! Recipes! Prayers!’ ~ new main page with links for text!
“Where Are My Keys and Let’s Go” ~ current schedule/information of the LA Choral Foundation/Masterworks Chorale performances!
‘Hensgens Family Chronicle’ ~ updated data and stories!
‘Lead, Kindly Light’ Diocesan Television Segment!’ ~ listing of guest/airing dates of 414 interviews, 18 years and counting!
‘Read! Read! Read!’ ~ continue to add ‘Monastic Spirituality’ titles, 60 to date!
+ Christmas 2007 was as a family stated, ‘the best since MawMaw died!” I couldn’t agree more in that time, faith, reason and truth all incarnated by doing ‘good and right works’ for others is a healing balm! Our Tulane Santa Claus was perfect; amazing how he knew everyone in the room! The snow village was a great delight for the little/big ones while many visited in front of her in the back room. The refurbished upstairs was enjoyed by all as all had experienced her! Our gravesite visit on the choral hayride as we sang ‘The Family Song’ is always a very solemn moment! Visiting with The LaPoints in their beautiful home on the lake with glass windows offering the total southern exposure to the placid winter water was poignant. The gumbo was a-plenty, vintage records played and we danced as the stories flew as once more we gathered in our ancestral home which is a privilege which few others are sincerely able to enjoy and cherish in this world of ours. We are so very blessed to have access to ours! Thank you brothers two!
+ The Carmelites of New Orleans, LA, Sr. Lawrence Habetz, my first cousin and Conciliar Board members, will once again rest and work and rest on Arthur Avenue June 2008! This year they will receive as gift a wonderful boat tour on a 60 ft. gloriously equipped houseboat arranged by my brother, Dominique Joseph! Pork Jambalaya and conversation surrounded by the beauty of our own backyard on the water will refresh and renew the spirits of all aboard! Plate lunches will be home delivered and the vintage bicycle tires are pumped and ready! And, the record player is ready for the vintage record collection hour!
+ Arthur Avenue is poised for a new coat of paint; especially the upstairs STAIRWELL; she will shine after beaucoup years (104!) of endurance in the heat and cold as she has experienced a rebirth! She now has a modulated temperature setting and awaits Reverend Mother/O.Carm as this is her cell/suite! A wonderfully generous couple from Lake Arthur presented a special surprise gift to me for Christmas 2007! As the wife had attended a Silent Retreat in 2007, she journeyed home and requested of her husband to make a special gift. A ‘Prie-Dieu’ or ‘Kneeler’ was crafted by his hands made of 200 year old cypress that had rested on the bottom of the lake! Eleven pieces were meticulously handcrafted to form the kneeler and she sewed the kneeling cushion of perfect purple! It is exquisite and sits in Rev. Mother’s room facing the window with my mother’s prayer book ever-ready for supplication and thanksgiving!! I am still in awe and ever so grateful for such a labor of love!
+ Shoot! Due to a convergence of deadlines, travel, Silent Retreat scheduling and events the Broussard/Miller Family Reunion to be held on Arthur Avenue has been postponed; could-it-be till Fall 2009?! We’ll see! Just keep gathering names, addresses/emails and numbers in the meantime as some of the computer data work has commenced.
+ Last month, Suzanne Louise, my youngest niece summoned her Aunt Bette to her school for Catholic School Week in Jennings, LA. It was a box lunch affair and I told her father, Dominique that I would gather up the food! Well, they just didn’t specify how large the boxes should be so after a trip to the Deli and a gift for she and her teacher from the hospital gift shop, I showed up in my pink top post-hospital Eucharistic Ministry duty! Well, there was food for All the children who were still hungry after their lunch to include a popcorn ball which she shared with Adam Berken and a complete salad for Aunt Becky Liprie! Too cute!! (I spotted a Mom ‘dining’ on a blanket with a wicker basket and another had hot soup in a ceramic mug with unique crackers for dipping…just wait till next year! I’ll pack little stools as that gym floor is hard on her dad and I!!) Her friends wanted to know if her ‘cool grandmother’ was coming, the one that threw the football with them and sang songs!! O, the years, how fast they fly and how lovely they are!
+ As my 60th year recently came upon me, I discerned how I wanted to mark this pivotal apex!
I opened a personal ‘Special Collections’ at the Archives and Special Collections Department of Frazer Memorial Library at McNeese State University! There are many of my Diocesan Television interviews on DVDs there as well as ‘Binders’ on the list that will eventually be brought to the ‘Collection’ after my death; 150 of them and counting! There are Journals and Binders from 1963 age 16 forward, 44 years of tending to date! Hectór and Antoine will not have to sift through paper as all are in my working Binders with labels and catagorized!!! I can’t wait to serve in an even greater capacity as The Father leads kindly and consistently! To teach my Silent Retreat Series online is a goal I am striving toward to at least age 93, 2040!!!
+ Ash Wednesday Antoine called from Raleigh, NC where he resides and labors to say that he had just attended Services at The Sacred Heart Cathedral a five minute walk with his friends from The Flying Saucer Bar and Grill, the neighborhood place! Yep, he stated that he had invited the bartenders to Services with him, ashes and all and all were standing in line to donate blood at the blood bus! Don’t ya just love it…fill those pews during symbolic liturgical seasons then give your blood for a great cause and maybe they’ll return for years to come! Who could pass up an invitation like that?! The Father must be a-smiling and nodding! That is conversation for us at The Saucer over a Chimay, a Trappist Belgium beer, blessed I’m sure but only a 3 oz serving…heading to Raleigh next month and then we drive up to Trinity College in Washington, D.C. for a visit with my Sisters of Notre Dame de Namur and our Associates group meeting while Antoine tours the city he spent five wonderful years experiencing, age 1-6!
+ Spent a wonderful weekend last with Cecil Zaunbrecher and Joyce Habetz in San Antonio, TX visiting with Sr. Marie Habetz at Our Lady of the Lake University and Convent of the Sisters of Divine Providence. I was enrolled at OLLU five days after my brother and sister drowned in 1965 but had to return home. Within a few months I have been so happy to be with my religious Sisters in Jonesboro, Arkansas, San Antonio, TX and soon D.C.! Antoine hasn’t been with my SND’s since he was six and we were departing D.C. to retire in Lake Charles, LA!! Will be quite the reunion! Hectórs’ Translating schedule is full; good thing as there are miles to go before we sleep! He goes to Puerto Rico this Spring for his 50th University reunion and a long visit with his Mom, age 93!!!
LEAD, KINDLY LIGHT!
39) DATE: 13 June 2008, St. Anthony of Padua, my son’s Feast Day!!
TO: My Son, OSB/SNDdeN, Most Reverend Bishop/s, Clergy, Extended Family, Friends of Old and Strangers- No- Longer!
FROM: Anna ‘Bernadette’ Monlezun-Pontón, Homemaker!
(This is the latest edition of ‘Happenings’ that I send periodically…it is a link on my Web of Gratefulness www.leadkindlylight.net that speaks to my little way of posting actions taken!! So many good things to do, to read, tend…The Vineyard is indeed a beautiful place, row by row!)
(May the Father, By His Grace, lift the hearts, mind and souls of the ill, the dying, the lost and forsaken!)
1+ Five thousand military personnel and families were invited to Raleigh, NC for a “Support the Troops” blitz three blocks from Antoine’s downtown condo!!! (I had visited earlier with a planned trip to D.C.!) Hectór and Antoine (husband and son!) saw it all as Antoine was involved as Marketing and Events Coordinator/downtownraleigh.com with a real estate agency in and the execution of the planning stages right up to the super-sized event and right down to seats next to the reviewing stand! A squadron of four F-15E Strike Eagles flew the skies over the city right on the money, the Army Fife and Drum Corps fifed by, tanks, columns of soldiers, military bands…the photo CD lumps the throat!! My ‘men’ toured the displays on the grounds of the state capitol with the latest weaponry, technological advances galore especially in the helmets and uniform, all the while meeting Antoine’s friends galore! I had ordered two kaki visors printed with the lettering of Hectór’s battalion ~ USA-RET 173d ABN BDE; was also printed on Antoine’s with the addition ~ That’s My Dad! The next day Antoine was in the choir loft for Mass with his Dad in the pew!! What memories made with his Dad that served thirty-six years the world over in an Army uniform in the service of our country! God bless America and the world over as we send aid to every known strife and conflict perpetrated either by Mother Nature or the worst in the fallen nature of humanity.
2+ The REINERS/Scheufens/Shaffhausen Families are the Highlighted Families for Germanfest 2008!!! ‘Anna’ Gertrude Reiners-Hensgens is my maternal grandmother and to date 801 ancestors and descendants have been entered into the ‘Reiners Family Tree Maker” from Theodor Reiners, Generation One to Generation Twelve 1722 to 2008, with many to tract and input!! As with the ‘Hensgens’ Family 2007 all will be printed, photos reproduced/framed and will be on display under the ‘Highlighted Families Tent’ at Germanfest October 4 & 5, 2008 in Roberts Cove, LA! You are invited to www.leadkindlylight.net/A_HFC_Main_Page.htm for more information; scanning of pics and text is ongoing! (The Dugruise/Thibodaux, LA wedding found cousins swapping stories galore!) It is a fascinating privilege and honor to research, gather, seek out and share this genealogy. I simply love the work and with my paternal cousin, Renee and her very capable and untiring assistance we are able to cover untold electronic miles on this side of Germany. Many are looking forward to the Roberts Cove Heritage Tour 2010 to The Westphalia region of Germany to connect even more dots and uplink for all the descendants…forever just a click away!!
3+ The second annual Sing-Along of Lake Arthur-Friends-of-Old on Arthur Avenue, my ancestral home of origin in Lake Arthur, LA was held and the music filled the rafters, newly painted as they are!! Food, punch and song flowed for hours! Guests toured the home and delighted in her history especially the ‘Family Walls’ and upstairs! Dominique, my youngest of six brothers, with his daughter proudly gazing upon him, sang his wonderful Louisiana Medley which many attendees had never heard! They were thrilled and heartily approved with a hearty round of applause which was welcomed as his fingers were a hurtin’ red not having tickled the guitar strings in many a moon! (He just called to share the grand news; he is the newly elected president of the ‘LA Propane Gas Association!’ Congratulations on a well deserved honor; member 1985 to present and beyond! Your bio for statewide news distribution has already been written Mr. President ~ it is on ‘The Family Wall’, Lake Arthur Butane Co. in Lake Charles!!!)
4+ The Sisters of Mount Carmel once again spent a week on Arthur Avenue for their annual retreat and conciliar board meeting. Dominique arranged a relaxing boat ride down/up the river and while out video was taken of my paternal great-grandfathers original homestead on this river of old!! Jambalaya and fixins flowed, Hectór piloted Captain Cormiers’ 60’ luxurious houseboat not a sailboat(!), Sr. Lawrence Habetz, first cousin, and Dominique had a wonderful visit, the Sisters sat on the upper deck and took it all in while in a state of blissful peace as a perfect ending to their day of retreat. Fr. Charles McMillan celebrated Mass in the living room of Arthur Avenue with the ‘Mother of Divine Tenderness’ icon smiling down on them painted by their own Sr. Catherine Martin! Father spoke to the topic of ‘pausing!’ The home receives many a pilgrim who pause, read and now know another way to share ones historical records, photo, stories, memorabilia…heritage in bricks and mortar all the way to the internet one day at a time!
www.leadkindlylight.net/RoombyRoom.htm (Thank you brothers two!)
The home is being tended by paint, trim, cleaning, lighting, rugs, optimal like things with like things of my parents for Silent Retreats and guests all the while preserving and protecting the integrity of her history and age! Renee (99.9%!) and I painted the kitchen White Coffee, White Dove on the 104 year old cypress door surrounds and a ‘Blessed Mother Blue’ in the kitchen nook. All ceilings/stairwell are next and she will be poised for another 104 + years of welcoming all sojourners to her doorstep which now has a railing!! She even has a new-old oak rocker in the Blue Nook!!! As Caretaker I truly love tending her treasures especially the Heritage Walls with labels as I go through the years of paper and vintage photos which are placed in a Binder, scanned into my website then up on the Wall they go!!...just a click away for a very long time as there is a whole lot of paper!!! (Note: CHRISTUS St Patrick Hospital/Marketing scheduled two Silent Retreats!!)
5+ Daily I utilize my contemplative lifestyle to work a myriad of ministries the latest being…
a phone call from Joan Benoit-Mandola of Houston, TX and other alums of St. Maria Goretti Catholic School…are interested in the Oblate program of the Olivetan Benedictines of Holy Angels Convent in Jonesboro, AR. This raised up while working with them for the ‘St. Maria Goretti Special Collection’ at the McNeese State University Archives/Library. How wonderful as many have never forgotten the clergy and religious that formed them in the early years and seeing the photo of the ‘Goretti’ sisters at my November 2007 Oblation at the convent ignited their interest and connection! He Leads Kindly and consistently!! I send them all to
www.leadkindlylight.net/Heritage_Center_and_Archival_Special_Collections.htm
‘Silent Retreat Series’ and ‘Read! Read! Read!’ www.leadkindlylight.net
6+ In that my Diocesan television segment, ‘Lead, Kindly Light’ www.leadkindlylight.net/LKL_Television_Segment.htm has led to membership on The Diocese of Lake Charles Communications Advisory Board I am enjoying once again an active interest in my diocese through the synergism encapsulating her electronic and print media. I recently began a ‘Wiring Diagram’ Binder…a way of thinking/reading about Mother Church/ The Vineyard from the Vatican down to the mission parishes in Cameron Parish!! (Read Vatican Information Services (VIS) at www.vatican.va for a global scope view…with a cup of coffee!!!)
7+ LA Choral Foundations’ Masterworks Chorale and the Lake Charles Community Band ‘Where Are My Keys and Let’s Go!’ www.leadkindlylight.net will be a part of the 4th of July “Red White Blue and You Celebration” in the amphitheater on the grounds of the LC Civic Center! We have been in fervent rehearsals every Monday night and it is another way to live a vital vein of the monastic life ~ music!! It will be an evening concert where we lift our voices in gratefulness just before the Fireworks Extravaganza!!! LEAD, KINDLY LIGHT!
In conclusion…updated and current main page of…‘HAPPENINGS’ www.leadkindlylight.net
After 14 months of ‘handing her up,’ our mother died on Tuesday
28 November 2000. She and my father, also deceased, gathered their children and extended families around them throughout their very full and active lives.
Mom was from a large family and birthed a large family! I began to write for my heart was full of love and, as always, my hands ready to assist my own.
On March 10, 2007 (#34) a strategic strike was made through the scope of the Greater Families, paternal and maternal, clarion call to gather!
This has created a tremendous focus on genealogy, the tracking of data and the living maintenance of all my links into this Web of Gratefulness!
In that these extended families are large and living very active lives in many different countries, states, cities and towns this site has raised up to be a delightful medium in which to communicate an encapsulation of my little way of posting actions taken!!
So many good and right things to do, to read, tend; The Vineyard is indeed, by His grace, a beautiful place, row by row filled with awe and wonder!
This state of gratefulness and electronic faithfulness (!) has also entered the communications stream of many dear people who have certainly influenced my life;
it is a privilege to be in yours.
It is here for ‘My Son, Olivetan Benedictine Sisters and Sisters of Notre Dame de Namur (OSB/SNDdeN), Most Reverend Bishop, Clergy, Extended Family, Friends of Old and Strangers-No-Longer
Enjoy and pray forward in your very own lives! Everybody wins!
Lead, Kindly Light!
Anna ‘Bernadette’ Monlezun-Pontón, eldest daughter, fourth child of ten children.
40) This compilation was written on 31 July 2008 on the 23rd anniversary of Dad’s death but sent to you in celebration in one week of the 67thwedding anniversary of Mom and Dad, 13 August 2008! Blessed Day on this the Feast of the Transfiguration! How appropriate!!
(Now I must go and tend the Reiners Family Chronicle data for Germanfest 2008!!!)
Dear Brothers Two,
(also Most Rev. Bishops Speyrer, Emeritus, my high school religion teacher (!) and Provost (LA) and the ‘Goretti Sisters’ (AR)!)
In organizing part of the 'Goretti Collection' in The Back Room on Arthur Avenue, I recently wrote a compilation of data…see below! It hangs on the wall next to the 'St. Maria Goretti Special Collection' along with a list of the ‘Goretti Sisters’ who served over the years. Thank you, Brothers Two, for our ancestral home where many folk are learning and embracing as a family matrix in artifacts, memorabilia, photos, paper and precious objects all shared for others. I wish I could send you every comment, tear, prayer or note of gratefulness from others! Know that you are stalwart stewards and your Caretaker, diligently take care in preserving the home through the stories in gratitude, respect and awe of our parents. We are the living spirit of those who have gone before and because we can and so desire, we gather, preserve and make relevant at Arthur Avenue through the “Lee Joseph, Sr. and Anna ‘Gertrude’ Hensgens-Monlezun Business and Domestic Collection!!”
Enjoy!!! You’re encapsulated in the data!!
www.leadkindlylight.net Sayings/Remembrances/Room by Room, etc. always added to!
(Post-Germanfest is ‘Place-Based Education’ on Arthur Avenue for teachers & school children!)
Our parents sacrificed for their children’s Catholic education:
…at a simultaneous juncture they had 5 children in 3 different schools!
1. Immaculata Minor Seminary, Lafayette, LA: 3 sons at the same time!
2. St. Maria Goretti Catholic Elementary and High School, Lake Arthur, LA
(1956-1989): 6 children in a row!
3. Notre Dame Major Seminary, New Orleans, LA: 1 son
4. Congregation of the Sisters of Divine Providence,
Aspirancy Program, Castroville, TX: 1 daughter
5. Our Lady of the Lake College, San Antonio, TX, summer session 1965: 1 daughter
(6. Trinity College (1985-1988) with Adjunct Professors from the
Catholic University of America and the Dominican Seminary/House of Studies,
Washington D.C. ~ same daughter!)
www.leadkindlylight.net click ‘Silent Retreat Series!’
www.leadkindlylight.net click ‘Read! Read! Read!’
Their children’s children are receiving a Catholic education:
- Immaculate Conception Cathedral Elementary School, Lake Charles, LA
2. Our Lady Queen of Heaven Elementary School, Lake Charles, LA
3. St. Peter Inter-parish Catholic School, Washington, DC
4. Our Lady Immaculate Elementary School, Jennings, LA
- Carencro Catholic Elementary School, Carencro, LA
- Saint Louis Catholic High School, Lake Charles, LA
- Tuerlings Catholic High School, Lafayette, LA
- Loyola University Law School, New Orleans, LA
In gratitude for the genesis sacrifice of my parents where six of their children attended elementary and high school, I opened on November 5, 2004 the
‘Saint Maria Goretti Catholic School Special Collections’ with the
McNeese State University Library Archives and Special Collections Department,
Lake Charles, LA
www.leadkindlylight.net/Heritage and Archival Special Collections
(In gratefulness to and respect of Rev. Harry Pelous, Diocese of Lafayette, LA
Founder…R.I.P. Dear One!)
