‘He loved us to the very end’
CHARLOTTE — Parishioners were once again allowed the opportunity to solemnly venerate the cross inside St. Patrick Cathedral April 2 during a Good Friday liturgy celebrated by Bishop Peter Jugis.
COVID-19 pandemic restrictions last year during Holy Week prevented the faithful from indoor worship, forcing liturgies to be livestreamed, and on Good Friday, meant outdoor veneration of the cross in front of the main doors of the cathedral.
During the liturgy – held at 3 p.m., the hour Jesus Christ died on the cross – a limited-capacity number of people gathered to recall the sacrifice of God’s only begotten Son for the salvation of souls. It included the reading of the Passion narrative, thus taking the faithful on the tortuous journey Christ suffered from the Garden of Gethsemane through His crucifixion on Golgotha.
“He loved us to the very end,” Bishop Jugis said in his homily. "During Jesus’ entire life – everything that He said, everything that He did – was an expression of His love for humanity (and) our salvation.
“And here He is approaching the end of His life, the supreme moment of His life, still an expression of His love for us."
Due to health concerns with the ongoing pandemic, the faithful were permitted to venerate the cross by bowing or genuflecting momentarily, instead of a customary kiss of the cross.
The liturgy also included two Solemn Intercessions for an end to the COVID-19 pandemic, prayers that were introduced on Good Friday last year by Pope Francis.
— Catholic News Herald. Photos by SueAnn Howell, senior reporter.
Prayer, the Holy Spirit and St. Joseph
GREENSBORO — Hannah Hammer knows the power of prayer.
At 93, she’s seen a lifetime of prayers answered personally and for so many others, including generations of members of the St. Joseph’s Prayer Group at St. Pius X Church in Greensboro.
“You can come late and leave early,” says Hammer. “What we celebrate is the Holy Spirit.”
Hammer joined the group in 1972 when they met in private homes and at various Catholic parishes around Greensboro. Hammer has led the circle of parishioners for nearly 30 years, and members of the group say they feel blessed to pray with her.
“Our mission is to pray for prayer requests of parishioners,” says longtime member Christine Plesh. “It’s a call to prayer. And when you answer that call, the Holy Spirit leads you. It just affects our whole life.”
St. Pius X’s pastor Monsignor Anthony Marcaccio says Hammer and the prayer group are a gift to the Church.
“Not everyone prays in the same way and the St. Joseph’s Prayer Group is an expression of the great spiritual diversity of the Church. As pastor, I have relied on the prayerful support of this intercessory group in matters of great importance and in dealing with individuals needing special pastoral attention,” Monsignor Marcaccio says.
“In addition to the charismatic gifts of the Spirit that Hannah may be known to possess,” he says, “I appreciate the ‘maternal’ gift she shares with our parishioners. I have sent people who have struggled with issues of family and forgiveness to talk with Hannah, and it is amazing to witness the peace and acceptance that often comes to them from their conversations.”
Growing up Methodist, Hammer answered the call to Jesus at an early age.
“We may as well have been Catholic, because we never missed church,” she says. As a teen, she remembers kneeling at the altar, giving her life to God: “God, if there’s anything about me you could use, you can have me.”
After World War II, “the boys” came home and then went off to college thanks to the G.I. Bill, Hammer recalls. It was at “Chapel Hill” where she met her future husband Dick Hammer, who she says had just flown 35 missions as a bombardier in Germany. They started a family and were blessed with six children, 20 grandchildren and eight great-grandchildren.
Hammer’s conversion to the Catholic faith was purely intellectual, she says, until years later when she was abruptly introduced to the power of the Holy Spirit. In 1972, the Hammers, along with five of their six children, barely escaped a massive house fire.
“Awoken by a sweet smell of inky black smoke, I thought I might lose my family,” she recalls. “I did not ask God to save anyone. I simply cried out to God these three words: ‘They’re yours, Lord.’ (After that) wave after wave of pure liquid love washed over me. I had never felt such a saturation of peace.” 
Prayer group members Gail McGrail, Betty Hofer, Desmond Morrissey, Christine Plesh, Father Bob Ferris, Hannah Hammer and Dottie Alieksaites meet outside St. Pius X Church. (Photos by Georgianna Penn | Catholic News Herald)Once safely outside away from the fire, she counted every family member. “At that moment, I moved from believing in God to knowing God. I knew for a fact there was a God and He loved me.
And the most important thing in the whole universe is Truth. And that Truth is not a philosophical thought…that Truth is a person.”
Shortly thereafter, the Hammers discovered the St. Joseph’s Prayer Group. It was clear to them that they were under the watch and care of St. Joseph himself.
“It’s the power of the Spirit that makes God exciting, and that power comes – as it says in all four gospels and the Book of Acts – from the baptism of the Holy Spirit.”
The way fellow parishioners see it, the entire parish – not just members of the St. Joseph’s Prayer Group – has been blessed to come under the watch and care of Hannah Hammer.
“Hannah has been anointed by the Holy Spirit,” says Rosalie Russo.
Parishioner Dottie Alieksaites adds, “Hannah has been such a blessing to the St. Pius X community. She is just a treasure.”
— Georgianna Penn, Correspondent