Fox Cassidy was 11 years old on the big day in April 1976 when Bishop Thomas J. Welsh came to dedicate Our Lady of the Shenandoah Mission in Basye.
“Thinking about it makes me feel a little old,” she said. “Everybody was very excited. We had a new parish and the bishop was coming to bless it. We all got together afterward for a meal with our friends and family. Fifty years later, our little church on the mountain keeps going.”
Nestled next to the ski slopes of Bryce Resort, the mission on the western boundary of the diocese marked its 50th anniversary April 12 with Bishop Michael F. Burbidge celebrating Mass, followed by another feast with friends and family.
“We think of Father Sal (founding pastor Father Salvator ’Sal’ Ciullo), Bishop Welsh, the members of the committee and the board, and original founders who have gone home to God, marked with the sign of faith,” said Bishop Burbidge. “We remember them at this Mass and we pray for their eternal happiness and peace. And we rejoice 50 years later.”
The warmth and intimacy that has characterized the mission for a half-century was on full display by the hundred members who attended the anniversary Mass. “This is just a fabulous place to be,” said parishioner Louise DiBenedetto, who noted that the only full-time staff member is Father Robert L. Ruskamp, administrator of the mission and parochial vicar of St. John Bosco Church in Woodstock, which is its mother church. “We are such a tight-knit community and we all come together to keep it running.”
“I’m amazed at some of the times the congregation is standing room only,” said Father Ruskamp. “There are a good number of Catholics in the area. Our core group is very active and devout. We facilitate prayer groups, women’s study groups and we get visiting youth groups for skiing, and it’s a wonderful thing to have Mass available for people on vacation.”
Although the mission offers the sacraments year-round, parishioners are happy to embrace the moniker of “ski church.”
“We spent years with our children coming off the ski slopes, putting ski boots in the vestibule, and everybody shuffling in with their ski pants on,” said Amy Heilbrun, who has been a parishioner for 20 years with her husband, Mark. “It has been such a gift to have this mission church on the mountain for us.”
“We can come here any day of the week, any time of the day to come and reflect,” said Mark. “As the bishop talked about today, this is a place to find peace and renewal.”
Longtime parishioner Sally Montrey said that the mission is experiencing the same growth the Catholic Church is experiencing across the country. “We used to be a mostly mature community with retirees,” she said. “But now we’re seeing young families with children coming and it’s very promising.”
By contemplating on the words — “Jesus, I trust in you” — that Christ asked St. Faustina to inscribe, Bishop Burbidge encouraged all to take the message of Divine Mercy Sunday to heart.
“Sometimes I think what can paralyze us in growing in our spiritual lives and in our relationship with Our Lord is a sense of guilt or shame,” he said in his homily. “We remember those things that we have done in our lives that were not of God. Maybe the serious things that we have committed and we think we’re not capable — we’re not capable of rising and beginning anew. So Divine Mercy Sunday shares some good news with us as at this beautiful resort today.
“I’m often asked why I don’t ski and I say it’s because I’m afraid of heights and I hate falling. And that really is the story of our spiritual lives, isn’t it? The Lord calls us to greater heights, greater holiness and sometimes we fall. Divine Mercy Sunday reminds us that when we do fall, the Lord is there to pick us up. He never tires of forgiving us.”
Moments after Mass, Montrey stood outside on the cool spring morning and expressed her gratitude for the bishop’s words, and for her church on the mountain.
“This,” she said, “is our little piece of heaven here.”