Part of the ‘Special Collection’ is exhibited here. (Our ancestral home!)
The treasures are slowly finding their way to the ‘Collection’ as the word spreads.
Many of these treasures were recently gathered with the permission of one of the family owners of the SMG Catholic School Corporation just prior to the elementary school being razed during this the summer of 2008!
…the march and tradition in the values, spirit and faith of our ancestors continue…an updated composite of ‘Remembrances’ #39!!
In the Post-Conciliar church, Mom and Dad were two of the first Eucharistic Ministers commissioned in Our Lady of the Lake church parish in Lake Arthur, LA. Constance Victoria and Victor Wayne followed soon afterwards and were commissioned as Eucharistic Ministers and Cantor as charter members of Our Lady Queen of Heaven’s (OLQH) Family Choir along with their children in Lake Charles, LA.
Post-military retirement in 1988 Héctor Rafael, myself and Antoine Adolfo became members of the OLQH Family Choir. In 1983 while residing in Springfield, VA (and as members of St. Bernadette parish (!), I began facilitating in my home/s a Silent Retreat Day teaching the ‘Dailiness of Prayer’, ‘Ordering the Home’ and ‘Time Management with a Christian Perspective’; the first weekend of January 2001 after the death of our last parent, I requested of my siblings that I move this ‘Silent Retreat Day’ to our ancestral home of origin, as this is the genesis home and, permission was granted! To date, a total of 621 men, women and young adults have attended this special day, 210 persons on Arthur Avenue! While stationed in Washington, D.C., my pastor of St. Dominic (!) parish, invited me to attend Trinity College 1985-1988 and take advantage of an innovative curriculum of study called “Education for Parish Service” designed to enable men, women and young adults to contribute more effectively to the work of evangelization by providing opportunities for spiritual development, high level instruction in theology, scripture, Church history and methodology for evangelization. Classes commenced three weeks after Dad died! During those years I was humbled to be commissioned as Lector, Eucharistic Minister, Cantor, Wake Service and Communion Service Facilitator in the chapel at the Chancery, Archdiocese of Washington, D.C.
Dominique Joseph www.lakearthurbutane.com and Tina Louise were commissioned as Eucharistic Ministers at Our Lady of the Lake church parish in Lake Arthur, LA where it all began! Dominique Joseph also serves as a parish usher (Minister of Hospitality!) and is a member of Our Lady Immaculate School Board in Jennings, LA doing this the tenure of all three children! They have purchased a second home in Lake Charles, LA in order that their three children can attend St. Louis Catholic High School and for them to be together on the weekends as our parents before us!
Since April 24, 2001 I joyfully serve as a Minister of Holy Communion every Thursday and many Sundays at CHRISTUS St. Patrick Hospital as well as hold membership in the Catholic Daughters and Altar Society in OLQH parish and on July 19, 1998, along with Constance Victoria and Ione Marie, joined the Altar Society as lifetime members of St. Leo 1V Catholic Church, Roberts Cove, LA during their Ladies Altar Society Centennial Celebration Mass with Mom in attendance. My medal along with hers and her mothers rest on the Hensgens Wall on Arthur Avenue; her mother was a member of the Altar Society, a Catholic Daughter and charter member and Director of the church choir! In December 2000, I received from the hand of Most Rev. Bishop Jude Speyrer, the Knights of St. Gregory the Great Diocese of Lake Charles Chapter ‘The Distinction of Monsignor DeBlanc Fellow Award’ in “recognition of outstanding contributions to church and neighbor without material recompense and whose life and work bring honor to the international community of mankind.”
Daddy, Lee Joseph, Jr. www.monlezun.com Héctor Rafael, Dominique Joseph and my nephew, Kade Joel, are members of the wonderful Knights of Columbus! Lee Joseph, Jr. was President of the Newman Club (Young Adult Catholic Organization) while in college, Robert Joseph, Jr. attended a Cursillo! My six brothers were altar boys and in this next generation- Whitney Pierre, lll, Branton Heath, Sye Joseph, Antoine Adolfo, Joseph Wayne as well as Dominique Joseph, Jr. (Nique), Christian Joseph and the 18th of 18 grandchildren, Suzanne Louise are commissioned altar servers! Also in this next generation, John David, Christ the King Parish in Lake Charles, LA, Katherine Anne while in college in Baton Rouge and presently and Antoine Adolfo, Jesus the Good Shepherd Parish while in college in Monroe, LA are commissioned Eucharistic Ministers. Antoine sponsored and shepherded at Sunday Mass two friends who converted to Roman Catholicism through his church parishes’ Rite of Christian Initiation of Adults (R.C.I.A.) during his junior and senior year of college!
Nique is the founder and outgoing president of Tulane Students for Life Tulane’s University campus, New Orleans, LA. (As of May 2009 he is the Louisiana Students for Life Executive President and works on national policy and legislation in Washington, D.C. with the Students for Life of America’s national office!) Katherine Anne and husband David Charles Dawson, Jr., on faculty at St. John Catholic High School, have recently begun hosting “Catholic Relationships” a one hour weekly Catholic Radio Talk Show in Plaquemine, LA!’ www.catholiccommunityradio.com. Antoine sings baritone in the Sacred Heart Cathedral Choir, downtown Raleigh, N.C. and is readying to sing with the chorus for ‘Handels’ Messiah’ on the campus of Duke University December 2009! Madison Claire was an active member of the ‘Pro-Life’ Organization at St. Louis Catholic High School prior to graduation May 2009!
I am in my 18th year as Anchor of the Diocese of Lake Charles, LA Catholic television segment, “Lead, Kindly Light!” www.leadkindlight.net/Lead Kindly Light Diocesan Television Segment which commenced during the tenure of Bishop Jude Speyrer, my high school religion teacher! And, in November 2007 was commissioned as a Benedictine Oblate/Rule of Benedict, Obl/RB, Holy Angels Convent, Jonesboro, AR with the Goretti Olivetan Benedictines Sisters!!!”
(3 May 2009, I was commissioned as an Associate with the Congregation of Divine Providence, San Antonio, TX 50 years after I entered their Aspirancy program to become a religious! My Prayer Partner is Sr. Mildred Leonard, CDP residing in Lafayette, LA whose grandmother ‘Katharina’ was Grandpa Joseph Hensgens eldest sister!!!))
…and this is just what I am aware of and remember for this compilation! I trust there is much silent, prayerful and faithful ministry being faithfully administered known only to the servant and tucked in the Sacred and Immaculate Hearts!! This march of servanthood witness continues all the way to and beyond eternal life…O, the power of wholistic healthy witness!
Our German Ancestors Have Prayed Us Forward Since 1694 and those seeds
of faithful study and gratefulness take root! Boy, do they take root!! By His Grace!
Anna ‘Bernadette’ Monlezun-Pontón, fourth child, eldest daughter of ten children!
July 31, 2008 the twenty-third anniversary of Dad’s death.
Received 4 August 2008 “…Thanks for all the information in this email! It's amazing how much the Catholic Church has grown because of your parents and their sacrifices. Thanks for taking the time to document all that…I was shocked to learn that Goretti (elementary) school was razed in the summer of 2008, but not surprised. The last time I saw it, it was in pretty bad shape, but I guess I just hoped that somehow it could survive and be used for some other good purpose. That's really the end of an era! But, life is full of letting go of the past and this is just one more example of that. The good work that went on there will live on in the next generations.” Sister Eileen Schneider, OSB ~ My OBL/OSB Prayer Partner assigned November 2007!!!
Indeed, Sister! Indeed!
41) DATE: Tuesday, 7 October 2008, Our Lady of the Rosary!
FROM: Anna ‘Bernadette’ Monlezun-Pontón, Homemaker!
TO: My Son, OSB/SNDdeN, Most Reverend Bishop/s, Clergy, Extended Hensgens/Monlezun/Reiners Families, Friends of Old and Strangers- No- Longer!
(This is the latest edition of ‘Happenings’ sent periodically…it is a link on my Web of Gratefulness www.leadkindlylight.net that speaks to my little way of posting actions taken!! So many good things to do, to read, tend…The Vineyard is indeed a beautiful place, row by row!) (May the Father, By His Grace, lift the hearts, mind and souls of the ill, the dying, the marginalized and lost!)
This past weekend was the Roberts Cove Germanfest 2008, a wonderful occasion for annually celebrating the harvest and our Roman Catholic lineage which was one of the primary reasons our German ancestors fled Germany in the 1880’s! “A History of the Germans of Roberts Cove, 1880-2007” by Reinhart Kondert with Genealogy by Lawrence and Mary Reiners-Cramer is the- just-off-the-press sequel to his first book about the German colonization of The Cove. The landscape was immaculate and as Rev. Kevin Bordelon said during his homily, “the grounds of St. Leo’s have become a tent city!’ He also stated …‘culture is the driving force of history’, a quote from John Paul 11 and religion serves as the glue; that peace is Christ; the cross of Christ is the center of gravity which was grasped by the Roberts Cove colonists answering the question, Who am I?... by practicing the core of the faith; keep on doing what you’re doing and seeing what you’re seeing…what is good, truth, right and obligation to neighbor!” Truth passed on and certainly grasped!
Mass participants were members of the Highlighted Families. My sister Constance Victoria and I cantored the verses to ‘So Ein Tag’ as the post-Communion hymn with the Germanfest Choir while cousin Alberta Gertrude Hensgens-Lyons made that keyboard sound like a piece of heaven! As I read the “Prayers of the Faithful’ and looked out at the land and faces of my fore bearers with the flags of Germany and the United States of America dotting the graves in the cemetery it all did indeed form a crux/cross…the church, the Benediction chapel, the church hall/German Heritage Museum! No wonder I enjoy bringing to life and teaching my German/Basque lineage in Roberts Cove and my home of origin in Lake Arthur for it is By His Grace that we are here at all and able to respect and fulfill in gratefulness the prayers of our fore bearers since 1722! This indeed brings a life-long logic and calm to the mind and heart that, we are our ancestors and cannot conceive of a life lived in any other way except to serve our God through others by first studying the faith for ‘to know Him, is to love Him is to serve Him in this world and be happy with Him in the next!’ Faith is a gift and what we do with this gift will be between us and The Father when we stand in front of Him; eternal life in The Light is the compass that points beyond the veil and is forever! We have family on both sides!! How comforting! 'You can take that to the bank'!!!
Attendance under the Family Tent by members of the three Highlighted Families “Reiners, my maternal grandmother/Scheufens/Schaffhausens was crisp, steady, fun and educational. Reiners numbers to date: 1075 individuals, 333 marriages, 244 surnames, 12 generations!! Renée Reina, my paternal cousins’ prodigious computer data work (Reiners Family Tree Maker program) was there for all to connect and, the photographs of the ancestral couples on the family tables and their pioneer home in The Cove were so appreciated. Héctor and I gave her a dirndl as gift in appreciation and you should have seen her beam with humble pride on being an Honorary German, for they have come to love and appreciate her heart and talent for this work!! The stories from the descendants standing around the data tables are always poignant as their remembrances are so fresh, meaningful for today and funny to boot!! It is pure grace to connect the families electronically and in print on that sacred ground; we will have a Hensgens/Reiners table at Germanfest every year with a laptop/scanner to input data, pics and texts from the two families!
We are now pointing to RC Germanfest 2009 where we have been invited to share a ‘Sequential Family Matrix’ Power Point demonstration for all placing photographs and text in 6 data elements. This is the spine for inputting data/pics/text on my website…
www.leadkindlylight.net/A_HFC_Main_Page.htm www.leadkindlylight.net/Reiners_Main_Page.htm Photos of the Hensgens/Reiners Family Walls on Arthur Avenue will be featured along with pics/texts as a way to reverence and preserve the footsteps of the Grands!!! (We also have an idea for Germanfest 2010 ~ Ancestral Period Actors in costume and character with pre-rehearsed scripts walking the Germanfest grounds telling the stories incorporating ULL Departments of History, Theater and Mass Communications for credit!!! Will rest first develop later!)
What a wonderful weekend last and the one approaching celebrating the 40th Reunion of the first grade class of ‘St. Maria Goretti Catholic School’ as organized by Constance Victoria! The Benedictines Sisters will be arriving as well as former teachers, parents and alumnae all able to view the ‘SMG Special Collections’ in the china cabinet area in The Back Room! Constance Victoria has gathered her memorabilia as well as planned tightly and rightly as the attendees, in respect and gratitude, are invited to celebrate their Catholic education through the sacrifice of their parents in conversation, Mass, a parade, stories, food and tours through the home! Renee and I will have the laptop/scanner to input data/pics/text into my websitewww.leadkindlylight.net/HeritageandArchivalSpecialCollectionsMainPage.htm!!! I plan to interview many of the reunion participants for the SMG McNeese Archival Collection; an honor indeed and will become streaming video on the website!! The ‘SMG Catholic School Special Collection’ at the McNeese Archives is benefiting from the donations of artifacts and video of/from the alumnae over time!
And, the Gregorian Chant goes on…!!!!
LEAD, KINDLY LIGHT!
42) Date: 8 December 2008, Feast of the Immaculate Conception!
To: The Extended Monlezun Family
Re: Newest Family Member, Christmas Eve on Arthur Avenue Wednesday
24 December 2008 and a special land purchase!
In gratitude we gather for this annual tradition, begun decades ago by Mom and Dad, and continue by the opening of our home of origin as well as our hearts, especially for the little ones! We are humbled to have the opportunity to celebrate together the Eve of the incarnation of the Word of God made flesh. This is the home where we were made flesh, formed and as part of the ancestral team of foremothers and forefathers, pass it on in gleeful gathering with song, prayer, reading the family walls (!), food, photos taken, choral hayride, gift exchange and swapping stories; as MawMaw would say, “come if you can!” Cousin Anne Broussard-Fautt and grandson will be joining us for the ‘Eve’ as it is also her birthday!! She is so grateful and happy to be with the children of her favorite cousin!! Cousin Anne was pivotal in the 2008 negotiations of the addition of ‘Monlezun land’ by Dominique and Tina in order to acquire, now their total and complete home acreage, for their descendants! After many decades it is in the name of Dominique Monlezun!! Two homes of origin, the original business and original land are currently owned, maintained in bricks-and-mortar (with 3 major family reunions/the 4th in its infancy!) and tracked electronically and in print by members of the Monlezun family!! O, Mon Dieu!!
+ Food/Beverages: Please bring finger foods to serve on the buffet and your beverages.
Chicken and sausage gumbo, rice, crackers & potato salad will once again be delivered by noon ready-to-eat!
+3:00 p.m. ~ Choral Hayride! (Guitars always welcomed)!
+Santa Claus arrives by 5:15 p.m. if the North Pole weather is clear and all request orders have been filled by those busy little St. Louis Catholic High School-elves!!
Thank you Uncles Lee Joseph, Jr. and Dominique Joseph for home and the old red hayride Ford (!), Aunt Sharon for organizing the name-pull, ‘Santa Claus’ as he has fervently practiced his “Ho-Ho-Ho! Also, Robert Dale Istre for preparing/delivery/pick-up of gumbo and fixins, Ricky Berken for the mowing and Cousin Renee for the display of the beautiful snow village in the back room for big and little ones. The five family graves in the cemetery have Christmas flowers in remembrance and gratitude! The paper products are out, Christmas tree is up and on December 27, 2008, MawMaw’s 87th birthday, ‘I put it all back’ for Christmas 2009!
Notations:
+There are a 7:00 pm Christmas Eve and two Midnight Masses that are listed for your scheduling purposes: 1. ‘MawMaws’ choir’ a-singin up a storm in Lake Arthur for midnight Mass, 2. Our Lady of Seven Dolors in Welsh, 7:00 p.m. & 3. ‘Our Lady Queen of Heaven Midnight Mass’ in Lake Charles beginning with a Concert of Carols at 11 p.m.! The Carencro families are definitely in the know of their Mass schedules with all those little & big Monlezun’s wanting to make their way to the manger where Jesus lay!!
Wise ones still seek Him for He Leads O so Steadily! Blessed Advent and Christmas Season!
Lead, Kindly Light! Anna Bernadette
43) DATE: 21 January 2009 ~
Today Nique and Christian Joseph Monlezun arrive in Washington, DC as participants in the MARCH FOR LIFE! Vaya con Dios, Dear Ones!!
TO: My Son and Extended Hensgens/Monlezun/Reiners Families!
FROM: Anna ‘Bernadette’ Monlezun-Pontón
+ Santa Claus 2008 was tall, handsome and knew the names of all the little ones!! How did he know?! He was wonderful having waited a long time (!) and once again we were so happy to welcome him as he culminated glee and glad tidings to all especially as he carries the name ‘Christian’!! To see Madeline Claire’s steady, steely gaze as to just who was this jolly fellow in red and singing Silent Night to Baby Jesus was too-o cute! (Her 10 month photo is up with the others in the Back Room soon to be joined by her cousin and sister at 10 months!!) Merci Beaucoup Santa and until next year, Happy and Safe Senior Year!! There was the rhythm of ebb and flow of food, conversation and reading the labels on Family Walls before and after the choral hayride. It was grand to see Robert and Wanda sitting in the old Ford just a-singing away in that rich baritone! Cousin Anne Fautt, the Birthday Girl enjoyed her cake, one candle, the song and sitting at table enjoying the gumbo as she and her wonderful grandson ‘Clancy’ from Los Angeles, CA chatted with family! Pictures were taken in front of the Miller/Broussard Living Room Wall; Clancy got the home tour and his amazement was palpable and one of sincere awe and appreciation for these are also his people!!
+ The Hensgens Family Reunion is scheduled by the ‘Aunt Frances’ Habetz family for Sunday, June 28, 2009 at the St. Lawrence parish hall in Raymond, LA! (The 2011 Reunion will be hosted by the ‘Uncle Uchie’ Hensgens family to be celebrated in the church hall in Roberts Cove, LA!!!) The Data gathering is in full gear; Cousin Renee has spent an incredible amount of lovin-lovin time inputting: ‘Greater Hensgens EXCEL’ document listing 400-ish (!) members of the Joseph and Anna Gertrude Reiners-Hensgens family ~ mucho data on one document which is always ‘in process’ : Name/DOB/DOD/Mailing Address/Telephones/Email/Website Address/Generation/ Family Data Coordinator.
Updated data ~ With the birth of our ‘Anna Katherine Green’ she is the…
House of Hensgens ~ 3,275th of Generation 12 Total 16 Generations!
House of Hensgens ~ 35th ‘Anna’ and 65th ‘Katherine/Katharina/Catherine’ in 16 Generations!!
House of Reiners ~ 1,100th of Generation 11 Total 12 Generation!
House of Reiners ~ 20th ‘Anna’ and 29th ‘K/Catherine’ of 12 Generations!!
House of Monlezun ~ Generation 9 ~ still counting!!
House of Miller/Broussard ~ Generation 9…just beginning to count…!!
