New Church of St. Bernadette
by Father J. O'Regan
from Jersey Catholic Record, 1972
Ah Bob! a job well done!
As time flies and the opening day looms nearer, I wish to express my sincere thanks and appreciation to Bob Le Clercq, foreman of J. Troy and Sons, Jersey Builders, for the care and devoted interest expended on our new church project, and expert attention to 'all things great and small' connected with the building.
I admire him most of all for his patience and tolerance with personnel problems, weather interference, and the non-arrival of materials due to strikes, go-slows and slipping clutches, not forgetting the late arrival and survivals.
The Two `Derricks'
Once upon a cold and frosty day, the troubled sea chaffing with La Rocco, our Bishop Derek arrived on the site to appraise the progress of the project. Since his consecration as Bishop of Portsmouth in 1965 on a wintry day, he has experienced his fair share of rough weather in these islands. He has also since that day `hoisted' many a new church including St. Bernadette's `in between' St. Peter and La Moye for the mutual benefit of these districts, and which has received its fair share of advice and fatherly concern.
from Jersey Catholic Record, 1972
Ah Bob! a job well done!
As time flies and the opening day looms nearer, I wish to express my sincere thanks and appreciation to Bob Le Clercq, foreman of J. Troy and Sons, Jersey Builders, for the care and devoted interest expended on our new church project, and expert attention to 'all things great and small' connected with the building.
I admire him most of all for his patience and tolerance with personnel problems, weather interference, and the non-arrival of materials due to strikes, go-slows and slipping clutches, not forgetting the late arrival and survivals.
The Two `Derricks'
Once upon a cold and frosty day, the troubled sea chaffing with La Rocco, our Bishop Derek arrived on the site to appraise the progress of the project. Since his consecration as Bishop of Portsmouth in 1965 on a wintry day, he has experienced his fair share of rough weather in these islands. He has also since that day `hoisted' many a new church including St. Bernadette's `in between' St. Peter and La Moye for the mutual benefit of these districts, and which has received its fair share of advice and fatherly concern.
Our picture shows our Bishop Derek overlooking nothing and noting everything with his shepherd's eye, and perhaps recalling the day when he decided, as the Davidic psalmist expresses it (Ps. 79) to `transplant the Vine out of Egypt', closing Our Lady of the Immaculate Conception, St. Peter's and St. Teresa's, La Moye-so that in Les Quennevais, `in this chosen place, the name of the Lord would be blessed for evermore, and endure like the sun; and every family shall be blessed in him, and all the nations shall bless his name.'
Not far away, but out of our picture, a noisy derrick was hard at work hoisting up the materials of the new House of God, and appropriately enough, sporting a scarlet coloured cowl sixty feet up.
Derek's every wish became for our own versatile derrick a command, with fingertip obedience.
Derek's every wish became for our own versatile derrick a command, with fingertip obedience.
The Walls of Troy !
Our second picture reflects the persevering labours of all concerned. With apologies to the few classical scholars still about, for the liberal use of the accommodated sense of interpretation, we see the new struggle for the walls as a reflection of the Trojan war. The Homeric Epic, with all its drama of trial, endeavour, love and battle which gave rise to the ancient Dunasian adage, pregnant with a depth of human analysis of experience of human nature: `cherchez Ia femme' has a certain similitude here.
Alexander (the saviour) renamed Paris, son of Priam and Hecuba, and grandson of Hercules, needed all his inborn ancestral traits to help him deal with some of the goddesses, especially Evis (strife) and Ate (troublemaker). Illion-Aeneid of Homer, poet of Troy, recalls the needs, deeds and greeds of the gods.
Helen of Troy, whose face launched a thousand ships and caused twelve thousand ships to cross the Agean Sea to rescue her from the Homeric City near the sea, in Asia Minor. The key note was the great interest all had for Helen, the source of all their joy and woe, and the Walls of Troy, which held her captive.
Our struggle for St. Bernadette's has also been a testing epic: to find a suitable site, at a reasonable price; to find sufficient capital; to beg and borrow, to press on in search or permissions, approvals and alterations, adaptions; to find God-sent helpers, advisers and benefactors.
Helen of Troy, wife of Menalaus, the king of Sparta, daughter of Zeus and Leda, may never have existed save in the erudite mind of a Grecian scholar, but our St. Bernadette's, though now only inanimate materials, will become a 'temple of the living God', and all its cost, in terms of cash, human effort and anxiety, will be repaid a thousand times and more, when within these new 'Walls of Troy', the adorable sacrifice of the Mass will be offered for the first time.
Our people will share in the presence of the Lord, and hear His word-the Gospel-the Good News of Redemption- a scriptural Aeneid with all the chosen coin of fancy, flashing out from many a golden phrase'; they will share too in the 'Supper of the Lord', and relish a joy the ancient Greeks never had-`far away on the ringing plains of windy Troy,' the joy of having our God with us - Emmanuel.
We have a new church raised up for the Lord at Les Quennevais, but as St. Paul writes to the Ephesians (2.7) `He has raised us up . .. that in the coming ages He might show the immeasurable riches of His grace in kindness towards us in Christ Jesus'.
Our second picture reflects the persevering labours of all concerned. With apologies to the few classical scholars still about, for the liberal use of the accommodated sense of interpretation, we see the new struggle for the walls as a reflection of the Trojan war. The Homeric Epic, with all its drama of trial, endeavour, love and battle which gave rise to the ancient Dunasian adage, pregnant with a depth of human analysis of experience of human nature: `cherchez Ia femme' has a certain similitude here.
Alexander (the saviour) renamed Paris, son of Priam and Hecuba, and grandson of Hercules, needed all his inborn ancestral traits to help him deal with some of the goddesses, especially Evis (strife) and Ate (troublemaker). Illion-Aeneid of Homer, poet of Troy, recalls the needs, deeds and greeds of the gods.
Helen of Troy, whose face launched a thousand ships and caused twelve thousand ships to cross the Agean Sea to rescue her from the Homeric City near the sea, in Asia Minor. The key note was the great interest all had for Helen, the source of all their joy and woe, and the Walls of Troy, which held her captive.
Our struggle for St. Bernadette's has also been a testing epic: to find a suitable site, at a reasonable price; to find sufficient capital; to beg and borrow, to press on in search or permissions, approvals and alterations, adaptions; to find God-sent helpers, advisers and benefactors.
Helen of Troy, wife of Menalaus, the king of Sparta, daughter of Zeus and Leda, may never have existed save in the erudite mind of a Grecian scholar, but our St. Bernadette's, though now only inanimate materials, will become a 'temple of the living God', and all its cost, in terms of cash, human effort and anxiety, will be repaid a thousand times and more, when within these new 'Walls of Troy', the adorable sacrifice of the Mass will be offered for the first time.
Our people will share in the presence of the Lord, and hear His word-the Gospel-the Good News of Redemption- a scriptural Aeneid with all the chosen coin of fancy, flashing out from many a golden phrase'; they will share too in the 'Supper of the Lord', and relish a joy the ancient Greeks never had-`far away on the ringing plains of windy Troy,' the joy of having our God with us - Emmanuel.
We have a new church raised up for the Lord at Les Quennevais, but as St. Paul writes to the Ephesians (2.7) `He has raised us up . .. that in the coming ages He might show the immeasurable riches of His grace in kindness towards us in Christ Jesus'.
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