Page 203 - Always Virginia

Always Virginia 191

Mother’s Day, May 14, 1939
Sermon Written and Delivered by
Father John B. Day

John B. Day, age 27, was the son of Mary Pearl Lawler Day and
Bartholomew Day, and brother of Virginia Claire Day Fritscher,
who was seven months pregnant with the family’s first grandchild,
and his namesake, John Joseph Fritscher [Jack]. On the same Sun-
day, his brother James Day’s wife, Mildred [Horn], was five months
pregnant with their son, James Day.
SS. PETER & PAUL’S CATHOLIC CHURCH
207 Vandalia Street
Collinsville, Illinois

This sermon is from The Collected Sermons of the Reverend John
B. Day, edited by Jack Fritscher, to whom Mary Pearl Day gave
the sermon manuscripts the day after Father John B. Day died on
May 9, 1967.

Who ran to help me when I fell?
Or would some pretty story tell,
Or kiss the part, to make it well?
My Mother.

Mother! The sweetest word in all the English language! Try to
define it and you cannot find the right words to express yourself. So,
my friends, after searching for many years to find the best defini-
tion for this beautiful word, I am at last convinced that the most
complete expression of what motherhood is and what it means, is
found in the verse of the poet I just quoted.