Lee Joseph Sr. and Anna ‘Gertrude’ Hensgens-Monlezun Family December 2008:
42nd Direct Descendant!
14th Great-Grandchild/Direct Descendant!
8th Great-Granddaughter/Direct Descendant! (John Paul Dawson is the 6th Great-Grandson/Direct Descendant!)
Data extracted from the Greater Hensgens/Reiners/Monlezun Family Tree Maker and EXCEL Programs.
+ Just prior to Christmas Suzanne Louise called with the news that she was writing a paper on the history of the Hensgens Family due in February…“Aunt Bette, I really have not appreciated your work at MawMaw and PawPaw’s, BUT I DO NOW!!” She has the website data/photos, the text ‘History of Roberts Cove’, pics of the Hensgens Wall of artifacts and memorabilia!!! She has written 2000 words when only 500 are required; her teacher uttered, “You must be a Monlezun!!!” She, Nique and Christian visited on Fridays during the holidays, as they do all the years long, eating away at the coffee bread while chugging through pre-calculus at the table and yes, for breaks, reading the labels on the Family Walls and asking pertinent questions!! It is wonderfully rewarding
to know that the youngest grandchildren in Lake Arthur to enjoy Mom are the children that continue to drop by, look and read the Family Wall labels taking it all in and telling of the things that remind them of her!! They are so tall and grown up in the home as compared to the era of Mom’s precious time with them! Ah, the march of years...(SHE EARNED A BLUE RIBBON!)
+ FYI ~ Roberts Cove Heritage Tour 2010 to Germany (held every five years) is gearing up (rcht2010@aol.com). I don’t know where I will put all the pics/text that I plan to gather while there!!! Then again, I do for the sequence is in place: Hensgens/Reiners Family Heritage Sequence:
1. Germany: *Data!*Photographs!
2. Hensgens Family Genealogy: *Data!*Photographs!
3. *Wedding!*Ancestral Homes!*Anniversaries!*Family Photographs/Text!
4. *Family History! *Reunions!*Stories/Streaming Video!*Photographs!
5. Necrology: A Register of Deaths*Obituary*Death Cards*Gravestone
+ The German Heritage Museum Board of Directors, Staff and Roberts Cove Friends are scheduled to visit Arthur Avenue for a ‘Tour, Desserts and Coffee’ experience. I cannot wait!! We will have the laptop ready for the perusal of ‘German’ links (and a copy of Suzanne Louises’ paper!!!)
+ ‘Place Based’ Imperial Calcasieu/Acadia Parishes Educational Field Trip for 4th graders on Arthur Avenue begin this quarter. The lesson plan has been written. (While walking the children over to the public library I want to explain the Lake Arthur Health Clinic location as invitation, “if interested in the medical field, please consider Rural Health as an option!!”) While in the library the children could receive a 1904 + history lesson as to the impact of the fishing, oil, trapping, lumber and water way commercial influx on the town of Lake Arthur/the year Arthur Avenue was built.
Silent Retreats are in place for the first quarter of 2009 and as the ceilings on Arthur Avenue are being painted while contemplating the next trip to Raleigh, NC/Puerto Rico tending all the above and many more ‘links’ and life of various ministries … peace I have, my peace I give.
Lead, Kindly Light!
43-A) …for the youngins or not-so-youngins!
Christmas 2008 Treasure Hunt on Arthur Avenue!
(The clues to the questions are found in the ‘Arthur Avenue Rooms’ listed next to the question!)
1) PawPaw and MawMaw Monlezun had how many children. Who is the oldest and who is the youngest?
2) What was MawMaw Monlezun’s last name before she was married? (The Girls’ Bedroom)
3) What was the name of the cow that old PawPaw Antoine Monlezun used his milking stool for?!! (The Living Room)
4) List the musical instrument MawMaw Monlezun liked to play that had red handles; she played many instruments, but this one was special!
(The Front Porch Room)
5) In what year was PawPaw Monlezun named the Knights of Columbus ‘Father of the Year?’ (The Front Porch Room)
6) In what year did PawPaw and MawMaw Monlezun marry? (The Original Bedroom)
7) What was the name of the Catholic School which many of your aunts and uncles attended? (The Back Room)
8) Where are the 4 framed photographs of MawMaw and PawPaws daughters? (The Girl’s Room)
9) How many pictures of MawMaw and PawPaw’s children are hanging just over the sofa in The Back Room?!
10) In which Room is the… Hensgens’ Wall?
…the Monlezun-Peterson Walls?
…the Miller-Broussard Wall?
…the Reiners’ Wall?
…the St. Maria Goretti School Special Collection?
11) What year was MawMaw ‘Catholic Daughter of the Year?’ (The Original Bedroom)
12) Where is PawPaw and MawMaw’s Marriage Certificate and who were the witnesses? (The Kitchen)
13) Where is Old MawMaw Monlezun’s white sweater which she wore for her 100th birthday party? (The Living Room)
14) In which room is a replica of PawPaw Monlezun’s office desk with the fluorescent lamp?
44) Tuesday, 10 February 2009
Anna Bernadette Monlezun-Pontón, A ‘Heritage Home’ with Hensgens and Reiners Family Lineage!!
Eldest daughter of Lee Joseph and Anna ‘Gertrude’ Hensgens-Monlezun
‘Arthur Avenue Heritage Home Tour’ for the German Heritage Museum Group of Roberts Cove, LA ~ Nineteen Souls in Attendance!!
Welcome!
“You have inspired and motivated me for this work by your energy and German sense of work through order, good and right example, love of the ancestors, love of the work and love for our beloved Cove! You are the reason we are here! Mom loved and respected you so!
Now you reside in my heart and are in my daily prayers!
I am humbled and privileged to host you in my ancestral home of origin.”
Thank you for your presence!
This paper for you is my ‘little way’ of tracking family names, photos, stories, memorabilia and reunions in sequence:
‘Hensgen/Reiners Genealogy < >A Family Heritage Sequence!’
GATHER! PRESERVE! MAKE RELEVANT!
WE ARE OUR ANCESTORS! WE’VE BEEN PRAYED FORWARD SINCE 1654!
1. Bricks ‘n mortar: my Monlezun/Hensgens ancestral home in Lake Arthur, LA co-owned by my eldest and youngest brothers and where I am the Caretaker visiting weekly to enjoy and make order!
A) 68+ years of paper and pics are being lovingly sifted through and data inputted into the ‘Greater Hensgens/Reiners Family Tree Maker’ and paper placed in Binders, categorized.
B) ‘Family Walls’ are in the main rooms and are added to over time… www.leadkindlylight.net/RoombyRoom.htm featuring memorabilia, paper, photos, books, artifacts.
2. 2005 ~ Monlezun/Hensgens/Reiners Family Chronicle Website links set up to receive print, pics and data.
3. a. Joseph and Anna Gertrude Reiners-Hensgens Family Reunion April 2007 hosted on Arthur Avenue by the Anna Gertrude Hensgens-Monlezun family/it was our turn!
Below ‘Listings’ are added to the Hensgens data:
“Reunions through 2019-Whose Turn Is It?!”
“Adoptions/Births/Deaths/Marriages”
“Necrology”
b. Highlighted ‘Hensgens Family’ Germanfest October 2007 from 1654: (3,275 names, 982 Marriages, 646 Surnames 19 generations current to February 2009), 575 sheets of paper, 16 vinyl tablecloths, 18 tables! Newspaper articles were written of the Christian Joseph/Tellers descendants family stories. A CD of said data has been presented to the Southwest Genealogical and Historical Library in Lake Charles, LA.
c. ‘Highlighted Reiners Family’ Germanfest 2008 from 1670: 1100 names, 334 marriages, 249 surnames in 12 generations (current to February 2009!)
3. Ongoing scanning of all things Hensgens/Reiners into my website www.leadkindlylight.net/A_HFC_Main_Page.htm www.leadkindlylight.net/Reiners_Main_Page.htm to this day and well into the future.
4. Offer accepted November 2007 to digitize the ‘German Heritage Museum (GHM) Photo Gallery A-Z’ (December 2007 to 24 March 2008) into our database…(2,000 digital photos & 38 batteries!) and burned 3 CDs for the GHM, Lawrence/Mary Reiners- Cramer and myself with zip drives available for German Heritage Museum database/Website as gift!
5. Inputting text/pics as a: A Family Heritage Sequence:
1. Germany: *Data!*Photographs!
2. Hensgens/Reiners Family Genealogy: *Data!*Photographs!
3. *Wedding!*Ancestral Homes!*Anniversaries!*Family Photographs/Text!
4. *Family History! *Reunions! *Stories/Streaming Video! *Photographs!
5. Necrology: A Register of Deaths*Obituary*Death Cards*Gravestone
6. Input into EXCEL Program the entire Hensgens family numbering 400-ish: full names, DOB/DOD, physical address, telephone, email address, generation, date data updated!!
7. Secure annually at Germanfest a ‘Hensgens/Reiners Table’ with electronic and print data shared and welcomed for Additions, Corrections and Deletions!
8. Offer to work with interested pioneer families of Roberts Cove through their ‘Family Data Coordinator’ or any interested family members. They would be invited to bring their family data to us at the German Heritage Museum or we can sit right down at their kitchen tables with our electronics and assist them by showing what can be:
A ‘Family Information Sheet’ to place into an EXCEL spread sheet:
Full names, DOB/DOD, physical address, telephone, email address, generation, data updated!!
Input name/dates into a Family Tree Make program
Set up Binders to receiver all paper and pics with specific categories/tabs
How it looks on a Website!
To share with them that which is in the hopper to upload on my site: ‘Streaming Video’ interviews to date: Lawrence Cramer (2006), Rusty Leonards (2007), and Josie Thevis (2008) aired on the Lake Charles, LA Diocesan Television segment, “Lead, Kindly Light!’ Also interviewed were Kenneth James ‘Kenny Boy’ Hensgens 2008 at the GHM and Ambrose Olinger 2008 interviewed in his home!
9. Network with: a.) Southwest Genealogical and Historical Library in Lake Charles, LA. who has a CD and printed documents of the “Greater Hensgens/Reiners Family Chronicle” and, b.) McNeese State University Library Archives in order to work with the libraries in the Hensgens/Reiners hamlets in Germany through ‘World Libraries/Archives!’ Could it be, we share this Sequencing/Matrix information through their system, as they have a translating capability. All would be made current post annual Roberts Cove Germanfests held the first full weekend every October. Could-it-be: during our annual Germanfest in the German Heritage Museum and at the ‘Hensgens/Reiners Table’ on our laptops with webcam for real time communication with our families in Germany (they are six hours ahead!) especially the younger generations!?! Have the newspaper folk there to capture the magic in the Museum!
Also to be prepared once every five years for the…
10. ‘Roberts Cove Heritage Tours’ where our families can touch once again…1654 to 2010 and utter a prayer on the home soil for all those who have gone before, are with us and who will come after us!
This ordering of paper and photograph has included electronic and print ‘Archival and Special Collections’ 2001 < > 2009:
GATHER! PRESERVE! MAKE RELEVANT!
1. CHRISTUS St. Patrick Hospital Archival Room and Heritage Center 2004
2. Greater Monlezun Family Reunion 2005
3. CSPH Department of Coordinated Care/Hurricane Rita Recovery Binder for Needs - Resources 2005-2007
This catastrophic event set in my mind and set in action at an accelerated pace the urgency of preserving…
4. Msgr. Irving A. DeBlanc Special Collection 2006-2008, MSU Archival Library
5. St. Maria Goretti Catholic School Special Collection 2006, MSU
6. Greater Hensgens Family Reunion, Lake Arthur, LA 2007
7. Reina Family Heritage Room & Web link 2007, “There Are No Artifacts in Cameron Parish!”
8. ‘Hensgens Highlighted Family’ Germanfest 2007
9. Personal Special Collection 2007, 60th Birthday!, MSU
10. German Heritage Museum Photo Gallery on CD, Roberts Cove, LA 2008
11. Family Genealogy Sequence < > A Family Matrix 2008
12. ‘Reiners Highlighted Family’ Germanfest 2008
13. German Heritage Museum Staff and Board February 2009 Tour of Arthur Avenue!!!
14. Invited to present my ‘Family Heritage Sequence’ on PowerPoint in the ‘Folklore Tent’ at Germanfest, Roberts Cove, LA October 3rd & 4th 2009!
January 2001 ~ 2009 “EVENTS ON ARTHUR AVENUE ALL THE YEAR LONG” because I am in the home weekly making order and thinking!!: Silent Retreats, Sing-Alongs, Traditional Family, Christmas Eve Gathering, Greater Family Reunions, High School Homecoming Fiestas and Class Reunions, Order of Carmelite Annual Board Meeting and Retreat, Various Meetings, Special Tours, Retreat Time for ‘Silent Retreat Alums’ as Requested, “Place Based Education Connecting Classrooms and Communities” 4th/ / 5th Graders throughout Acadia, Cameron, Imperial Calcasieu, Jefferson Davis and Vermilion parishes touring the home via a Lesson Plan!!!
Renee Aline Reina, my Italian/French-side-of-the-family-cousin is my stalwart Co-Worker without whom much of this work would still be in its infancy. Thank you Father for this Italian and French worker in your vineyard of tracking family!
ALLUS AUS LIEBE ZU GOTT! ALL FOR THE LOVE OF GOD!
These lovely ladies presented for Arthur Avenue the wonderful gift I am clutching. It is from the German Heritage Museum gift shop and is a
bronze holy water font with two angels in adoration on each side of the cross; made in Italy!
45) DATE: 6 June 2009 In the shadow of Pentecost in the Rich Month of The Most Holy Trinity! Corpus Christi! Sacred Heart of Jesus and the Immaculate Heart of Mary!
FROM: Anna ‘Bernadette’ Monlezun-Pontón, Homemaker!
TO: My Son, Most Reverend Bishop/s, Clergy, C.D.P./O.S.B./S.N.D.de N., Extended Families, Friends of Old and Strangers-No-Longer!
This is the latest edition of ‘Happenings’ sent periodically…it is a link on my Web of Gratefulness www.leadkindlylight.net that speaks to my little way of posting actions taken!! So many good things to do, to read, tend…The Vineyard is indeed a beautiful place, row by row!
+ Throughout my pilgrimage sojourn from entering the Congregation of Divine Providence (CDP) as an Aspirant at Moye High School in Castroville, TX age 14, to elementary and high school under the tutelage of the Olivetan Benedictine Sisters (OSB), Holy Angels Convent, Jonesboro, AR to Trinity University in Washington, DC with the Sisters of Notre Dame de Namur (SNDdN), I have had wonderful religious giants from each of these Orders in my life! Over time special Sisters of all three Congregations have invited me to join them as an Associate or Oblate and in time I have! Particularly poignant point is fifty years later on Sunday May 3, 2009, age 61, I returned to the motherhouse of the Congregation of Divine Providence in San Antonio, TX to be commissioned as an Associate. In 1959 I had returned home from Moye due to homesickness and, after entering Our Lady of the Lake University for my four year term in 1965, the week after my young brother and sister drowned in an accident the day after I graduated from high school, I again returned home due to profound grief. In This Time on Sunday May 3, 2009 I was commissioned in the most beautiful Chapel of the Sacred Heart at Our Lady of the Lake convent in San Antonio, TX and penned by Sr. Maria ‘Gaudentia’ Habetz age 93 of Roberts Cove, LA, the first religious Order in my life whose names I remember first uttered by my mother who received her precious early education at St. Leo’s School in Roberts Cove, LA ~ the names were these ‘Good Sisters’ in whose hands my parents placed me fifty years ago!!
November 2007 I was commissioned as an Oblate at Holy Angels Covent chapel with the ‘Good Sisters’ who continued my formation that was begun in my home by my parents and grandparents; I was commissioned along with Renee A. Reina, my paternal cousin who is the Detail Process Coordinator for many of my ministries! In 1987 age 37 I was first commissioned as an Associate with the Congregation of the Sisters of Notre Dame de Namur, Trinity Chapel in D.C. with my mother, husband and son present. I serve as an Associate/Oblate right where I am writing, teaching and engaged in apostolic action under the milieu of monastic spirituality by living and teaching Prayer, Study, Labor and Service through my Silent Retreat venue of the Dailiness of Prayer, Ordering the Home and Time Management with a Christian Perspective; a contemplative in action of you will! This I have taught for 28 years!! I am content and fulfilled; the only homesickness I experience now is for Home in eternal life one day at a time!!
+ ‘The Medjugorje Message Abides in Him and Is For All!’ ‘Dominique Joseph ‘Nique’ Monlezun, Jr. My Fraternal Nephew!
He is the eldest of two sons, total of three children born to my youngest brother Dominique Joseph and Tina Louise King-Monlezun
Nique has been inspired to write since his pilgrimages to Medjugorje 2008/2009 and I feel humbled to publish his reflections on my website www.leadkindlylight.net/READ_READ_READ.htm
He is a third year honors premedical student at Tulane University in New Orleans, LA, (accepted just this week to Tulane Medical School 2011!) and currently the elected Louisiana Students for Life Executive President. He also works on national policy and legislation in Washington, D.C. with the Students for Life of America.
…part of an introduction on his link…
Aunt Bet!! February 3, 2009
“ …I'm attaching the first installment of reflections. What I have done is write down the reflections as faithfully as I can and then run them by a local Catholic theology college professor or our Dominican priest here at Tulane to ensure that there is nothing in the reflections contrary to the fullness of the Truth safeguarded by Holy Mother Church.
My prayer goes with the reflections that they may serve a little purpose sent from a little heart, as they proclaim the messages of the one whose "heart was pierced so that the thoughts of many may be laid out for [her]." Mary's messages, echoing Jesus' Gospel is what I hope I pass to you now in gratitude for the light you live that shown in Maw-Maw who first taught me to listen to Mary and trust her to lead us to her Jesus Christ, her Son.
Tah-Tah (!) seems to be continuing all the way up till today and slipping into eternity...” [Tah-Tah is a ditty hummed by my mother! I have sort of picked it up!]
Peace, Your nephew, Nique
This is exceptional profound reflective writing and one is sure to be enriched by his depth and perception of The Light that guides him as it is there for all!
Christmas 2008 Nique gave to me a bound copy of his ‘Reflections.’ I have placed this treasure in ‘Reverend Mother’s Room’ upstairs on Arthur Avenue as others read within the quite of her walls…this room was the original bedroom of Nique’s father! Our heavenly Father brings all good things around, for the goodness and generosity of Nique’s father is visited on his son!
Idea:
+Katherine Anne (niece) ~in that you and yours are in Brevard, NC in the sight of the wonderful Anne/David Trufant…could-it-be ~ you and Anne (she is a Christian recording artist!) compose and record a song for Students for Life/Pro-Life!?! 2) could-it-be that Nique comes to know of Camp Kahdalea and Anne’s diocesan contacts in that it is a wonderful retreat site for the Board/Workers/State Presidents for National Students for Life!!
