Opening his homily, the bishop began, “We are so very grateful for the gifts we have received over the years as a result of this parish and this church.” He went on to explain that buildings are generally built with the intent to “institutionalize an idea, a mission, a virtue, a memorial to some past event, or a blessing in some way.” In the instance of churches, the bishop noted that the very presence of a church building is meant to “give a silent witness to a greater mission when words are inadequate.”

That “greater mission” is undoubtedly the promise of Christ. Citing Jesus’ words from the Gospel of John, “I am the living bread ... whoever eats this bread will live forever; and the bread that I will give is My flesh for the life of the world,” the bishop highlighted the Eucharist as the “fountain and wellspring of that long hoped-for eternal life.” It is that hope, he concluded, for which we should all be grateful and of which Our Lady of the Shoals reminds us.

Following Mass, parishioners, young and old, filed into the parish hall for a barbecue luncheon, complete with various presentations and a slide show of years past.

History

While Our Lady of the Shoals Catholic Church may be half a century old, Catholicism in the Muscle Shoals area officially dates back much further to the 1800s. Over the course of those years, Irish, French, and German immigrants contributed to keeping the faith alive.

In the late 1800s and early 1900s, a nearby town of Sheffield was home to St. Joseph’s Catholic Church and Our Lady of Grace Catholic Church. Tuscumbia, however, was the first of the two to have a Catholic church, but sadly, that structure was destroyed in 1874 by a tornado. Two other church buildings would eventually be built — one in 1880 and another in 1932 under the name of Our Lady of the Sacred Heart.

In 1959, Our Lady of the Shoals Catholic School opened, complete with a chapel. Not long after the opening of the school, the church in Tuscumbia closed as did the two in Sheffield, paving the way for Our Lady of the Shoals Parish when the school closed in 1971.

The new church building, which was dedicated in 1974, was considered modern in design and function at the time, but the building included elements of the area’s history. Memorial windows of stained glass from Our Lady of the Sacred Heart Church of Tuscumbia were used as were the bells of both Our Lady of the Sacred Heart Church and St. Joseph Church of Sheffield and a statue of the Blessed Mother of Jesus from Our Lady of Grace Church. As the published parish history states, “This amalgamation of artifacts of the past truly completes the uniting of three parishes composed of parishioners justly proud of their separate heritages, yet, humbly grateful for their mutual blessings.”