Algona St. Cecelia's to hold seed blessings March 22-23

By KENNY KEANE, Globe staff reporter
Posted March 20, 2003

ALGONA - The economy in most rural areas of Iowa relies heavily on agriculture with many farming families.

The Algona area would be one example of a predominate agricultural community, particularly in looking at the farming parishioners of St. Cecelia Church, which account for 55 to 60 percent of its members, according to the church's pastor Father Paul Eisele.

Taking that into account, Father Eisele decided to carry over from his previous parish, St. Joseph Church in St. Joseph, the blessing of seeds.

"I did a blessing of seeds for the nine years that I was at St. Joe," he said. "What we usually do is have someone donate some corn, beans and oats. Then we have them in a large container, bless the seeds at a weekend Mass and then have some little baggies there that they can take home and mix those seeds with the seeds that they're going to plant in the near future."

The seed blessings will take place at each of the weekend Masses March 22-23 at St. Cecelia's.

"I think the most important thing is that we ask the Lord to bless the seeds and bless the other seeds that we're going to use for our crop this year so that we can have a successful and bountiful harvest," Father Eisele said. "Just like we would bless other items - cars, farms or our homes - we ask that the Lord continue to bless the seeds and the crops."

For one St. Joseph parishioner, Carol Bormann, who is a member of a farming family with her husband Francis, the seed blessings have been a tradition.

"We bring home some seed and put the seed in at least one of the fields," she said. "We're asking God to bless our crop. That's our whole livelihood.

"One cannot say that because we put that seed in the ground we do better because there are a lot of years we don't get much of a crop. It's the idea that it is part of our spiritual life and our acknowledgement of dependence on God. It's just part of the religious beliefs that we have - acknowledging God's importance and God's hand in everything."

Another farmer and St. Joseph parishioner, Don Wagner, said the significance of the blessings is to illustrate to the community that they are agriculturally oriented.

"So much of everything we do is hinged around the ground, around Mother Nature and around God's blessings with our crops," Wagner said. "We just rely on him morning, noon and night. There's never a minute that we can get away from our occupation.

"I can be done working someday, but when I go to bed that night we could have a storm that could wipe me out. I just think that it generally gives our rural, farming communities another piece of support - something that we can grasp a hold of to recognize the fact that we are working with God in this whole thing."

Bormann said even those parishioners who are not in farming right now understand the significance of the seed blessings because most of them came from farming backgrounds.

"I think it's good for everyone to acknowledge the fact, in an agricultural community, that God has a hand in this," she said. "It doesn't hurt everyone to stop and think about it."

Even though there are quite a number of non-farming families, Wagner said many of them make their living because of the farmers with the towns being supported by agriculture.

Father Eisele said it's always good in a parish their size with probably 500 families that are not farm related and maybe another 600 to 650 that are farm-related families that they see the process of getting ready for planting.

"It really brings the spring and the planting season in line with the church, the church year, the coming of Easter and all of the blooming that's taking place in our lives during the season of Lent leading to Easter," he said. "I just think it's healthy to incorporate our everyday life into the life of the church and ask the Lord's blessing on all that we do. That's going to be their life for this year - whatever happens to their crops."