+Nique ~ your three cousins Katherine Anne and Antoine Adolfo are in that D.C./VA/NC corridor as well as Rachel Sherburne (Your maternal grandmothers are sisters!) who resides in Newport News, VA.!! She is Director of Strategic Communication, Military Ministry www.militaryminister.org Rachel.sherburne@militaryministry.org (757-928-7854)! Rachel and Antoine will try to meet for sailing on the Chesapeake this summer before his trip to Australia! Network, children, network; you were all raised the same way and are serving The Father as He leads and inspires as you build up the Kingdom on this side~ Lead, Kindly Light!
+ Well! It is official! I have been invited and I accepted to play ‘GRANNY BASKETBALL!’ I was recruited at the funeral home! I think the lady said that we are called “The Hot Flashes!” As I learn details about scheduled scrimmages I will post on my link “Where Are My Keys and Let’s Go!!!” Friends from the hospital said they would stand in line for tickets all night if they have to and will attend sitting next to Héctor with Margaritas and a Defibrillator!!! Hector said that I must hit the pool and learn to breath; he has also begun purchasing the little bags of Lays potato chips!! Please, before you ask, you must be at least 50 and of the correct gender! Obviously the Granny thing is optional!!
www.leadkindlylight.net/documents/Where_Are_My_Keys_and_Lets_Go_005.pdf
+ Germanfest 2009 in Roberts Cove, LA the first full weekend in October hosts a Folklore Tent for presentations on different and interesting topics. I have been invited to speak to my favorite topic “How To Gather! To Preserve! To Make Relevant! To Sustain a Family Heritage Sequence!” It will be a Power Point presentation of work since 2007 tracking and documenting my Hensgens and Reiners Family Data, Pics and Text on my link, ‘Hensgens/Reiners Family Chronicle’:
www.leadkindlylight.net/Hensgens_Family_History_Reunions_Main_Page_1.htm www.leadkindlylight.net/Reiners_Main_Page.htm You are invited to read Happenings #44 about the wonderful ‘Arthur Avenue Heritage Tour’ enjoyed by the German Heritage Museum Board, Staff and Volunteers of Roberts Cove with photo!
www.leadkindlylight.net/documents/4_Happenings_008.pdf
+ Recently while visiting my son Antoine in Raleigh, NC we attended Sunday Mass where he sings in the choir at the Cathedral of the Sacred Heart in downtown Raleigh! Love that city! After Mass I suggested to Antoine that we invite the Celebrant to bless his recently acquired vehicle and it was arranged. In the rain, Rev. Msgr. Sherba said that he didn’t need his asperges to bless in that the rains would suffice and then said upon approaching the vehicle, “that is a beautiful SUV” and I immediately replied, “Yes and it is pre-possessed!!” Antoine leans forward in that we were in a row under umbrellas and said, “Mom, the word is pre-owned” and leans back again! Msgr., not missing a beat said, “Well! If it is pre-possessed, I’d better hurry and maybe even exorcise it while I’m at it!!!” So ‘The Tank’ is blessed and carrying he and friends safely to and from the Outer Banks on weekends where they sail, dance to this islandy parrot-sound-thing and bike the peninsulas like the Island child he is; born to it by genetics!!! (Héctor is from Puerto Rico!!) ‘The Blessed Tank’ also carries a crew of his network of friends that he has recently organized to deliver Meals on Wheels twice a month!! He was invited to join their Advisory Board of Directors and for their annual fundraiser he was placed in charge of entertainment encompassing the theme of Mardi Gras! He booked a Zydeco Band from the Beach!!
+ Well it couldn’t have been more of a special day then First Friday 1 May 2009 the day of the first Place Based Education on Arthur Avenue and in the Public Library!
‘Arthur Avenue Heritage Home’ in Lake Arthur, LA is on the map, website and in the hearts and minds of the children, teacher, parents, guests and principal who have walked through those precious Heritage Rooms and those who are scheduled through 2012! Tis a true privilege to link the generations through artifacts, photos, text, memorabilia and stories not to mention the bicycles and attic!!
www.leadkindlylight.net/HeritageandArchivalSpecialCollectionsMainPage.htm
www.leadkindlylight.net/ArthurAvenue.htm
From the Lake Arthur Sun Times…Posted May 18, 2009
Bernadette Monlezun-Ponton, Coordinator of Place Based Education on Arthur Avenue and Caretaker of the Arthur Avenue Ancestral Home, executed an informative place based educational day at the Monlezun family home on Arthur Avenue in Lake Arthur on May 1, 2009. Place Based Education utilizes a student’s surroundings and environment to teach subjects across the curriculum.
The experience is designated to heighten the desire to be of service to one’s community because of a strengthened bond with community and family. The myriad of curriculum areas covered include: Social Studies, History, Language Arts, Reading, English, Writing, Art, Civics, and Citizenship.
Mr. Louis Cramer, Principal, and Ms. Carmen Pousson, 4th grade classroom teacher, of
St. Francis Catholic School in Iota provided the eager students for the day’s activities.
Father Clyde Thomas, pastor of Our Lady of the Lake Church, offered a blessing for the day that focused on the holy ground of the ancestral home and the gift of the repository for exploration
found in the library. Dominique Joseph Monlezun who Co-owns the Monlezun home with his brother, Lee Joseph Monlezun, Jr. M.D. was also present for the day’s event.
Available to greet visitors with words and smiles of pride in sharing the beauty of Lake Arthur was Mayor Red Giles, Dr. Linda LeBert-Corbello, Ph.D Director, Jefferson Davis Parish Public Libraries, Marion Fox, Executive Director, Jefferson Davis Economic Development and Tourism Commissions, and Cousin Anne Fautt.
The class was divided into two groups to facilitate a two-part ancestral
experience. One part involved half of the class walking across the street to the Lake Arthur Public Library to view a presentation entitled: “Lake Arthur’s Centennial 2004” by Dr. Virgie
Dronet, Ph.D who presented the evolution and historical framework for the town of Lake Arthur.
The second part of the experience was a tour of the Monlezun family Heritage Home with an emphasis on learning about Family Heritage, Lineage, and Community. The title of the tour
was: “Reverencing Those Who Have Gone Before.” The lovely 109 year old two story home has been ordered to display and depict life in earlier times of the family’s life along with
certain rooms designated to highlight both the paternal and maternal sides of the family dating back to 1694. In the home are artifacts and memorabilia about the family and the community of Lake
Arthur.
As a culmination activity the school children were invited to begin to document
their own family tree from their family lineage. They have planned to continue their study of family heritage and history upon returning to school by interviewing an elder in their family
and documenting all that they have learned.
Fourth grade students of St. Francis School in Iota pose for a class photo on the Old Ford in front of the Monlezun Ancestral Home located at Arthur Avenue, Lake Arthur, Louisiana.
~ A Gentle Reminder to Joseph Hensgens Family Members ~ 14th Reunion Sunday June 28, 2009 in Raymond, LA hosted by the Habetz Family Members! You are invited to bring any Hensgens/Reiners papers, photos or special memory items for the Memory Table and with your permission, we will digitize or scan your treasures right into the Hensgens/Reiners Family Chronicle link right there on site as we will do during Germanfest at the ‘Hensgens/Reiners Table’ on the northwest corner under the Big Tent!
~ The 36th Silent Retreat on Arthur Avenue is scheduled for 12 Home School Moms!!
~The Medical Resource Book was presented to the Cameron Parish School Board Superintendent and RN’s in their schools in Grand Lake, Hackberry, and Grand Chenier, LA. They are now duplicating the Book for students and parents as we will be presenting the Book by Power Point to the parents beginning the new school year August 2009! www.leadkindlylight.net/documents/MRB_MAIN_PAGE.pdf
May the Father, By His Grace, lift the hearts, mind and souls of the ill, the dying and families of the deceased, the marginalized and the lost! To the travelers, “Vaya con Diós!” Lead, Kindly Light!
46. “My Mom the Rural Health Doctor of Nursing Practice”
by Dominique Joseph Monlezun Jr.
As you walk into the waiting room, the tan-leather chairs lining your way to the receptionist window gives the feeling that you just walked into your living room. The receptionist greets you warmly like your mother used to when you would come home from school, “so how was your day today?” As you are led into the exam room, you see the white coat enter the room with a disarming smile and gentle eyes. And you probably would never guess that this nurse in this little rural health clinic earned her Doctorate in Nursing Practice from the nation’s top nursing program.
This is the Lake Arthur Health Clinic, a rural health clinic in Southwest Louisiana, a town of 3000 people operated by Dr. Tina Monlezun, APRN, DNP, BC-FNP. She is a family nurse practitioner who earned her Doctorate in Nursing Practice with a 4.0 GPA from the University of Tennessee Health Science Center in May of 2009. Her doctoral clinical focus is in endocrinology and pediatrics (thesis on Childhood Obesity). This only adds to her already thriving medical practice which Monlezun has owned and operated since 2001 as an L.L.C. with her husband, my Dad.. But to her patients, this advanced degree only confirms what they have been saying for years anyway: “We need to go see Dr. Tina.” This deeply resonates from their hearts of gratefulness.
Dr. Monlezun has completed this cutting edge program while simultaneously working full time as the owner and administrator of the 5000-patient rural medical facility. She has attained this prestigious level after 27 years as a nurse working full-time and attending school full-time. Her eleven employees work alongside Dr. Monlezun providing a coordinated response to complex health economic issues while developing community educational programs and continuous quality improvement programs.
In addition to providing excellent medical care for her patients, Dr. Monlezun serves as the Region III Leader for the Louisiana Action for Healthy Kids and as the past Regional President of the American Heart Association.
Dr. Monlezun got her start after her mother died when she was 13 years old, leaving Monlezun to help care for 8 brothers and sisters. She soon graduated Welsh High School and went on to become a licensed practical nurse at CHRISTUS St. Patrick Hospital. It was not long until she returned to school to become a registered ICU nurse then back to school at University of Louisiana Lafayette for Masters in Nursing, and later a certified Family Nurse Practitioner—all while juggling diapers, checkbooks, and cellular physiology textbooks.
Dr. Monlezun was honored by the Louisiana Association of Nurse Practitioners as the 2003 Entrepreneur of the Year and by McNeese State University as the Most Outstanding Nurse Practitioner Preceptor in 2007.
Tina Louise King-Monlezun is the wife of Dominique Joseph Monlezun and mother to Dominique Joseph, Jr., Christian Joseph and Suzanne Louise. Tina is the daughter of George Monroe and Dorothy Bertrand-King (1930-1975), parents of eight children from Welsh, Louisiana.
When the doctorate qualified her for positions around the country, Dr. Monlezun instead chose to return to her little rural town to don the white coat and step back into her patients’ rooms with that same gentle smile she learned, not from any book or professor, but from her life as a wife and a mother.
Here’s to you mom.
47) DATE: 14 October 2009
FROM: Anna ‘Bernadette’ Monlezun-Pontón, Homemaker!
TO: My Son, Most Reverend Bishop/s, Clergy, C.D.P./O.S.B./S.N.D.de N., Grand Hensgens/Reiners/Monlezun/Miller Families, Friends of Old and Strangers-No-Longer!
This is the latest edition of ‘Happenings’ sent periodically…it is a link on my Web of Gratefulness www.leadkindlylight.net that speaks to my little way of posting actions taken!! So many good things to do, to read, tend…The Vineyard is indeed a beautiful place, row by row!
+ Our son planned a wonderful birthday visit for us July past; he was twenty seven and my husband seventy three, one day apart! The Biltmore House and Inn in Ashville, North Carolina was quite the place to stay, celebrate and celebrate we did. The memories last a lifetime as Antoine will again realize on his planned holiday with friends bound for the Great Down Under ~ Australia ~ at the end of this month. I have dozens of votives ready as just the 17 hour flight one way alone will burn to kingdom come!!! He has planned in country flights for a three city tour to experience as much as possible; snorkeling should be phenomenal! His parents have spent a lifetime doing the same so the fruit doesn’t fall...!!
+ “My Mom the Rural Health Doctor of Nursing Practice” written by my nephew Dominique Joseph Monlezun Jr. is an outstanding tribute… Click www.leadkindlylight.net/documents/4_Happenings_006.pdf #46 to enjoy! He and his brother, Christian Joseph, brought to Arthur Avenue for a Silent Retreat Day the young adults affiliated with ‘Students for Life’ on university campuses throughout the state of Louisiana! What a meaningful day; what a committed, impressive and faith-filled group of young people. They loved the home filled with Gregorian Chant! Fr. Clyde Thomas recognized them by having them stand for warm applause from the congregation at the vigil Mass on that Saturday afternoon!
+ I wrote about my brother “Lee Joseph Jr. on Arthur Avenue reminiscing on a Friday evening after a three hour nap!! … quick notations by ABMP who hadn't napped!” Click www.leadkindlylight.net/documents/4_remembrances_of_mom_dad_004.pdf #83 to enjoy!
We were requested to bring a story to the 40th birthday party for my twin nephews; I wrote two! Click www.leadkindlylight.net/documents/4_remembrances_of_mom_dad_004.pdf # 84 and enjoy!
+ The ‘Back Room’ on Arthur Avenue, our ancestral home of origin continues to be added to as paper, pics, artifacts, memorabilia raise up through my tending once a week!
Click www.leadkindlylight.net/documents/4_The_Back_Room_003.pdf and enjoy it all!
The ‘Girl’s Room’ (German Heritage Room!) has been updated click www.leadkindlylight.net/documents/10_The_Girls_Bedroom_009.pdf to enjoy all!
The ‘Arthur Avenue Heritage Tours’ link contains an interesting letter of gratitude sent to a man who entered the water the day my brother and sister drowned in an attempt to save them, 44 years later…! Incredible! Click www.leadkindlylight.net/documents/13_Arthur_Avenue_Heritage_Tours.pdf
+ Three Roberts Cove German cousins whose grandparents were brothers and sisters, Sr. Mildred Leonards, CDP, Clarice Dischler-Stewart and myself, are on our way to St. Meinrad’s Archabbey in Indiana and Gethsemane Monastery near Louisville the home of Thomas Merton!!! I am finally going on this wonderful spiritual pilgrimage next month and cannot wait!! The Indiana Olingers will host us as they are a branch of the Roberts Cove Olingers! I will light a votive for you in these venerable sacred places. (The first priests in Roberts Cove were Benedictines from this Archabbey!!)
This weekend is our annual Oblate Retreat at Holy Angels Convent in Jonesboro, Arkansas where four women from Lake Arthur will be enrolled in the Oblate program! I will be thinking of Sr. Yvonne Lerner while attending this enrollment in eternal gratitude for our Goretti Sisters!
+ My husband insists I go on the ‘Roberts Cove Heritage Tour 2010’ to Holland, Germany, France and Rome!! I said if you really want me to!!! and in less than eight months will pack my bags once again, leave my keys and go!!! I have interesting ideas for linking my ancestral German family to Roberts Cove Germanfest 2010 by webcam real time…I must think and plan well! In the meantime my Grand Chenier cousin, Renee Reina, and I spent two full days at Germanfest 2009 … www.leadkindlylight.net/A_HFC_Main_Page.htm
It was a blessed weekend experiencing all in reverence and thanksgiving to our ancestors in setting us squarely on the path to eternal life through the active incarnating of the Sacraments and gospel living through our faith foundation, nobility of work and daily prayin' for the families!
Upon early arrival in Roberts Cove a visit was made to the church and in the cemetery standing at the flag- waving graves of my great-grandparents on both sides in thanksgiving then headed to the Hensgens/Reiners table to set up the electronics to do heritage!! And, we did as many young adult relatives came by and the laptops, scanners, printer, digital cameras were ablazing! They were able to see their names in the Family Tree Maker program…O, the comments about what they remember from their elders and so proud!!! We will be printing more H/R family trees from that very table next year! We scanned in pictures and data from forms filled out while answering questions, visiting, eating potato stew! …enjoying being with all.
Sunday found us celebrating the loveliest of Masses which is the very best way to begin Germanfest Sunday by lifting your solemn voice amongst all in choral unison and thanksgiving as one Body of Christ under the Big Tent rain or shine!!
Saturday and Sunday in the Folklore Tent Philip Fabacher, MD presented a thorough and fascinating ‘History of Roberts Cove!’ Following him, I began my Presentation ‘How to Compile a Family Heritage Sequence: Gather! Preserve! Make Relevant! Sustain!’ by observing that the Benediction Chapel under the oaks to the south where in 1980 six thousand descendants of the 41 original German immigrants gathered to celebrate, St. Leo IV church behind me to the west, the cemetery across the way to the north and the German Heritage Museum to the east completed the heritage circle as arms that embrace all those who visit for this is holy ground. I told of the treasure of Arthur Avenue where the heritage work continues and in closing said…“I sit at my grandmother’s table which sits where my baby bed sat! The ‘library’ upstairs is the former kitchenette of my parents first shared space after marriage. My desk sits where their kitchen table sat and where they dreamed their first dreams together! My father breathed his last in the Girl’s Room which is now the German Heritage Room and is where I sleep as in the beginning! Music in the Front Room which is where my parents sang their first songs around the old piano and songs were taught to the children. In the Living Room at Christmas the tree sits in front of the 150 year old bench made by my Basque French great-grandfather, Dominique. My electronic Web of Gratefulness emerges and I think and act from the heart!
I pray you peace and encourage you to link with the hand of your ancestors by prayer, thought, study or travel to their original land for your descendants. It is a way that makes infinite sense…we drink from wells we did not dig. We sit by fires we did not light! Live in a state of gratefulness, be watchful and wakeful, joy-filled reach out and serve with the gifts you have been given throughout the stages of your life. St. Jane de Chantel wrote, “Nothing so impedes perfection in a vocation as wishing for another.” Compilation of heritage is one of mine and I thank you for listening.”
To cap it all off, Clarence Aloysius Berken, my maternal first cousin, was named by the International Rice Association ‘Farmer of the Year 2009!’ He will be aired on my diocesan television segment ‘Lead, Kindly Light’ Sunday on NBC at 6:30 a.m. November 8, 2009! These segments remain as streaming video on the diocesan website www.lcdiocese.org! Enjoy!!
Lead, Kindly Light!
Oh! Our Louisiana Choral Foundation Masterworks Fall concert is around the corner…click for information ~ www.leadkindlylight.net/WhereAreMyKeysandLetsGoMainPage.htm
ALLUS AUS LIEBE ZU GOTT! ALL FOR THE LOVE OF GOD!
38) DATE: 17 February 2008 Second Sunday in Lent!
TO: My Son, OSB/SNDdeN, Extended Family, Friends and Strangers- No- Longer!
(This is the latest edition of ‘Happenings’ that I send periodically about my tendings and doings! It is a link on my Web of Gratefulness www.leadkindlylight.net that speaks to my little way of posting information! So many good things to do, to tend…the vineyard is indeed a beautiful place, row by row!
May the souls of the faithful departed through the mercy of God rest in peace! Amen!
