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NEW PRIEST

Ballston Spa native offers first Mass at his home parish

Although the historic house where Rev. Harry Monaco, OFM, grew up was in a perpetual state of renovation, it was built on a firm spiritual foundation.

"My home was a safe and sacred place where love flowed," Father Monaco told the congregation May 24 at St. Mary's Church in Ballston Spa.

He was delivering his first homily at the same parish where he had been baptized 45 years earlier, had been an altar server and had made his First Communion and confirmation. Father Monaco was recently ordained a Franciscan friar in New York City.

He urged St. Mary's parishioners and those who had traveled to attend the liturgy at his home parish to make a safe place for Christ to dwell within their own hearts and souls. 

Reflecting on words from the first letter of St. John, "God is love and all who abide in love abide in God," Father Monaco said: "Today's reading is about home in the deepest sense of the word....It is not a place that is confined to in any particular geographic space or any specific structure."

Dreaming big
Expressing gratitude to his parents, Angela and Harry Monaco Sr., and his siblings, Father Monaco confessed that he used to drive his loved ones to distraction by drawing elaborate floor plans for dream houses.

Throughout his childhood, his father put in long hours fixing up the family's century-old home. "He must have gone through that old house wall by wall rewiring, insulating, plastering, sanding and painting while I kept showing him examples of what I considered to be really nice homes," said Father Monaco. 

The youngster did not realize until many years later that his dream home would not be constructed of goods found in any building supply store.

Now a theology teacher at St. Bonaventure University, Father Monaco shared the altar at St. Mary's with Revs. Thomas Kelly, pastor; John French, a retired priest of the Albany Diocese; Peter Fiore, OFM, of Siena College; and David Blake, OFM, of St. Bonaventure.

Following the service, which ended with a standing ovation, Fathers Fiore and Kelly said the occasion had evoked fond memories of their own ordinations and first Masses. 

"I was reliving the joy and happiness of my own ordination in 1955 and of my first Mass at St. Mary's in Glens Falls when I looked out on the faces of my parents and loved ones," said Father Fiore, a scholar in residence at Siena College who often celebrates weekend liturgies at St. Mary's in Ballston Spa.

Father Kelly, who celebrated his first Mass at his home parish in Ireland in 1968, said he was "happy for Harry and also happy for the memories that flooded back today."

Phases of life
Franciscans in attendance noted that the recent ordinations of Father Monaco and three other Franciscan friars for the order's Holy Name Province are significant because all four men are "second-career priests." 

Father Monaco, for his part, worked in a variety of social outreach programs before entering religious life.

"I was attracted by the manner in which St. Francis of Assisi chose to live the Gospel," he explained. "I was inspired by the story of his work among the lepers in medieval Italy and seriously pondered the possibility of vocation during my adolescence, but ended up taking the slow route to my destination."

Along the way, Father Monaco held a position as a social worker in Boston. 

"Working among the homeless, many of whom had problems with drug addictions and had tested positive for HIV, certainly influenced my decision to pursue this vocation," he said. 

Father Monaco added: "St. Mary's has been a consistent place and presence. It will always be my home parish."

(06/04/09) [[In-content Ad]]

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