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Dedicated to The Most Reverend Joseph L. Howze, Bishop of Biloxi, and to all the priests, religious and laity who have served Our Lady of the Gulf Parish throughout its existence.
We acknowledge with appreciation the Hancock County Historical Society, its president, Charles Gray and
parishoners who assisted in the production of this booklet.
An Introductory Message
The occasion of our sesquicentennial as a parish is an opportunity to celebrate giving praise to God for the blessings we share at Our Lady of the Gulf. Thanks to lived fidelity and generosity, we inherit a tradition of faith that has endured since 1847. In celebrating an occasion like this, we naturally look back at our history and in so doing, we see the present in a broader context and we even get a peek into what the future may hold.
Although our Catholic theology says “we are the church,” most people see that the priest more than others incarnates the church, and the authors of our history in chronicling the lives of our parish’s 14 pastors show a continuous thread of the spirit’s work in our local community through times of war and peace, depression and prosperity, calm and storm.
While newcomers can pick up this faith story of 150 years and be enriched, their perspective will be somewhat like viewing our church building from the outside. When one goes inside the building and looks at the sun shining through the stained glass, the view is much richer. To have known or been a part of the many dedicated priests, brothers, sisters and unsung parishioners who invested their lives, their time, their money accomplishing so much in often difficult curcumstances is testament to what grace and nature can do to reflect the beauty of God. As the sun reflects the beauty of the stained glass, the more invested we are or have been, the more we reflect the Son fully alive and the more we have cause for pride and gratitude on this occasion of celebration.
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