+ My son, Antoine, gave to his MAMA THE most beautiful and perfect of Christmas gifts 2007! Please see his new Main Page offered at www.leadkindlight.net and enjoy the new current web address!
‘Sayings of Mom and Dad!’ ~ # 650!!!…eight years to date!!
‘Remembrances of Mom and Dad!’ ~ always writing as Arthur Avenue continues to give!
“I’ve Been Thinking!’ ~ always ‘thinkin!’
‘Room by Room!’ of Arthur Avenue ~ text and photos! Special link indeed!! This is what all visitors, especially Silent Retreatants, marvel in while reading everything and ask beaucoup questions to boot!! They also love this home and return when they can!
‘Songs! Recipes! Prayers!’ ~ new main page with links for text!
“Where Are My Keys and Let’s Go” ~ current schedule/information of the LA Choral Foundation/Masterworks Chorale performances!
‘Hensgens Family Chronicle’ ~ updated data and stories!
‘Lead, Kindly Light’ Diocesan Television Segment!’ ~ listing of guest/airing dates of 414 interviews, 18 years and counting!
‘Read! Read! Read!’ ~ continue to add ‘Monastic Spirituality’ titles, 60 to date!
+ Christmas 2007 was as a family stated, ‘the best since MawMaw died!” I couldn’t agree more in that time, faith, reason and truth all incarnated by doing ‘good and right works’ for others is a healing balm! Our Tulane Santa Claus was perfect; amazing how he knew everyone in the room! The snow village was a great delight for the little/big ones while many visited in front of her in the back room. The refurbished upstairs was enjoyed by all as all had experienced her! Our gravesite visit on the choral hayride as we sang ‘The Family Song’ is always a very solemn moment! Visiting with The LaPoints in their beautiful home on the lake with glass windows offering the total southern exposure to the placid winter water was poignant. The gumbo was a-plenty, vintage records played and we danced as the stories flew as once more we gathered in our ancestral home which is a privilege which few others are sincerely able to enjoy and cherish in this world of ours. We are so very blessed to have access to ours! Thank you brothers two!
+ The Carmelites of New Orleans, LA, Sr. Lawrence Habetz, my first cousin and Conciliar Board members, will once again rest and work and rest on Arthur Avenue June 2008! This year they will receive as gift a wonderful boat tour on a 60 ft. gloriously equipped houseboat arranged by my brother, Dominique Joseph! Pork Jambalaya and conversation surrounded by the beauty of our own backyard on the water will refresh and renew the spirits of all aboard! Plate lunches will be home delivered and the vintage bicycle tires are pumped and ready! And, the record player is ready for the vintage record collection hour!
+ Arthur Avenue is poised for a new coat of paint; especially the upstairs STAIRWELL; she will shine after beaucoup years (104!) of endurance in the heat and cold as she has experienced a rebirth! She now has a modulated temperature setting and awaits Reverend Mother/O.Carm as this is her cell/suite! A wonderfully generous couple from Lake Arthur presented a special surprise gift to me for Christmas 2007! As the wife had attended a Silent Retreat in 2007, she journeyed home and requested of her husband to make a special gift. A ‘Prie-Dieu’ or ‘Kneeler’ was crafted by his hands made of 200 year old cypress that had rested on the bottom of the lake! Eleven pieces were meticulously handcrafted to form the kneeler and she sewed the kneeling cushion of perfect purple! It is exquisite and sits in Rev. Mother’s room facing the window with my mother’s prayer book ever-ready for supplication and thanksgiving!! I am still in awe and ever so grateful for such a labor of love!
+ Shoot! Due to a convergence of deadlines, travel, Silent Retreat scheduling and events the Broussard/Miller Family Reunion to be held on Arthur Avenue has been postponed; could-it-be till Fall 2009?! We’ll see! Just keep gathering names, addresses/emails and numbers in the meantime as some of the computer data work has commenced.
+ Last month, Suzanne Louise, my youngest niece summoned her Aunt Bette to her school for Catholic School Week in Jennings, LA. It was a box lunch affair and I told her father, Dominique that I would gather up the food! Well, they just didn’t specify how large the boxes should be so after a trip to the Deli and a gift for she and her teacher from the hospital gift shop, I showed up in my pink top post-hospital Eucharistic Ministry duty! Well, there was food for All the children who were still hungry after their lunch to include a popcorn ball which she shared with Adam Berken and a complete salad for Aunt Becky Liprie! Too cute!! (I spotted a Mom ‘dining’ on a blanket with a wicker basket and another had hot soup in a ceramic mug with unique crackers for dipping…just wait till next year! I’ll pack little stools as that gym floor is hard on her dad and I!!) Her friends wanted to know if her ‘cool grandmother’ was coming, the one that threw the football with them and sang songs!! O, the years, how fast they fly and how lovely they are!
+ As my 60th year recently came upon me, I discerned how I wanted to mark this pivotal apex!
I opened a personal ‘Special Collections’ at the Archives and Special Collections Department of Frazer Memorial Library at McNeese State University! There are many of my Diocesan Television interviews on DVDs there as well as ‘Binders’ on the list that will eventually be brought to the ‘Collection’ after my death; 150 of them and counting! There are Journals and Binders from 1963 age 16 forward, 44 years of tending to date! Hectór and Antoine will not have to sift through paper as all are in my working Binders with labels and catagorized!!! I can’t wait to serve in an even greater capacity as The Father leads kindly and consistently! To teach my Silent Retreat Series online is a goal I am striving toward to at least age 93, 2040!!!
+ Ash Wednesday Antoine called from Raleigh, NC where he resides and labors to say that he had just attended Services at The Sacred Heart Cathedral a five minute walk with his friends from The Flying Saucer Bar and Grill, the neighborhood place! Yep, he stated that he had invited the bartenders to Services with him, ashes and all and all were standing in line to donate blood at the blood bus! Don’t ya just love it…fill those pews during symbolic liturgical seasons then give your blood for a great cause and maybe they’ll return for years to come! Who could pass up an invitation like that?! The Father must be a-smiling and nodding! That is conversation for us at The Saucer over a Chimay, a Trappist Belgium beer, blessed I’m sure but only a 3 oz serving…heading to Raleigh next month and then we drive up to Trinity College in Washington, D.C. for a visit with my Sisters of Notre Dame de Namur and our Associates group meeting while Antoine tours the city he spent five wonderful years experiencing, age 1-6!
+ Spent a wonderful weekend last with Cecil Zaunbrecher and Joyce Habetz in San Antonio, TX visiting with Sr. Marie Habetz at Our Lady of the Lake University and Convent of the Sisters of Divine Providence. I was enrolled at OLLU five days after my brother and sister drowned in 1965 but had to return home. Within a few months I have been so happy to be with my religious Sisters in Jonesboro, Arkansas, San Antonio, TX and soon D.C.! Antoine hasn’t been with my SND’s since he was six and we were departing D.C. to retire in Lake Charles, LA!! Will be quite the reunion! Hectórs’ Translating schedule is full; good thing as there are miles to go before we sleep! He goes to Puerto Rico this Spring for his 50th University reunion and a long visit with his Mom, age 93!!!
LEAD, KINDLY LIGHT!
39) DATE: 13 June 2008, St. Anthony of Padua, my son’s Feast Day!!
TO: My Son, OSB/SNDdeN, Most Reverend Bishop/s, Clergy, Extended Family, Friends of Old and Strangers- No- Longer!
FROM: Anna ‘Bernadette’ Monlezun-Pontón, Homemaker!
(This is the latest edition of ‘Happenings’ that I send periodically…it is a link on my Web of Gratefulness www.leadkindlylight.net that speaks to my little way of posting actions taken!! So many good things to do, to read, tend…The Vineyard is indeed a beautiful place, row by row!)
(May the Father, By His Grace, lift the hearts, mind and souls of the ill, the dying, the lost and forsaken!)
1+ Five thousand military personnel and families were invited to Raleigh, NC for a “Support the Troops” blitz three blocks from Antoine’s downtown condo!!! (I had visited earlier with a planned trip to D.C.!) Hectór and Antoine (husband and son!) saw it all as Antoine was involved as Marketing and Events Coordinator/downtownraleigh.com with a real estate agency in and the execution of the planning stages right up to the super-sized event and right down to seats next to the reviewing stand! A squadron of four F-15E Strike Eagles flew the skies over the city right on the money, the Army Fife and Drum Corps fifed by, tanks, columns of soldiers, military bands…the photo CD lumps the throat!! My ‘men’ toured the displays on the grounds of the state capitol with the latest weaponry, technological advances galore especially in the helmets and uniform, all the while meeting Antoine’s friends galore! I had ordered two kaki visors printed with the lettering of Hectór’s battalion ~ USA-RET 173d ABN BDE; was also printed on Antoine’s with the addition ~ That’s My Dad! The next day Antoine was in the choir loft for Mass with his Dad in the pew!! What memories made with his Dad that served thirty-six years the world over in an Army uniform in the service of our country! God bless America and the world over as we send aid to every known strife and conflict perpetrated either by Mother Nature or the worst in the fallen nature of humanity.
2+ The REINERS/Scheufens/Shaffhausen Families are the Highlighted Families for Germanfest 2008!!! ‘Anna’ Gertrude Reiners-Hensgens is my maternal grandmother and to date 801 ancestors and descendants have been entered into the ‘Reiners Family Tree Maker” from Theodor Reiners, Generation One to Generation Twelve 1722 to 2008, with many to tract and input!! As with the ‘Hensgens’ Family 2007 all will be printed, photos reproduced/framed and will be on display under the ‘Highlighted Families Tent’ at Germanfest October 4 & 5, 2008 in Roberts Cove, LA! You are invited to www.leadkindlylight.net/A_HFC_Main_Page.htm for more information; scanning of pics and text is ongoing! (The Dugruise/Thibodaux, LA wedding found cousins swapping stories galore!) It is a fascinating privilege and honor to research, gather, seek out and share this genealogy. I simply love the work and with my paternal cousin, Renee and her very capable and untiring assistance we are able to cover untold electronic miles on this side of Germany. Many are looking forward to the Roberts Cove Heritage Tour 2010 to The Westphalia region of Germany to connect even more dots and uplink for all the descendants…forever just a click away!!
3+ The second annual Sing-Along of Lake Arthur-Friends-of-Old on Arthur Avenue, my ancestral home of origin in Lake Arthur, LA was held and the music filled the rafters, newly painted as they are!! Food, punch and song flowed for hours! Guests toured the home and delighted in her history especially the ‘Family Walls’ and upstairs! Dominique, my youngest of six brothers, with his daughter proudly gazing upon him, sang his wonderful Louisiana Medley which many attendees had never heard! They were thrilled and heartily approved with a hearty round of applause which was welcomed as his fingers were a hurtin’ red not having tickled the guitar strings in many a moon! (He just called to share the grand news; he is the newly elected president of the ‘LA Propane Gas Association!’ Congratulations on a well deserved honor; member 1985 to present and beyond! Your bio for statewide news distribution has already been written Mr. President ~ it is on ‘The Family Wall’, Lake Arthur Butane Co. in Lake Charles!!!)
4+ The Sisters of Mount Carmel once again spent a week on Arthur Avenue for their annual retreat and conciliar board meeting. Dominique arranged a relaxing boat ride down/up the river and while out video was taken of my paternal great-grandfathers original homestead on this river of old!! Jambalaya and fixins flowed, Hectór piloted Captain Cormiers’ 60’ luxurious houseboat not a sailboat(!), Sr. Lawrence Habetz, first cousin, and Dominique had a wonderful visit, the Sisters sat on the upper deck and took it all in while in a state of blissful peace as a perfect ending to their day of retreat. Fr. Charles McMillan celebrated Mass in the living room of Arthur Avenue with the ‘Mother of Divine Tenderness’ icon smiling down on them painted by their own Sr. Catherine Martin! Father spoke to the topic of ‘pausing!’ The home receives many a pilgrim who pause, read and now know another way to share ones historical records, photo, stories, memorabilia…heritage in bricks and mortar all the way to the internet one day at a time!
www.leadkindlylight.net/RoombyRoom.htm (Thank you brothers two!)
The home is being tended by paint, trim, cleaning, lighting, rugs, optimal like things with like things of my parents for Silent Retreats and guests all the while preserving and protecting the integrity of her history and age! Renee (99.9%!) and I painted the kitchen White Coffee, White Dove on the 104 year old cypress door surrounds and a ‘Blessed Mother Blue’ in the kitchen nook. All ceilings/stairwell are next and she will be poised for another 104 + years of welcoming all sojourners to her doorstep which now has a railing!! She even has a new-old oak rocker in the Blue Nook!!! As Caretaker I truly love tending her treasures especially the Heritage Walls with labels as I go through the years of paper and vintage photos which are placed in a Binder, scanned into my website then up on the Wall they go!!...just a click away for a very long time as there is a whole lot of paper!!! (Note: CHRISTUS St Patrick Hospital/Marketing scheduled two Silent Retreats!!)
5+ Daily I utilize my contemplative lifestyle to work a myriad of ministries the latest being…
a phone call from Joan Benoit-Mandola of Houston, TX and other alums of St. Maria Goretti Catholic School…are interested in the Oblate program of the Olivetan Benedictines of Holy Angels Convent in Jonesboro, AR. This raised up while working with them for the ‘St. Maria Goretti Special Collection’ at the McNeese State University Archives/Library. How wonderful as many have never forgotten the clergy and religious that formed them in the early years and seeing the photo of the ‘Goretti’ sisters at my November 2007 Oblation at the convent ignited their interest and connection! He Leads Kindly and consistently!! I send them all to
www.leadkindlylight.net/Heritage_Center_and_Archival_Special_Collections.htm
‘Silent Retreat Series’ and ‘Read! Read! Read!’ www.leadkindlylight.net
6+ In that my Diocesan television segment, ‘Lead, Kindly Light’ www.leadkindlylight.net/LKL_Television_Segment.htm has led to membership on The Diocese of Lake Charles Communications Advisory Board I am enjoying once again an active interest in my diocese through the synergism encapsulating her electronic and print media. I recently began a ‘Wiring Diagram’ Binder…a way of thinking/reading about Mother Church/ The Vineyard from the Vatican down to the mission parishes in Cameron Parish!! (Read Vatican Information Services (VIS) at www.vatican.va for a global scope view…with a cup of coffee!!!)
7+ LA Choral Foundations’ Masterworks Chorale and the Lake Charles Community Band ‘Where Are My Keys and Let’s Go!’ www.leadkindlylight.net will be a part of the 4th of July “Red White Blue and You Celebration” in the amphitheater on the grounds of the LC Civic Center! We have been in fervent rehearsals every Monday night and it is another way to live a vital vein of the monastic life ~ music!! It will be an evening concert where we lift our voices in gratefulness just before the Fireworks Extravaganza!!! LEAD, KINDLY LIGHT!
In conclusion…updated and current main page of…‘HAPPENINGS’ www.leadkindlylight.net
After 14 months of ‘handing her up,’ our mother died on Tuesday
28 November 2000. She and my father, also deceased, gathered their children and extended families around them throughout their very full and active lives.
Mom was from a large family and birthed a large family! I began to write for my heart was full of love and, as always, my hands ready to assist my own.
On March 10, 2007 (#34) a strategic strike was made through the scope of the Greater Families, paternal and maternal, clarion call to gather!
This has created a tremendous focus on genealogy, the tracking of data and the living maintenance of all my links into this Web of Gratefulness!
In that these extended families are large and living very active lives in many different countries, states, cities and towns this site has raised up to be a delightful medium in which to communicate an encapsulation of my little way of posting actions taken!!
So many good and right things to do, to read, tend; The Vineyard is indeed, by His grace, a beautiful place, row by row filled with awe and wonder!
This state of gratefulness and electronic faithfulness (!) has also entered the communications stream of many dear people who have certainly influenced my life;
it is a privilege to be in yours.
It is here for ‘My Son, Olivetan Benedictine Sisters and Sisters of Notre Dame de Namur (OSB/SNDdeN), Most Reverend Bishop, Clergy, Extended Family, Friends of Old and Strangers-No-Longer
Enjoy and pray forward in your very own lives! Everybody wins!
Lead, Kindly Light!
Anna ‘Bernadette’ Monlezun-Pontón, eldest daughter, fourth child of ten children.
40) This compilation was written on 31 July 2008 on the 23rd anniversary of Dad’s death but sent to you in celebration in one week of the 67thwedding anniversary of Mom and Dad, 13 August 2008! Blessed Day on this the Feast of the Transfiguration! How appropriate!!
(Now I must go and tend the Reiners Family Chronicle data for Germanfest 2008!!!)
Dear Brothers Two,
(also Most Rev. Bishops Speyrer, Emeritus, my high school religion teacher (!) and Provost (LA) and the ‘Goretti Sisters’ (AR)!)
In organizing part of the 'Goretti Collection' in The Back Room on Arthur Avenue, I recently wrote a compilation of data…see below! It hangs on the wall next to the 'St. Maria Goretti Special Collection' along with a list of the ‘Goretti Sisters’ who served over the years. Thank you, Brothers Two, for our ancestral home where many folk are learning and embracing as a family matrix in artifacts, memorabilia, photos, paper and precious objects all shared for others. I wish I could send you every comment, tear, prayer or note of gratefulness from others! Know that you are stalwart stewards and your Caretaker, diligently take care in preserving the home through the stories in gratitude, respect and awe of our parents. We are the living spirit of those who have gone before and because we can and so desire, we gather, preserve and make relevant at Arthur Avenue through the “Lee Joseph, Sr. and Anna ‘Gertrude’ Hensgens-Monlezun Business and Domestic Collection!!”
Enjoy!!! You’re encapsulated in the data!!
www.leadkindlylight.net Sayings/Remembrances/Room by Room, etc. always added to!
(Post-Germanfest is ‘Place-Based Education’ on Arthur Avenue for teachers & school children!)
Our parents sacrificed for their children’s Catholic education:
…at a simultaneous juncture they had 5 children in 3 different schools!
1. Immaculata Minor Seminary, Lafayette, LA: 3 sons at the same time!
2. St. Maria Goretti Catholic Elementary and High School, Lake Arthur, LA
(1956-1989): 6 children in a row!
3. Notre Dame Major Seminary, New Orleans, LA: 1 son
4. Congregation of the Sisters of Divine Providence,
Aspirancy Program, Castroville, TX: 1 daughter
5. Our Lady of the Lake College, San Antonio, TX, summer session 1965: 1 daughter
(6. Trinity College (1985-1988) with Adjunct Professors from the
Catholic University of America and the Dominican Seminary/House of Studies,
Washington D.C. ~ same daughter!)
www.leadkindlylight.net click ‘Silent Retreat Series!’
www.leadkindlylight.net click ‘Read! Read! Read!’
