50 YEARS OF LOYAL SERVICE

Brother Ed Nolan shows the pure
crystal ball with multi-colored
feathers in the official colors of
the tribe of Barona Indians.

Late in the afternoon of October 20, 2018 the Barona Tribe of the Kumeyaay Nation of American Indians paid tribute to Brother Ed Nolan on the 50th anniversary of his dedication to the service of the Church.  Coincidentally, it has also been 40 years that our brother has ministered to the people of Barona, Viejas and Sycuan, all small communities of the Kumeyaay Nation under the aegis of the Diocese of San Diego.

I am writing this under the banner of "Salettinian" because 40 years ago, Bro. Ed (as he is affectionately called) and Fr. Alan Beauregard, both members of the Immaculate Heart of Mary Province of the Missionaries of Our Lady of La Salette arrived on the Barona Reservation to establish a new mission amid people who had been without dedicated spiritual support and guidance for some time.  

Over the years, many changes have occurred to change the face and the soul of both, the La Salette missionaries and the Barona mission.  The most spectacularly visible change is the hugely successful casino that dominates the landscape of the reservation.  

The other change is that the La Salette missionaries no longer provide spiritual services to the reservation.  For a while, after the official departure of the La Salette Missionaries, the diocese of San Diego provided a priest for the Indians.  Through that specific era, the one guiding, visible constant was Bro. Ed.  I know from sincere stories told to me by the parishioners, that Bro. Ed has indeed been the constant.

For the last few years the parish has been entrusted to the SVD missionaries.  The pastor and Bro. Ed are a very highly respected and beloved team.  That was on full frontal display during the event honoring Bro. Ed.

Besides Bro. Ed, me and my beloved spouse, Belle, so much of the festivities were enacted in the penumbra of the La Salette presence.  The celebratory homily for the occasion was aptly delivered by Rev. Fr. Ronald Hebert, also a missionary rooted in the now integrated La Salette missionary province of Mary, Queen of the Americas.  Fr. Hebert and Bro. Ed are dear friends and are dedicated to mutual support in ways innumerable to mention.  Fr. Hebert is now retired from administrative drudgery but helps out with spiritual services in a parish near his residence.

It is impossible to report on this event without elucidating the power of spiritual memory that remains impregnated in the hearts, minds and souls of the People who have traversed this era under the spirit of the Beautiful Lady.  Many people spoke last night about their admiration of Bro. Ed.  The refrain was, always present, always willing, always humorous, always giving, always teaching, respectful of our dead, keeps his promise, loves us ... and inevitably what followed was the insertion of the memory of their beloved Fr. Alan, now deceased for 10+ years.

I am driven to write this because I want you all to reflect on the lives that we, La Salette Missionaries (yes, I said "we") offer to the people of the world, the very beings whom the Beautiful Lady called, "My People."  It is not just Fr. Alan, Bro. Ed, Fr. Salois, Fr. Ted, Fr. Richard.  It is all of us.  The loving spirit of Our Holy Mother, the Merciful, Beatitudinous Grace of Jesus and the all encompassing sacramental presence of the Church persists in Barona.  Bro. Ed's vowed celibacy is a sacramental force in this Native American Nation and for all of those who come in contact with it.

Finally, lest you be tempted to give me credit for what you have just read, let me tell you that interlaced in what appears here are the word and the thoughts of what was spoken at the Mass and at the celebratory dinner where close to two hundred people were seated, exchanging prayerful memories and basking in the power of what it means to be loved by God and His Missionaries.