Bishop Nickless to deliver keynote at Trinity Heights 15th annual celebration

By RENEE WEBB, Globe editor
July 13, 2006

Trinity Heights Queen of Peace in Sioux City will host its 15th Annual Prayer and Celebration Day on July 30 with activities to be held on the Trinity Heights campus and at the Sioux City Convention Center that day.

A highlight of the day will be the 5:30 p.m. banquet at the Sioux City Convention Center.

"That is where the celebration part of the day will take place. We will have Bishop R. Walker Nickless as our guest speaker," noted Larry Walsh, a member of the spiritual committee at Trinity Heights.

Jim Wharton will serve as the M.C. for the event.

"We are celebrating because of the many graces in the people that have come together to help create a peaceful place of prayer called Trinity Heights," noted Walsh.

He pointed out that in the early 1980s Father Harold Cooper had led a group of people in prayer daily at the old Trinity High School and College property, which they did not own, but with the hope that some day a shrine to Mary, the Queen of Peace, might be established there.

"Those folks prayed the rosary there daily at 4 o'clock and since the early 80s those prayers were answered with the purchase of the land in 1987 and the placement of the beautiful 30-foot stainless steel statue of Mary, Queen of Peace in 1992," said Walsh.

The July 30 event also celebrates other aspects of Trinity Heights such as the gift of the life-size Last Supper by Jerry Traufler, the building of the chapel, the Tomb of the Unborn and Way of the Saints.

"These are all gifts from a loving God and the mother of Jesus," he said. "It was they who urged the countless hundreds of volunteers that made possible the work that Mary tells us to do - to do whatever Jesus tells us."

He extended special words of thanks to architect Jim Duffy, who has offered so much in the way of inspiration and design to various shrines and settings at Trinity Heights.

At the banquet, attendees will also be informed about plans for the future of Trinity Heights Queen of Peace.

As with years in the past, the day includes a time of prayer on the grounds of Trinity Heights.

Father LeRoy Seuntjens, pastor at St. Mary's in Hawarden, will lead the 3 p.m. prayer service at the foot of the 33-foot statue of the Sacred Heart of Jesus. Those gathered will praise Jesus through song and Scripture. Father Seuntjens will offer the homily.

"For those that would like to carry on the tradition of rosary prayer, the rosary will be led in the Chapel of Divine Mercy at Trinity Heights at 4 p.m.," noted Walsh.

Should the weather be inclement, the prayer service will be held in the Marian Center.

"Everyone is invited to join us in thanksgiving for the many gifts received, so that we may truly do whatever it is that Jesus wants us to do," he said.

Cost of the banquet, featuring the keynote address by Bishop Nickless, is $25 or $175 for a table of eight. To order tickets in advance, contact Judy Verschoor at (712) 239-8670. Tickets may also be purchased at the door on July 30. There is no charge to attend the activities earlier in the day at Trinity Heights.

The grounds of Trinity Heights will be open all day.