Their children’s children are receiving a Catholic education:
- Immaculate Conception Cathedral Elementary School, Lake Charles, LA
2. Our Lady Queen of Heaven Elementary School, Lake Charles, LA
3. St. Peter Inter-parish Catholic School, Washington, DC
4. Our Lady Immaculate Elementary School, Jennings, LA
- Carencro Catholic Elementary School, Carencro, LA
- Saint Louis Catholic High School, Lake Charles, LA
- Tuerlings Catholic High School, Lafayette, LA
- Loyola University Law School, New Orleans, LA
In gratitude for the genesis sacrifice of my parents where six of their children attended elementary and high school, I opened on November 5, 2004 the
‘Saint Maria Goretti Catholic School Special Collections’ with the
McNeese State University Library Archives and Special Collections Department,
Lake Charles, LA
www.leadkindlylight.net/Heritage and Archival Special Collections
(In gratefulness to and respect of Rev. Harry Pelous, Diocese of Lafayette, LA
Founder…R.I.P. Dear One!)
Part of the ‘Special Collection’ is exhibited here. (Our ancestral home!)
The treasures are slowly finding their way to the ‘Collection’ as the word spreads.
Many of these treasures were recently gathered with the permission of one of the family owners of the SMG Catholic School Corporation just prior to the elementary school being razed during this the summer of 2008!
…the march and tradition in the values, spirit and faith of our ancestors continue…an updated composite of ‘Remembrances’ #39!!
In the Post-Conciliar church, Mom and Dad were two of the first Eucharistic Ministers commissioned in Our Lady of the Lake church parish in Lake Arthur, LA. Constance Victoria and Victor Wayne followed soon afterwards and were commissioned as Eucharistic Ministers and Cantor as charter members of Our Lady Queen of Heaven’s (OLQH) Family Choir along with their children in Lake Charles, LA.
Post-military retirement in 1988 Héctor Rafael, myself and Antoine Adolfo became members of the OLQH Family Choir. In 1983 while residing in Springfield, VA (and as members of St. Bernadette parish (!), I began facilitating in my home/s a Silent Retreat Day teaching the ‘Dailiness of Prayer’, ‘Ordering the Home’ and ‘Time Management with a Christian Perspective’; the first weekend of January 2001 after the death of our last parent, I requested of my siblings that I move this ‘Silent Retreat Day’ to our ancestral home of origin, as this is the genesis home and, permission was granted! To date, a total of 621 men, women and young adults have attended this special day, 210 persons on Arthur Avenue! While stationed in Washington, D.C., my pastor of St. Dominic (!) parish, invited me to attend Trinity College 1985-1988 and take advantage of an innovative curriculum of study called “Education for Parish Service” designed to enable men, women and young adults to contribute more effectively to the work of evangelization by providing opportunities for spiritual development, high level instruction in theology, scripture, Church history and methodology for evangelization. Classes commenced three weeks after Dad died! During those years I was humbled to be commissioned as Lector, Eucharistic Minister, Cantor, Wake Service and Communion Service Facilitator in the chapel at the Chancery, Archdiocese of Washington, D.C.
Dominique Joseph www.lakearthurbutane.com and Tina Louise were commissioned as Eucharistic Ministers at Our Lady of the Lake church parish in Lake Arthur, LA where it all began! Dominique Joseph also serves as a parish usher (Minister of Hospitality!) and is a member of Our Lady Immaculate School Board in Jennings, LA doing this the tenure of all three children! They have purchased a second home in Lake Charles, LA in order that their three children can attend St. Louis Catholic High School and for them to be together on the weekends as our parents before us!
Since April 24, 2001 I joyfully serve as a Minister of Holy Communion every Thursday and many Sundays at CHRISTUS St. Patrick Hospital as well as hold membership in the Catholic Daughters and Altar Society in OLQH parish and on July 19, 1998, along with Constance Victoria and Ione Marie, joined the Altar Society as lifetime members of St. Leo 1V Catholic Church, Roberts Cove, LA during their Ladies Altar Society Centennial Celebration Mass with Mom in attendance. My medal along with hers and her mothers rest on the Hensgens Wall on Arthur Avenue; her mother was a member of the Altar Society, a Catholic Daughter and charter member and Director of the church choir! In December 2000, I received from the hand of Most Rev. Bishop Jude Speyrer, the Knights of St. Gregory the Great Diocese of Lake Charles Chapter ‘The Distinction of Monsignor DeBlanc Fellow Award’ in “recognition of outstanding contributions to church and neighbor without material recompense and whose life and work bring honor to the international community of mankind.”
Daddy, Lee Joseph, Jr. www.monlezun.com Héctor Rafael, Dominique Joseph and my nephew, Kade Joel, are members of the wonderful Knights of Columbus! Lee Joseph, Jr. was President of the Newman Club (Young Adult Catholic Organization) while in college, Robert Joseph, Jr. attended a Cursillo! My six brothers were altar boys and in this next generation- Whitney Pierre, lll, Branton Heath, Sye Joseph, Antoine Adolfo, Joseph Wayne as well as Dominique Joseph, Jr. (Nique), Christian Joseph and the 18th of 18 grandchildren, Suzanne Louise are commissioned altar servers! Also in this next generation, John David, Christ the King Parish in Lake Charles, LA, Katherine Anne while in college in Baton Rouge and presently and Antoine Adolfo, Jesus the Good Shepherd Parish while in college in Monroe, LA are commissioned Eucharistic Ministers. Antoine sponsored and shepherded at Sunday Mass two friends who converted to Roman Catholicism through his church parishes’ Rite of Christian Initiation of Adults (R.C.I.A.) during his junior and senior year of college!
Nique is the founder and outgoing president of Tulane Students for Life Tulane’s University campus, New Orleans, LA. (As of May 2009 he is the Louisiana Students for Life Executive President and works on national policy and legislation in Washington, D.C. with the Students for Life of America’s national office!) Katherine Anne and husband David Charles Dawson, Jr., on faculty at St. John Catholic High School, have recently begun hosting “Catholic Relationships” a one hour weekly Catholic Radio Talk Show in Plaquemine, LA!’ www.catholiccommunityradio.com. Antoine sings baritone in the Sacred Heart Cathedral Choir, downtown Raleigh, N.C. and is readying to sing with the chorus for ‘Handels’ Messiah’ on the campus of Duke University December 2009! Madison Claire was an active member of the ‘Pro-Life’ Organization at St. Louis Catholic High School prior to graduation May 2009!
I am in my 18th year as Anchor of the Diocese of Lake Charles, LA Catholic television segment, “Lead, Kindly Light!” www.leadkindlight.net/Lead Kindly Light Diocesan Television Segment which commenced during the tenure of Bishop Jude Speyrer, my high school religion teacher! And, in November 2007 was commissioned as a Benedictine Oblate/Rule of Benedict, Obl/RB, Holy Angels Convent, Jonesboro, AR with the Goretti Olivetan Benedictines Sisters!!!”
(3 May 2009, I was commissioned as an Associate with the Congregation of Divine Providence, San Antonio, TX 50 years after I entered their Aspirancy program to become a religious! My Prayer Partner is Sr. Mildred Leonard, CDP residing in Lafayette, LA whose grandmother ‘Katharina’ was Grandpa Joseph Hensgens eldest sister!!!))
…and this is just what I am aware of and remember for this compilation! I trust there is much silent, prayerful and faithful ministry being faithfully administered known only to the servant and tucked in the Sacred and Immaculate Hearts!! This march of servanthood witness continues all the way to and beyond eternal life…O, the power of wholistic healthy witness!
Our German Ancestors Have Prayed Us Forward Since 1694 and those seeds
of faithful study and gratefulness take root! Boy, do they take root!! By His Grace!
Anna ‘Bernadette’ Monlezun-Pontón, fourth child, eldest daughter of ten children!
July 31, 2008 the twenty-third anniversary of Dad’s death.
Received 4 August 2008 “…Thanks for all the information in this email! It's amazing how much the Catholic Church has grown because of your parents and their sacrifices. Thanks for taking the time to document all that…I was shocked to learn that Goretti (elementary) school was razed in the summer of 2008, but not surprised. The last time I saw it, it was in pretty bad shape, but I guess I just hoped that somehow it could survive and be used for some other good purpose. That's really the end of an era! But, life is full of letting go of the past and this is just one more example of that. The good work that went on there will live on in the next generations.” Sister Eileen Schneider, OSB ~ My OBL/OSB Prayer Partner assigned November 2007!!!
Indeed, Sister! Indeed!
41) DATE: Tuesday, 7 October 2008, Our Lady of the Rosary!
FROM: Anna ‘Bernadette’ Monlezun-Pontón, Homemaker!
TO: My Son, OSB/SNDdeN, Most Reverend Bishop/s, Clergy, Extended Hensgens/Monlezun/Reiners Families, Friends of Old and Strangers- No- Longer!
(This is the latest edition of ‘Happenings’ sent periodically…it is a link on my Web of Gratefulness www.leadkindlylight.net that speaks to my little way of posting actions taken!! So many good things to do, to read, tend…The Vineyard is indeed a beautiful place, row by row!) (May the Father, By His Grace, lift the hearts, mind and souls of the ill, the dying, the marginalized and lost!)
This past weekend was the Roberts Cove Germanfest 2008, a wonderful occasion for annually celebrating the harvest and our Roman Catholic lineage which was one of the primary reasons our German ancestors fled Germany in the 1880’s! “A History of the Germans of Roberts Cove, 1880-2007” by Reinhart Kondert with Genealogy by Lawrence and Mary Reiners-Cramer is the- just-off-the-press sequel to his first book about the German colonization of The Cove. The landscape was immaculate and as Rev. Kevin Bordelon said during his homily, “the grounds of St. Leo’s have become a tent city!’ He also stated …‘culture is the driving force of history’, a quote from John Paul 11 and religion serves as the glue; that peace is Christ; the cross of Christ is the center of gravity which was grasped by the Roberts Cove colonists answering the question, Who am I?... by practicing the core of the faith; keep on doing what you’re doing and seeing what you’re seeing…what is good, truth, right and obligation to neighbor!” Truth passed on and certainly grasped!
Mass participants were members of the Highlighted Families. My sister Constance Victoria and I cantored the verses to ‘So Ein Tag’ as the post-Communion hymn with the Germanfest Choir while cousin Alberta Gertrude Hensgens-Lyons made that keyboard sound like a piece of heaven! As I read the “Prayers of the Faithful’ and looked out at the land and faces of my fore bearers with the flags of Germany and the United States of America dotting the graves in the cemetery it all did indeed form a crux/cross…the church, the Benediction chapel, the church hall/German Heritage Museum! No wonder I enjoy bringing to life and teaching my German/Basque lineage in Roberts Cove and my home of origin in Lake Arthur for it is By His Grace that we are here at all and able to respect and fulfill in gratefulness the prayers of our fore bearers since 1722! This indeed brings a life-long logic and calm to the mind and heart that, we are our ancestors and cannot conceive of a life lived in any other way except to serve our God through others by first studying the faith for ‘to know Him, is to love Him is to serve Him in this world and be happy with Him in the next!’ Faith is a gift and what we do with this gift will be between us and The Father when we stand in front of Him; eternal life in The Light is the compass that points beyond the veil and is forever! We have family on both sides!! How comforting! 'You can take that to the bank'!!!
Attendance under the Family Tent by members of the three Highlighted Families “Reiners, my maternal grandmother/Scheufens/Schaffhausens was crisp, steady, fun and educational. Reiners numbers to date: 1075 individuals, 333 marriages, 244 surnames, 12 generations!! Renée Reina, my paternal cousins’ prodigious computer data work (Reiners Family Tree Maker program) was there for all to connect and, the photographs of the ancestral couples on the family tables and their pioneer home in The Cove were so appreciated. Héctor and I gave her a dirndl as gift in appreciation and you should have seen her beam with humble pride on being an Honorary German, for they have come to love and appreciate her heart and talent for this work!! The stories from the descendants standing around the data tables are always poignant as their remembrances are so fresh, meaningful for today and funny to boot!! It is pure grace to connect the families electronically and in print on that sacred ground; we will have a Hensgens/Reiners table at Germanfest every year with a laptop/scanner to input data, pics and texts from the two families!
We are now pointing to RC Germanfest 2009 where we have been invited to share a ‘Sequential Family Matrix’ Power Point demonstration for all placing photographs and text in 6 data elements. This is the spine for inputting data/pics/text on my website…
www.leadkindlylight.net/A_HFC_Main_Page.htm www.leadkindlylight.net/Reiners_Main_Page.htm Photos of the Hensgens/Reiners Family Walls on Arthur Avenue will be featured along with pics/texts as a way to reverence and preserve the footsteps of the Grands!!! (We also have an idea for Germanfest 2010 ~ Ancestral Period Actors in costume and character with pre-rehearsed scripts walking the Germanfest grounds telling the stories incorporating ULL Departments of History, Theater and Mass Communications for credit!!! Will rest first develop later!)
What a wonderful weekend last and the one approaching celebrating the 40th Reunion of the first grade class of ‘St. Maria Goretti Catholic School’ as organized by Constance Victoria! The Benedictines Sisters will be arriving as well as former teachers, parents and alumnae all able to view the ‘SMG Special Collections’ in the china cabinet area in The Back Room! Constance Victoria has gathered her memorabilia as well as planned tightly and rightly as the attendees, in respect and gratitude, are invited to celebrate their Catholic education through the sacrifice of their parents in conversation, Mass, a parade, stories, food and tours through the home! Renee and I will have the laptop/scanner to input data/pics/text into my websitewww.leadkindlylight.net/HeritageandArchivalSpecialCollectionsMainPage.htm!!! I plan to interview many of the reunion participants for the SMG McNeese Archival Collection; an honor indeed and will become streaming video on the website!! The ‘SMG Catholic School Special Collection’ at the McNeese Archives is benefiting from the donations of artifacts and video of/from the alumnae over time!
And, the Gregorian Chant goes on…!!!!
LEAD, KINDLY LIGHT!
42) Date: 8 December 2008, Feast of the Immaculate Conception!
To: The Extended Monlezun Family
Re: Newest Family Member, Christmas Eve on Arthur Avenue Wednesday
24 December 2008 and a special land purchase!
In gratitude we gather for this annual tradition, begun decades ago by Mom and Dad, and continue by the opening of our home of origin as well as our hearts, especially for the little ones! We are humbled to have the opportunity to celebrate together the Eve of the incarnation of the Word of God made flesh. This is the home where we were made flesh, formed and as part of the ancestral team of foremothers and forefathers, pass it on in gleeful gathering with song, prayer, reading the family walls (!), food, photos taken, choral hayride, gift exchange and swapping stories; as MawMaw would say, “come if you can!” Cousin Anne Broussard-Fautt and grandson will be joining us for the ‘Eve’ as it is also her birthday!! She is so grateful and happy to be with the children of her favorite cousin!! Cousin Anne was pivotal in the 2008 negotiations of the addition of ‘Monlezun land’ by Dominique and Tina in order to acquire, now their total and complete home acreage, for their descendants! After many decades it is in the name of Dominique Monlezun!! Two homes of origin, the original business and original land are currently owned, maintained in bricks-and-mortar (with 3 major family reunions/the 4th in its infancy!) and tracked electronically and in print by members of the Monlezun family!! O, Mon Dieu!!
+ Food/Beverages: Please bring finger foods to serve on the buffet and your beverages.
Chicken and sausage gumbo, rice, crackers & potato salad will once again be delivered by noon ready-to-eat!
+3:00 p.m. ~ Choral Hayride! (Guitars always welcomed)!
+Santa Claus arrives by 5:15 p.m. if the North Pole weather is clear and all request orders have been filled by those busy little St. Louis Catholic High School-elves!!
Thank you Uncles Lee Joseph, Jr. and Dominique Joseph for home and the old red hayride Ford (!), Aunt Sharon for organizing the name-pull, ‘Santa Claus’ as he has fervently practiced his “Ho-Ho-Ho! Also, Robert Dale Istre for preparing/delivery/pick-up of gumbo and fixins, Ricky Berken for the mowing and Cousin Renee for the display of the beautiful snow village in the back room for big and little ones. The five family graves in the cemetery have Christmas flowers in remembrance and gratitude! The paper products are out, Christmas tree is up and on December 27, 2008, MawMaw’s 87th birthday, ‘I put it all back’ for Christmas 2009!
Notations:
+There are a 7:00 pm Christmas Eve and two Midnight Masses that are listed for your scheduling purposes: 1. ‘MawMaws’ choir’ a-singin up a storm in Lake Arthur for midnight Mass, 2. Our Lady of Seven Dolors in Welsh, 7:00 p.m. & 3. ‘Our Lady Queen of Heaven Midnight Mass’ in Lake Charles beginning with a Concert of Carols at 11 p.m.! The Carencro families are definitely in the know of their Mass schedules with all those little & big Monlezun’s wanting to make their way to the manger where Jesus lay!!
Wise ones still seek Him for He Leads O so Steadily! Blessed Advent and Christmas Season!
Lead, Kindly Light! Anna Bernadette
43) DATE: 21 January 2009 ~
Today Nique and Christian Joseph Monlezun arrive in Washington, DC as participants in the MARCH FOR LIFE! Vaya con Dios, Dear Ones!!
TO: My Son and Extended Hensgens/Monlezun/Reiners Families!
FROM: Anna ‘Bernadette’ Monlezun-Pontón
+ Santa Claus 2008 was tall, handsome and knew the names of all the little ones!! How did he know?! He was wonderful having waited a long time (!) and once again we were so happy to welcome him as he culminated glee and glad tidings to all especially as he carries the name ‘Christian’!! To see Madeline Claire’s steady, steely gaze as to just who was this jolly fellow in red and singing Silent Night to Baby Jesus was too-o cute! (Her 10 month photo is up with the others in the Back Room soon to be joined by her cousin and sister at 10 months!!) Merci Beaucoup Santa and until next year, Happy and Safe Senior Year!! There was the rhythm of ebb and flow of food, conversation and reading the labels on Family Walls before and after the choral hayride. It was grand to see Robert and Wanda sitting in the old Ford just a-singing away in that rich baritone! Cousin Anne Fautt, the Birthday Girl enjoyed her cake, one candle, the song and sitting at table enjoying the gumbo as she and her wonderful grandson ‘Clancy’ from Los Angeles, CA chatted with family! Pictures were taken in front of the Miller/Broussard Living Room Wall; Clancy got the home tour and his amazement was palpable and one of sincere awe and appreciation for these are also his people!!
+ The Hensgens Family Reunion is scheduled by the ‘Aunt Frances’ Habetz family for Sunday, June 28, 2009 at the St. Lawrence parish hall in Raymond, LA! (The 2011 Reunion will be hosted by the ‘Uncle Uchie’ Hensgens family to be celebrated in the church hall in Roberts Cove, LA!!!) The Data gathering is in full gear; Cousin Renee has spent an incredible amount of lovin-lovin time inputting: ‘Greater Hensgens EXCEL’ document listing 400-ish (!) members of the Joseph and Anna Gertrude Reiners-Hensgens family ~ mucho data on one document which is always ‘in process’ : Name/DOB/DOD/Mailing Address/Telephones/Email/Website Address/Generation/ Family Data Coordinator.
