DEDICATION DAY FOR THE NEW SACRED HEART PARISH SCHOOL..........

For the past five months I have lived In Residence and ministered at Sacred Heart Church at 39th and J streets in East Sacramento. For nearly the past ten years Sacred Heart Prish School, Mercy General, and East Sacramento neighborhood groups, have been negotiating, fundraising for, planning, and then building, a new Sacred Parish School, to make way for the new Mercy General Alex Spanos Cardiac Care Building on the old, original parish school site for the past 75 years. Today, was the Dedication Day of the new, state of the art, Sacred Heart Parish School, on 39th Street between J and H Streets. Sacred Heart Pastor, Reverend Monsignor Robert Walton, and a legion of Sacred Heart parishioners and school families, along with Mercy General Hospital / Catholic HealthCare West, and the City of Sacramento, brought the project to fruition and made this Dedication Day possible. A festive and celebratory day it has been. Tours of the New School campus were conducted by parish school volunters and students from 2:30-5 pm. Then a celebratory Mass of Dedication was concelebrated with Msgr. Walton officiating, Bishop Emeritus Francis Anthony Quinn formally presiding and preaching the homily, and myself and Sacred Heart Parish School alumnus, Reverend Father John Lagomarsino, Pastor Emeritus of St. John the Evangelist Parish in Carmichael, as concelebrants of the Mass, and Deacon Mr. William Riehl, assisting. At the Dedication Ceremony on the New School campus, which followed after a procession from the Church, Sacred Heart School 1978 graduate, Kelly Brithers was Master of Ceremonies, and featured remarks by Msgr. Walton, Mayor Kevin Johnson, and the Prayer of Dedication and Blessing, by Bishop Quinn, with assistance from current Sacred Heart students. A BBQ on the old school campus and final tours of the original school buildings followed
with music by the band, 'The Q Balls'. 850 persons turned out for the gala festivities. What a meaningful and wonderful day it was capping off Sacred Heart Parish School's 75th Anniversary. Starting in September 1934, under the leadership of Sacred Heart's 2nd Pastor, Rev. Msgr. Michael Lyons, the mothers of the parish, and the Sisters of Mercy of Auburn, who provided two Sisters as teachers to 68 students, it has continued to its Diamond Jubilee Year to provide stellar Catholic education. The Sisters of Mercy staffed and were Pribcipals of Sacred Heart Parish School for many, many, of these seven and a half decades. I have been privileged to be at Sacred Heart at this historic time in the parish school's legacy. JESUS MEEK AND HUMBLE OF HEART, THANKS, GLORY, AND PRAISE, TO YOU FOR THIS DAY OF DEDICATION AND ACCOMPLISHMENT FOR SACRED HEART PARISH SCHOOL, Fr. Troy

*****Were I not committed to being here for the New School Dedication today, I would be in Yreka, celebrating the Golden Jubilee - 50th Wedding Anniversary of DAN and JUNE GIRDNER, my former St. Joseph's parishioners and beloved friends..........