BLUE BELL, Pa. – All through his outstanding lifetime, the Rev. James Kelly has baptized hundreds of individuals, married hundreds extra, ministered to the sick in hospitals, and traveled the world extensively. He grew to become mates with an opera celebrity and, sure, even with a saint.
The longest-serving priest within the Archdiocese of Philadelphia lately celebrated the seventy fifth anniversary of his ordination and his a centesimal birthday. He’s grateful to have reached these milestones, however practically did not after experiencing a well being problem final 12 months that required life-saving surgical procedure.
He feels God gave him some additional time and tries to make every day depend.
“The Lord was fantastic to me to present me the well being and the energy and the vitality to journey, to fulfill stunning issues — God was all the time giving me surprises,” Kelly says.
Born on Jan. 7, 1925, within the Philadelphia neighborhood of Roxborough to a devoutly Catholic household, Kelly’s path to the priesthood appears ordained from the beginning. He beloved attending church. Different youngsters dreamt of changing into athletes, medical doctors, firefighters. He needed to be a priest.
“After I was 4 or 5 years outdated, I’d play Mass,” he says, laughing, as he remembers that his dad and mom had been his first congregants. “I all the time had a bit altar in my room, and I’d have a glass, and a few flowers in there, and I’d make a vestment, put a shawl on, and have some sweet, and provides Communion to everyone.”
Kelly wakes up at daybreak to rejoice Mass on the retirement residing group that he now calls residence. He listens to opera. He bakes pies.
Recollections, parachute jumps and climbing a bridge to save lots of a life
Sitting in his room, Kelly flips by a photograph album detailing his journey. He smiles with each web page flip, pointing to black-and-white pictures of him as a toddler and milestones as a Catholic — his baptism, affirmation and ordination as a priest.
“I turned down Hollywood!” he says, laughing as he factors to the portrait of a dapper, younger priest, his hair slicked and flashing a large smile.
He additionally factors to the photograph printed by a Philadelphia newspaper of the time when he climbed in his Roman collar to the highest of a bridge and dissuaded a person from leaping to his dying.
“No one would climb there, so I climbed up — it was 400 ft excessive. It was a bitter chilly day,” he says. “I used to be in a position to speak to him and break him down emotionally, so he wouldn’t bounce. I informed him, ‘What’s your grandchild going to say someday: Papa, why didn’t you’re taking me fishing?'”
He factors to different pictures of the various ceremonies he proudly led throughout his 19 years as pastor of Saint Pius X Parish in Broomall, Pennsylvania, about 10 miles (16 kilometers) west of Philadelphia.
There are pictures of him throughout a trip in Mexico when he made a parachute bounce. Or that one time, when he visited the majestic Iguazu Falls on the border between Argentina and Brazil, which he remembers as one of the vital stunning sights of his life.
“All over the place you turned, there was a rainbow, there was a mist … the water gushing forth and spray and the colours,” he says. “It was, as the children would say, superior.”
Creativeness, mates and being grateful for the straightforward pleasures
Creativeness, he says, is one in all his favourite phrases, recalling that he wrote his faculty thesis on it. “Jesus used his creativeness to show,” he says, in what grew to become an instance when he ready his personal sermons.
He treasures different reminiscences, comparable to touring to greater than 100 international locations and assembly Saint Teresa of Kolkata, often known as Mom Theresa. Kelly says the 2 grew to become mates over time after assembly in Philadelphia and operating into one another on the Church of the Holy Sepulcher in Jerusalem. The centenarian additionally shared the time when he took a gaggle of blind youngsters to a stay efficiency of his buddy, acclaimed soprano Joan Sutherland.
“I’ve been lucky to fulfill among the most luxurious, good individuals on this world, they usually’ve been most beneficiant and gracious to me,” Kelly says.
As of late, he enjoys easy pleasures: the style of cherries, a stupendous track, or his favourite meal — roast rooster with mashed potatoes, contemporary string beans, and corn on the cob.
He loves studying and sometimes attends lectures on music, artwork historical past and Egyptology on the Normandy Farms Estates retirement group the place he resides in Blue Bell, Pennsylvania.
His condo is adorned with a portray of the Virgin Mary that he drew with chalk, a portrait of his mom, and a word signed by the late Pope Francis.
On his bedside desk, he retains a picture of Carlo Acutis, the Catholic Church’s first millennial-era saint. Kelly is impressed by Acutis, who died at 15 in 2006. Particularly Acutis’ devotion and the way he used his laptop abilities to create a web based exhibit about scores of eucharistic miracles acknowledged by the church over centuries.
The ritual of a humble each day Mass and the key to an extended life
Each morning, he wakes up with out the necessity of an alarm clock and says the identical prayer: “Lord, what shock do you will have for me at this time?”
“I hope it’ll be a pleasant one which I’ll love and luxuriate in. I by no means know, however I wish to thanks for no matter occurs at this time.”
After a cup of espresso, he celebrates Mass in his condo for just a few residents of his group.
“After I moved right here, I by no means thought I used to be going to have a non-public chapel!” Kathleen Quigley, a retired nurse, quipped after a latest service. “I simply love my religion, and he’s such a stronghold of religion that it’s fantastic for me to have. I simply come proper downstairs, have Mass, we speak, he shares his meals.”
Kelly as soon as ministered to giant congregations, however he feels the each day Mass in his front room is as vital.
“It’s not in a stupendous chapel or church. But it surely’s right here that I can supply my love and efforts to the Heavenly Father,” he says. After the ultimate prayer, he all the time remembers to be grateful.
“That’s all I can say — two phrases: thanks. It’s fantastic that I’ve one other day, and I’d have the ability to eat some scrumptious cherries at this time, and meet individuals, new mates,” he says. “God is aware of what surprises I’ll encounter at this time.”
His secret to longevity?
“I drink numerous milk,” he says, laughing. “And I say numerous prayers.”
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