Updated data ~ With the birth of our ‘Anna Katherine Green’ she is the…
House of Hensgens ~ 3,275th of Generation 12 Total 16 Generations!
House of Hensgens ~ 35th ‘Anna’ and 65th ‘Katherine/Katharina/Catherine’ in 16 Generations!!
House of Reiners ~ 1,100th of Generation 11 Total 12 Generation!
House of Reiners ~ 20th ‘Anna’ and 29th ‘K/Catherine’ of 12 Generations!!
House of Monlezun ~ Generation 9 ~ still counting!!
House of Miller/Broussard ~ Generation 9…just beginning to count…!!
Lee Joseph Sr. and Anna ‘Gertrude’ Hensgens-Monlezun Family December 2008:
42nd Direct Descendant!
14th Great-Grandchild/Direct Descendant!
8th Great-Granddaughter/Direct Descendant! (John Paul Dawson is the 6th Great-Grandson/Direct Descendant!)
Data extracted from the Greater Hensgens/Reiners/Monlezun Family Tree Maker and EXCEL Programs.
+ Just prior to Christmas Suzanne Louise called with the news that she was writing a paper on the history of the Hensgens Family due in February…“Aunt Bette, I really have not appreciated your work at MawMaw and PawPaw’s, BUT I DO NOW!!” She has the website data/photos, the text ‘History of Roberts Cove’, pics of the Hensgens Wall of artifacts and memorabilia!!! She has written 2000 words when only 500 are required; her teacher uttered, “You must be a Monlezun!!!” She, Nique and Christian visited on Fridays during the holidays, as they do all the years long, eating away at the coffee bread while chugging through pre-calculus at the table and yes, for breaks, reading the labels on the Family Walls and asking pertinent questions!! It is wonderfully rewarding
to know that the youngest grandchildren in Lake Arthur to enjoy Mom are the children that continue to drop by, look and read the Family Wall labels taking it all in and telling of the things that remind them of her!! They are so tall and grown up in the home as compared to the era of Mom’s precious time with them! Ah, the march of years...(SHE EARNED A BLUE RIBBON!)
+ FYI ~ Roberts Cove Heritage Tour 2010 to Germany (held every five years) is gearing up (rcht2010@aol.com). I don’t know where I will put all the pics/text that I plan to gather while there!!! Then again, I do for the sequence is in place: Hensgens/Reiners Family Heritage Sequence:
1. Germany: *Data!*Photographs!
2. Hensgens Family Genealogy: *Data!*Photographs!
3. *Wedding!*Ancestral Homes!*Anniversaries!*Family Photographs/Text!
4. *Family History! *Reunions!*Stories/Streaming Video!*Photographs!
5. Necrology: A Register of Deaths*Obituary*Death Cards*Gravestone
+ The German Heritage Museum Board of Directors, Staff and Roberts Cove Friends are scheduled to visit Arthur Avenue for a ‘Tour, Desserts and Coffee’ experience. I cannot wait!! We will have the laptop ready for the perusal of ‘German’ links (and a copy of Suzanne Louises’ paper!!!)
+ ‘Place Based’ Imperial Calcasieu/Acadia Parishes Educational Field Trip for 4th graders on Arthur Avenue begin this quarter. The lesson plan has been written. (While walking the children over to the public library I want to explain the Lake Arthur Health Clinic location as invitation, “if interested in the medical field, please consider Rural Health as an option!!”) While in the library the children could receive a 1904 + history lesson as to the impact of the fishing, oil, trapping, lumber and water way commercial influx on the town of Lake Arthur/the year Arthur Avenue was built.
Silent Retreats are in place for the first quarter of 2009 and as the ceilings on Arthur Avenue are being painted while contemplating the next trip to Raleigh, NC/Puerto Rico tending all the above and many more ‘links’ and life of various ministries … peace I have, my peace I give.
Lead, Kindly Light!
43-A) …for the youngins or not-so-youngins!
Christmas 2008 Treasure Hunt on Arthur Avenue!
(The clues to the questions are found in the ‘Arthur Avenue Rooms’ listed next to the question!)
1) PawPaw and MawMaw Monlezun had how many children. Who is the oldest and who is the youngest?
2) What was MawMaw Monlezun’s last name before she was married? (The Girls’ Bedroom)
3) What was the name of the cow that old PawPaw Antoine Monlezun used his milking stool for?!! (The Living Room)
4) List the musical instrument MawMaw Monlezun liked to play that had red handles; she played many instruments, but this one was special!
(The Front Porch Room)
5) In what year was PawPaw Monlezun named the Knights of Columbus ‘Father of the Year?’ (The Front Porch Room)
6) In what year did PawPaw and MawMaw Monlezun marry? (The Original Bedroom)
7) What was the name of the Catholic School which many of your aunts and uncles attended? (The Back Room)
8) Where are the 4 framed photographs of MawMaw and PawPaws daughters? (The Girl’s Room)
9) How many pictures of MawMaw and PawPaw’s children are hanging just over the sofa in The Back Room?!
10) In which Room is the… Hensgens’ Wall?
…the Monlezun-Peterson Walls?
…the Miller-Broussard Wall?
…the Reiners’ Wall?
…the St. Maria Goretti School Special Collection?
11) What year was MawMaw ‘Catholic Daughter of the Year?’ (The Original Bedroom)
12) Where is PawPaw and MawMaw’s Marriage Certificate and who were the witnesses? (The Kitchen)
13) Where is Old MawMaw Monlezun’s white sweater which she wore for her 100th birthday party? (The Living Room)
14) In which room is a replica of PawPaw Monlezun’s office desk with the fluorescent lamp?
44) Tuesday, 10 February 2009
Anna Bernadette Monlezun-Pontón, A ‘Heritage Home’ with Hensgens and Reiners Family Lineage!!
Eldest daughter of Lee Joseph and Anna ‘Gertrude’ Hensgens-Monlezun
‘Arthur Avenue Heritage Home Tour’ for the German Heritage Museum Group of Roberts Cove, LA ~ Nineteen Souls in Attendance!!
Welcome!
“You have inspired and motivated me for this work by your energy and German sense of work through order, good and right example, love of the ancestors, love of the work and love for our beloved Cove! You are the reason we are here! Mom loved and respected you so!
Now you reside in my heart and are in my daily prayers!
I am humbled and privileged to host you in my ancestral home of origin.”
Thank you for your presence!
This paper for you is my ‘little way’ of tracking family names, photos, stories, memorabilia and reunions in sequence:
‘Hensgen/Reiners Genealogy < >A Family Heritage Sequence!’
GATHER! PRESERVE! MAKE RELEVANT!
WE ARE OUR ANCESTORS! WE’VE BEEN PRAYED FORWARD SINCE 1654!
1. Bricks ‘n mortar: my Monlezun/Hensgens ancestral home in Lake Arthur, LA co-owned by my eldest and youngest brothers and where I am the Caretaker visiting weekly to enjoy and make order!
A) 68+ years of paper and pics are being lovingly sifted through and data inputted into the ‘Greater Hensgens/Reiners Family Tree Maker’ and paper placed in Binders, categorized.
B) ‘Family Walls’ are in the main rooms and are added to over time… www.leadkindlylight.net/RoombyRoom.htm featuring memorabilia, paper, photos, books, artifacts.
2. 2005 ~ Monlezun/Hensgens/Reiners Family Chronicle Website links set up to receive print, pics and data.
3. a. Joseph and Anna Gertrude Reiners-Hensgens Family Reunion April 2007 hosted on Arthur Avenue by the Anna Gertrude Hensgens-Monlezun family/it was our turn!
Below ‘Listings’ are added to the Hensgens data:
“Reunions through 2019-Whose Turn Is It?!”
“Adoptions/Births/Deaths/Marriages”
“Necrology”
b. Highlighted ‘Hensgens Family’ Germanfest October 2007 from 1654: (3,275 names, 982 Marriages, 646 Surnames 19 generations current to February 2009), 575 sheets of paper, 16 vinyl tablecloths, 18 tables! Newspaper articles were written of the Christian Joseph/Tellers descendants family stories. A CD of said data has been presented to the Southwest Genealogical and Historical Library in Lake Charles, LA.
c. ‘Highlighted Reiners Family’ Germanfest 2008 from 1670: 1100 names, 334 marriages, 249 surnames in 12 generations (current to February 2009!)
3. Ongoing scanning of all things Hensgens/Reiners into my website www.leadkindlylight.net/A_HFC_Main_Page.htm www.leadkindlylight.net/Reiners_Main_Page.htm to this day and well into the future.
4. Offer accepted November 2007 to digitize the ‘German Heritage Museum (GHM) Photo Gallery A-Z’ (December 2007 to 24 March 2008) into our database…(2,000 digital photos & 38 batteries!) and burned 3 CDs for the GHM, Lawrence/Mary Reiners- Cramer and myself with zip drives available for German Heritage Museum database/Website as gift!
5. Inputting text/pics as a: A Family Heritage Sequence:
1. Germany: *Data!*Photographs!
2. Hensgens/Reiners Family Genealogy: *Data!*Photographs!
3. *Wedding!*Ancestral Homes!*Anniversaries!*Family Photographs/Text!
4. *Family History! *Reunions! *Stories/Streaming Video! *Photographs!
5. Necrology: A Register of Deaths*Obituary*Death Cards*Gravestone
6. Input into EXCEL Program the entire Hensgens family numbering 400-ish: full names, DOB/DOD, physical address, telephone, email address, generation, date data updated!!
7. Secure annually at Germanfest a ‘Hensgens/Reiners Table’ with electronic and print data shared and welcomed for Additions, Corrections and Deletions!
8. Offer to work with interested pioneer families of Roberts Cove through their ‘Family Data Coordinator’ or any interested family members. They would be invited to bring their family data to us at the German Heritage Museum or we can sit right down at their kitchen tables with our electronics and assist them by showing what can be:
A ‘Family Information Sheet’ to place into an EXCEL spread sheet:
Full names, DOB/DOD, physical address, telephone, email address, generation, data updated!!
Input name/dates into a Family Tree Make program
Set up Binders to receiver all paper and pics with specific categories/tabs
How it looks on a Website!
To share with them that which is in the hopper to upload on my site: ‘Streaming Video’ interviews to date: Lawrence Cramer (2006), Rusty Leonards (2007), and Josie Thevis (2008) aired on the Lake Charles, LA Diocesan Television segment, “Lead, Kindly Light!’ Also interviewed were Kenneth James ‘Kenny Boy’ Hensgens 2008 at the GHM and Ambrose Olinger 2008 interviewed in his home!
9. Network with: a.) Southwest Genealogical and Historical Library in Lake Charles, LA. who has a CD and printed documents of the “Greater Hensgens/Reiners Family Chronicle” and, b.) McNeese State University Library Archives in order to work with the libraries in the Hensgens/Reiners hamlets in Germany through ‘World Libraries/Archives!’ Could it be, we share this Sequencing/Matrix information through their system, as they have a translating capability. All would be made current post annual Roberts Cove Germanfests held the first full weekend every October. Could-it-be: during our annual Germanfest in the German Heritage Museum and at the ‘Hensgens/Reiners Table’ on our laptops with webcam for real time communication with our families in Germany (they are six hours ahead!) especially the younger generations!?! Have the newspaper folk there to capture the magic in the Museum!
Also to be prepared once every five years for the…
10. ‘Roberts Cove Heritage Tours’ where our families can touch once again…1654 to 2010 and utter a prayer on the home soil for all those who have gone before, are with us and who will come after us!
This ordering of paper and photograph has included electronic and print ‘Archival and Special Collections’ 2001 < > 2009:
GATHER! PRESERVE! MAKE RELEVANT!
1. CHRISTUS St. Patrick Hospital Archival Room and Heritage Center 2004
2. Greater Monlezun Family Reunion 2005
3. CSPH Department of Coordinated Care/Hurricane Rita Recovery Binder for Needs - Resources 2005-2007
This catastrophic event set in my mind and set in action at an accelerated pace the urgency of preserving…
4. Msgr. Irving A. DeBlanc Special Collection 2006-2008, MSU Archival Library
5. St. Maria Goretti Catholic School Special Collection 2006, MSU
6. Greater Hensgens Family Reunion, Lake Arthur, LA 2007
7. Reina Family Heritage Room & Web link 2007, “There Are No Artifacts in Cameron Parish!”
8. ‘Hensgens Highlighted Family’ Germanfest 2007
9. Personal Special Collection 2007, 60th Birthday!, MSU
10. German Heritage Museum Photo Gallery on CD, Roberts Cove, LA 2008
11. Family Genealogy Sequence < > A Family Matrix 2008
12. ‘Reiners Highlighted Family’ Germanfest 2008
13. German Heritage Museum Staff and Board February 2009 Tour of Arthur Avenue!!!
14. Invited to present my ‘Family Heritage Sequence’ on PowerPoint in the ‘Folklore Tent’ at Germanfest, Roberts Cove, LA October 3rd & 4th 2009!
January 2001 ~ 2009 “EVENTS ON ARTHUR AVENUE ALL THE YEAR LONG” because I am in the home weekly making order and thinking!!: Silent Retreats, Sing-Alongs, Traditional Family, Christmas Eve Gathering, Greater Family Reunions, High School Homecoming Fiestas and Class Reunions, Order of Carmelite Annual Board Meeting and Retreat, Various Meetings, Special Tours, Retreat Time for ‘Silent Retreat Alums’ as Requested, “Place Based Education Connecting Classrooms and Communities” 4th/ / 5th Graders throughout Acadia, Cameron, Imperial Calcasieu, Jefferson Davis and Vermilion parishes touring the home via a Lesson Plan!!!
Renee Aline Reina, my Italian/French-side-of-the-family-cousin is my stalwart Co-Worker without whom much of this work would still be in its infancy. Thank you Father for this Italian and French worker in your vineyard of tracking family!
ALLUS AUS LIEBE ZU GOTT! ALL FOR THE LOVE OF GOD!
These lovely ladies presented for Arthur Avenue the wonderful gift I am clutching. It is from the German Heritage Museum gift shop and is a
bronze holy water font with two angels in adoration on each side of the cross; made in Italy!
45) DATE: 6 June 2009 In the shadow of Pentecost in the Rich Month of The Most Holy Trinity! Corpus Christi! Sacred Heart of Jesus and the Immaculate Heart of Mary!
FROM: Anna ‘Bernadette’ Monlezun-Pontón, Homemaker!
TO: My Son, Most Reverend Bishop/s, Clergy, C.D.P./O.S.B./S.N.D.de N., Extended Families, Friends of Old and Strangers-No-Longer!
This is the latest edition of ‘Happenings’ sent periodically…it is a link on my Web of Gratefulness www.leadkindlylight.net that speaks to my little way of posting actions taken!! So many good things to do, to read, tend…The Vineyard is indeed a beautiful place, row by row!
+ Throughout my pilgrimage sojourn from entering the Congregation of Divine Providence (CDP) as an Aspirant at Moye High School in Castroville, TX age 14, to elementary and high school under the tutelage of the Olivetan Benedictine Sisters (OSB), Holy Angels Convent, Jonesboro, AR to Trinity University in Washington, DC with the Sisters of Notre Dame de Namur (SNDdN), I have had wonderful religious giants from each of these Orders in my life! Over time special Sisters of all three Congregations have invited me to join them as an Associate or Oblate and in time I have! Particularly poignant point is fifty years later on Sunday May 3, 2009, age 61, I returned to the motherhouse of the Congregation of Divine Providence in San Antonio, TX to be commissioned as an Associate. In 1959 I had returned home from Moye due to homesickness and, after entering Our Lady of the Lake University for my four year term in 1965, the week after my young brother and sister drowned in an accident the day after I graduated from high school, I again returned home due to profound grief. In This Time on Sunday May 3, 2009 I was commissioned in the most beautiful Chapel of the Sacred Heart at Our Lady of the Lake convent in San Antonio, TX and penned by Sr. Maria ‘Gaudentia’ Habetz age 93 of Roberts Cove, LA, the first religious Order in my life whose names I remember first uttered by my mother who received her precious early education at St. Leo’s School in Roberts Cove, LA ~ the names were these ‘Good Sisters’ in whose hands my parents placed me fifty years ago!!
November 2007 I was commissioned as an Oblate at Holy Angels Covent chapel with the ‘Good Sisters’ who continued my formation that was begun in my home by my parents and grandparents; I was commissioned along with Renee A. Reina, my paternal cousin who is the Detail Process Coordinator for many of my ministries! In 1987 age 37 I was first commissioned as an Associate with the Congregation of the Sisters of Notre Dame de Namur, Trinity Chapel in D.C. with my mother, husband and son present. I serve as an Associate/Oblate right where I am writing, teaching and engaged in apostolic action under the milieu of monastic spirituality by living and teaching Prayer, Study, Labor and Service through my Silent Retreat venue of the Dailiness of Prayer, Ordering the Home and Time Management with a Christian Perspective; a contemplative in action of you will! This I have taught for 28 years!! I am content and fulfilled; the only homesickness I experience now is for Home in eternal life one day at a time!!
+ ‘The Medjugorje Message Abides in Him and Is For All!’ ‘Dominique Joseph ‘Nique’ Monlezun, Jr. My Fraternal Nephew!
He is the eldest of two sons, total of three children born to my youngest brother Dominique Joseph and Tina Louise King-Monlezun
Nique has been inspired to write since his pilgrimages to Medjugorje 2008/2009 and I feel humbled to publish his reflections on my website www.leadkindlylight.net/READ_READ_READ.htm
He is a third year honors premedical student at Tulane University in New Orleans, LA, (accepted just this week to Tulane Medical School 2011!) and currently the elected Louisiana Students for Life Executive President. He also works on national policy and legislation in Washington, D.C. with the Students for Life of America.
…part of an introduction on his link…
Aunt Bet!! February 3, 2009
“ …I'm attaching the first installment of reflections. What I have done is write down the reflections as faithfully as I can and then run them by a local Catholic theology college professor or our Dominican priest here at Tulane to ensure that there is nothing in the reflections contrary to the fullness of the Truth safeguarded by Holy Mother Church.
My prayer goes with the reflections that they may serve a little purpose sent from a little heart, as they proclaim the messages of the one whose "heart was pierced so that the thoughts of many may be laid out for [her]." Mary's messages, echoing Jesus' Gospel is what I hope I pass to you now in gratitude for the light you live that shown in Maw-Maw who first taught me to listen to Mary and trust her to lead us to her Jesus Christ, her Son.
Tah-Tah (!) seems to be continuing all the way up till today and slipping into eternity...” [Tah-Tah is a ditty hummed by my mother! I have sort of picked it up!]
Peace, Your nephew, Nique
This is exceptional profound reflective writing and one is sure to be enriched by his depth and perception of The Light that guides him as it is there for all!
Christmas 2008 Nique gave to me a bound copy of his ‘Reflections.’ I have placed this treasure in ‘Reverend Mother’s Room’ upstairs on Arthur Avenue as others read within the quite of her walls…this room was the original bedroom of Nique’s father! Our heavenly Father brings all good things around, for the goodness and generosity of Nique’s father is visited on his son!
Idea:
+Katherine Anne (niece) ~in that you and yours are in Brevard, NC in the sight of the wonderful Anne/David Trufant…could-it-be ~ you and Anne (she is a Christian recording artist!) compose and record a song for Students for Life/Pro-Life!?! 2) could-it-be that Nique comes to know of Camp Kahdalea and Anne’s diocesan contacts in that it is a wonderful retreat site for the Board/Workers/State Presidents for National Students for Life!!
+Nique ~ your three cousins Katherine Anne and Antoine Adolfo are in that D.C./VA/NC corridor as well as Rachel Sherburne (Your maternal grandmothers are sisters!) who resides in Newport News, VA.!! She is Director of Strategic Communication, Military Ministry www.militaryminister.org Rachel.sherburne@militaryministry.org (757-928-7854)! Rachel and Antoine will try to meet for sailing on the Chesapeake this summer before his trip to Australia! Network, children, network; you were all raised the same way and are serving The Father as He leads and inspires as you build up the Kingdom on this side~ Lead, Kindly Light!
+ Well! It is official! I have been invited and I accepted to play ‘GRANNY BASKETBALL!’ I was recruited at the funeral home! I think the lady said that we are called “The Hot Flashes!” As I learn details about scheduled scrimmages I will post on my link “Where Are My Keys and Let’s Go!!!” Friends from the hospital said they would stand in line for tickets all night if they have to and will attend sitting next to Héctor with Margaritas and a Defibrillator!!! Hector said that I must hit the pool and learn to breath; he has also begun purchasing the little bags of Lays potato chips!! Please, before you ask, you must be at least 50 and of the correct gender! Obviously the Granny thing is optional!!
www.leadkindlylight.net/documents/Where_Are_My_Keys_and_Lets_Go_005.pdf
+ Germanfest 2009 in Roberts Cove, LA the first full weekend in October hosts a Folklore Tent for presentations on different and interesting topics. I have been invited to speak to my favorite topic “How To Gather! To Preserve! To Make Relevant! To Sustain a Family Heritage Sequence!” It will be a Power Point presentation of work since 2007 tracking and documenting my Hensgens and Reiners Family Data, Pics and Text on my link, ‘Hensgens/Reiners Family Chronicle’:
www.leadkindlylight.net/Hensgens_Family_History_Reunions_Main_Page_1.htm www.leadkindlylight.net/Reiners_Main_Page.htm You are invited to read Happenings #44 about the wonderful ‘Arthur Avenue Heritage Tour’ enjoyed by the German Heritage Museum Board, Staff and Volunteers of Roberts Cove with photo!
www.leadkindlylight.net/documents/4_Happenings_008.pdf
+ Recently while visiting my son Antoine in Raleigh, NC we attended Sunday Mass where he sings in the choir at the Cathedral of the Sacred Heart in downtown Raleigh! Love that city! After Mass I suggested to Antoine that we invite the Celebrant to bless his recently acquired vehicle and it was arranged. In the rain, Rev. Msgr. Sherba said that he didn’t need his asperges to bless in that the rains would suffice and then said upon approaching the vehicle, “that is a beautiful SUV” and I immediately replied, “Yes and it is pre-possessed!!” Antoine leans forward in that we were in a row under umbrellas and said, “Mom, the word is pre-owned” and leans back again! Msgr., not missing a beat said, “Well! If it is pre-possessed, I’d better hurry and maybe even exorcise it while I’m at it!!!” So ‘The Tank’ is blessed and carrying he and friends safely to and from the Outer Banks on weekends where they sail, dance to this islandy parrot-sound-thing and bike the peninsulas like the Island child he is; born to it by genetics!!! (Héctor is from Puerto Rico!!) ‘The Blessed Tank’ also carries a crew of his network of friends that he has recently organized to deliver Meals on Wheels twice a month!! He was invited to join their Advisory Board of Directors and for their annual fundraiser he was placed in charge of entertainment encompassing the theme of Mardi Gras! He booked a Zydeco Band from the Beach!!
+ Well it couldn’t have been more of a special day then First Friday 1 May 2009 the day of the first Place Based Education on Arthur Avenue and in the Public Library!
‘Arthur Avenue Heritage Home’ in Lake Arthur, LA is on the map, website and in the hearts and minds of the children, teacher, parents, guests and principal who have walked through those precious Heritage Rooms and those who are scheduled through 2012! Tis a true privilege to link the generations through artifacts, photos, text, memorabilia and stories not to mention the bicycles and attic!!
www.leadkindlylight.net/HeritageandArchivalSpecialCollectionsMainPage.htm
www.leadkindlylight.net/ArthurAvenue.htm
From the Lake Arthur Sun Times…Posted May 18, 2009
Bernadette Monlezun-Ponton, Coordinator of Place Based Education on Arthur Avenue and Caretaker of the Arthur Avenue Ancestral Home, executed an informative place based educational day at the Monlezun family home on Arthur Avenue in Lake Arthur on May 1, 2009. Place Based Education utilizes a student’s surroundings and environment to teach subjects across the curriculum.
The experience is designated to heighten the desire to be of service to one’s community because of a strengthened bond with community and family. The myriad of curriculum areas covered include: Social Studies, History, Language Arts, Reading, English, Writing, Art, Civics, and Citizenship.
Mr. Louis Cramer, Principal, and Ms. Carmen Pousson, 4th grade classroom teacher, of St. Francis Catholic School in Iota provided the eager students for the day’s activities.
Father Clyde Thomas, pastor of Our Lady of the Lake Church, offered a blessing for the day that focused on the holy ground of the ancestral home and the gift of the repository for exploration
found in the library. Dominique Joseph Monlezun who Co-owns the Monlezun home with his brother, Lee Joseph Monlezun, Jr. M.D. was also present for the day’s event.
Available to greet visitors with words and smiles of pride in sharing the beauty of Lake Arthur was Mayor Red Giles, Dr. Linda LeBert-Corbello, Ph.D Director, Jefferson Davis Parish Public Libraries, Marion Fox, Executive Director, Jefferson Davis Economic Development and Tourism Commissions, and Cousin Anne Fautt.
The class was divided into two groups to facilitate a two-part ancestral experience. One part involved half of the class walking across the street to the Lake Arthur Public Library to
view a presentation entitled: “Lake Arthur’s Centennial 2004” by Dr. Virgie Dronet, Ph.D who presented the evolution and historical framework for the town of Lake Arthur.
The second part of the experience was a tour of the Monlezun family Heritage Home with an emphasis on learning about Family Heritage, Lineage, and Community. The title of the tour
was: “Reverencing Those Who Have Gone Before.” The lovely 109 year old two story home has been ordered to display and depict life in earlier times of the family’s life along with
certain rooms designated to highlight both the paternal and maternal sides of the family dating back to 1694. In the home are artifacts and memorabilia about the family and the community of Lake
Arthur.
As a culmination activity the school children were invited to begin to document their own family tree from their family lineage. They have planned to continue their study of family heritage and history upon returning to school by interviewing an elder in their family and documenting all that they have learned.
Fourth grade students of St. Francis School in Iota pose for a class photo on the Old Ford in front of the Monlezun Ancestral Home located at Arthur Avenue, Lake Arthur, Louisiana.
~ A Gentle Reminder to Joseph Hensgens Family Members ~ 14th Reunion Sunday June 28, 2009 in Raymond, LA hosted by the Habetz Family Members! You are invited to bring any Hensgens/Reiners papers, photos or special memory items for the Memory Table and with your permission, we will digitize or scan your treasures right into the Hensgens/Reiners Family Chronicle link right there on site as we will do during Germanfest at the ‘Hensgens/Reiners Table’ on the northwest corner under the Big Tent!
~ The 36th Silent Retreat on Arthur Avenue is scheduled for 12 Home School Moms!!
~The Medical Resource Book was presented to the Cameron Parish School Board Superintendent and RN’s in their schools in Grand Lake, Hackberry, and Grand Chenier, LA. They are now duplicating the Book for students and parents as we will be presenting the Book by Power Point to the parents beginning the new school year August 2009! www.leadkindlylight.net/documents/MRB_MAIN_PAGE.pdf
May the Father, By His Grace, lift the hearts, mind and souls of the ill, the dying and families of the deceased, the marginalized and the lost! To the travelers, “Vaya con Diós!” Lead, Kindly Light!
46. “My Mom the Rural Health Doctor of Nursing Practice”
by Dominique Joseph Monlezun Jr.
As you walk into the waiting room, the tan-leather chairs lining your way to the receptionist window gives the feeling that you just walked into your living room. The receptionist greets you warmly like your mother used to when you would come home from school, “so how was your day today?” As you are led into the exam room, you see the white coat enter the room with a disarming smile and gentle eyes. And you probably would never guess that this nurse in this little rural health clinic earned her Doctorate in Nursing Practice from the nation’s top nursing program.
This is the Lake Arthur Health Clinic, a rural health clinic in Southwest Louisiana, a town of 3000 people operated by Dr. Tina Monlezun, APRN, DNP, BC-FNP. She is a family nurse practitioner who earned her Doctorate in Nursing Practice with a 4.0 GPA from the University of Tennessee Health Science Center in May of 2009. Her doctoral clinical focus is in endocrinology and pediatrics (thesis on Childhood Obesity). This only adds to her already thriving medical practice which Monlezun has owned and operated since 2001 as an L.L.C. with her husband, my Dad.. But to her patients, this advanced degree only confirms what they have been saying for years anyway: “We need to go see Dr. Tina.” This deeply resonates from their hearts of gratefulness.
Dr. Monlezun has completed this cutting edge program while simultaneously working full time as the owner and administrator of the 5000-patient rural medical facility. She has attained this prestigious level after 27 years as a nurse working full-time and attending school full-time. Her eleven employees work alongside Dr. Monlezun providing a coordinated response to complex health economic issues while developing community educational programs and continuous quality improvement programs.
In addition to providing excellent medical care for her patients, Dr. Monlezun serves as the Region III Leader for the Louisiana Action for Healthy Kids and as the past Regional President of the American Heart Association.
Dr. Monlezun got her start after her mother died when she was 13 years old, leaving Monlezun to help care for 8 brothers and sisters. She soon graduated Welsh High School and went on to become a licensed practical nurse at CHRISTUS St. Patrick Hospital. It was not long until she returned to school to become a registered ICU nurse then back to school at University of Louisiana Lafayette for Masters in Nursing, and later a certified Family Nurse Practitioner—all while juggling diapers, checkbooks, and cellular physiology textbooks.
Dr. Monlezun was honored by the Louisiana Association of Nurse Practitioners as the 2003 Entrepreneur of the Year and by McNeese State University as the Most Outstanding Nurse Practitioner Preceptor in 2007.
Tina Louise King-Monlezun is the wife of Dominique Joseph Monlezun and mother to Dominique Joseph, Jr., Christian Joseph and Suzanne Louise. Tina is the daughter of George Monroe and Dorothy Bertrand-King (1930-1975), parents of eight children from Welsh, Louisiana.
When the doctorate qualified her for positions around the country, Dr. Monlezun instead chose to return to her little rural town to don the white coat and step back into her patients’ rooms with that same gentle smile she learned, not from any book or professor, but from her life as a wife and a mother.
Here’s to you mom.
47) DATE: 14 October 2009
FROM: Anna ‘Bernadette’ Monlezun-Pontón, Homemaker!
TO: My Son, Most Reverend Bishop/s, Clergy, C.D.P./O.S.B./S.N.D.de N., Grand Hensgens/Reiners/Monlezun/Miller Families, Friends of Old and Strangers-No-Longer!
This is the latest edition of ‘Happenings’ sent periodically…it is a link on my Web of Gratefulness www.leadkindlylight.net that speaks to my little way of posting actions taken!! So many good things to do, to read, tend…The Vineyard is indeed a beautiful place, row by row!
+ Our son planned a wonderful birthday visit for us July past; he was twenty seven and my husband seventy three, one day apart! The Biltmore House and Inn in Ashville, North Carolina was quite the place to stay, celebrate and celebrate we did. The memories last a lifetime as Antoine will again realize on his planned holiday with friends bound for the Great Down Under ~ Australia ~ at the end of this month. I have dozens of votives ready as just the 17 hour flight one way alone will burn to kingdom come!!! He has planned in country flights for a three city tour to experience as much as possible; snorkeling should be phenomenal! His parents have spent a lifetime doing the same so the fruit doesn’t fall...!!
+ “My Mom the Rural Health Doctor of Nursing Practice” written by my nephew Dominique Joseph Monlezun Jr. is an outstanding tribute… Click www.leadkindlylight.net/documents/4_Happenings_006.pdf #46 to enjoy! He and his brother, Christian Joseph, brought to Arthur Avenue for a Silent Retreat Day the young adults affiliated with ‘Students for Life’ on university campuses throughout the state of Louisiana! What a meaningful day; what a committed, impressive and faith-filled group of young people. They loved the home filled with Gregorian Chant! Fr. Clyde Thomas recognized them by having them stand for warm applause from the congregation at the vigil Mass on that Saturday afternoon!
+ I wrote about my brother “Lee Joseph Jr. on Arthur Avenue reminiscing on a Friday evening after a three hour nap!! … quick notations by ABMP who hadn't napped!” Click www.leadkindlylight.net/documents/4_remembrances_of_mom_dad_004.pdf #83 to enjoy!
We were requested to bring a story to the 40th birthday party for my twin nephews; I wrote two! Click www.leadkindlylight.net/documents/4_remembrances_of_mom_dad_004.pdf # 84 and enjoy!
+ The ‘Back Room’ on Arthur Avenue, our ancestral home of origin continues to be added to as paper, pics, artifacts, memorabilia raise up through my tending once a week!
Click www.leadkindlylight.net/documents/4_The_Back_Room_003.pdf and enjoy it all!
The ‘Girl’s Room’ (German Heritage Room!) has been updated click www.leadkindlylight.net/documents/10_The_Girls_Bedroom_009.pdf to enjoy all!
The ‘Arthur Avenue Heritage Tours’ link contains an interesting letter of gratitude sent to a man who entered the water the day my brother and sister drowned in an attempt to save them, 44 years later…! Incredible! Click www.leadkindlylight.net/documents/13_Arthur_Avenue_Heritage_Tours.pdf
+ Three Roberts Cove German cousins whose grandparents were brothers and sisters, Sr. Mildred Leonards, CDP, Clarice Dischler-Stewart and myself, are on our way to St. Meinrad’s Archabbey in Indiana and Gethsemane Monastery near Louisville the home of Thomas Merton!!! I am finally going on this wonderful spiritual pilgrimage next month and cannot wait!! The Indiana Olingers will host us as they are a branch of the Roberts Cove Olingers! I will light a votive for you in these venerable sacred places. (The first priests in Roberts Cove were Benedictines from this Archabbey!!)
This weekend is our annual Oblate Retreat at Holy Angels Convent in Jonesboro, Arkansas where four women from Lake Arthur will be enrolled in the Oblate program! I will be thinking of Sr. Yvonne Lerner while attending this enrollment in eternal gratitude for our Goretti Sisters!
+ My husband insists I go on the ‘Roberts Cove Heritage Tour 2010’ to Holland, Germany, France and Rome!! I said if you really want me to!!! and in less than eight months will pack my bags once again, leave my keys and go!!! I have interesting ideas for linking my ancestral German family to Roberts Cove Germanfest 2010 by webcam real time…I must think and plan well! In the meantime my Grand Chenier cousin, Renee Reina, and I spent two full days at Germanfest 2009 … www.leadkindlylight.net/A_HFC_Main_Page.htm
It was a blessed weekend experiencing all in reverence and thanksgiving to our ancestors in setting us squarely on the path to eternal life through the active incarnating of the Sacraments and gospel living through our faith foundation, nobility of work and daily prayin' for the families!
Upon early arrival in Roberts Cove a visit was made to the church and in the cemetery standing at the flag- waving graves of my great-grandparents on both sides in thanksgiving then headed to the Hensgens/Reiners table to set up the electronics to do heritage!! And, we did as many young adult relatives came by and the laptops, scanners, printer, digital cameras were ablazing! They were able to see their names in the Family Tree Maker program…O, the comments about what they remember from their elders and so proud!!! We will be printing more H/R family trees from that very table next year! We scanned in pictures and data from forms filled out while answering questions, visiting, eating potato stew! …enjoying being with all.
Sunday found us celebrating the loveliest of Masses which is the very best way to begin Germanfest Sunday by lifting your solemn voice amongst all in choral unison and thanksgiving as one Body of Christ under the Big Tent rain or shine!!
Saturday and Sunday in the Folklore Tent Philip Fabacher, MD presented a thorough and fascinating ‘History of Roberts Cove!’ Following him, I began my Presentation ‘How to Compile a Family Heritage Sequence: Gather! Preserve! Make Relevant! Sustain!’ by observing that the Benediction Chapel under the oaks to the south where in 1980 six thousand descendants of the 41 original German immigrants gathered to celebrate, St. Leo IV church behind me to the west, the cemetery across the way to the north and the German Heritage Museum to the east completed the heritage circle as arms that embrace all those who visit for this is holy ground. I told of the treasure of Arthur Avenue where the heritage work continues and in closing said…“I sit at my grandmother’s table which sits where my baby bed sat! The ‘library’ upstairs is the former kitchenette of my parents first shared space after marriage. My desk sits where their kitchen table sat and where they dreamed their first dreams together! My father breathed his last in the Girl’s Room which is now the German Heritage Room and is where I sleep as in the beginning! Music in the Front Room which is where my parents sang their first songs around the old piano and songs were taught to the children. In the Living Room at Christmas the tree sits in front of the 150 year old bench made by my Basque French great-grandfather, Dominique. My electronic Web of Gratefulness emerges and I think and act from the heart!
I pray you peace and encourage you to link with the hand of your ancestors by prayer, thought, study or travel to their original land for your descendants. It is a way that makes infinite sense…we drink from wells we did not dig. We sit by fires we did not light! Live in a state of gratefulness, be watchful and wakeful, joy-filled reach out and serve with the gifts you have been given throughout the stages of your life. St. Jane de Chantel wrote, “Nothing so impedes perfection in a vocation as wishing for another.” Compilation of heritage is one of mine and I thank you for listening.”
To cap it all off, Clarence Aloysius Berken, my maternal first cousin, was named by the International Rice Association ‘Farmer of the Year 2009!’ He will be aired on my diocesan television segment ‘Lead, Kindly Light’ Sunday on NBC at 6:30 a.m. November 8, 2009! These segments remain as streaming video on the diocesan website www.lcdiocese.org! Enjoy!!
Lead, Kindly Light!
Oh! Our Louisiana Choral Foundation Masterworks Fall concert is around the corner…click for information ~ www.leadkindlylight.net/WhereAreMyKeysandLetsGoMainPage.htm
ALLUS AUS LIEBE ZU GOTT! ALL FOR THE LOVE OF GOD!