Thursday, July 11, 2024

(291) It's Over But You Can Still Attend the National Eucharistic Congress Via Youtube and Be a Eucharistic Missionary and/or Knight of the Eucharist

 AMDG


        Note: After the Eucharistic Congress was over on July 21, I accumulated some of the youtube.com entries for different aspects of this momentous event.  In this way the reader can still access the Eucharistic Congress after the event via youtube.com.  Click on the link below that corresponds to the talk of interest.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=81RlX-NQzm4 - National Eucharistic Congress Opening Night July 17, 2024

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=93Q2kgvA31k - Full Speach of Msgr. James Shea, President of the University of Mary, at the National Eucharistic Congress July 18

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uWlgLLmHgkcSister Josephine Garrett's Full Speech at the National Eucharistic Congress

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QWAxXDYNr38&t=70sGloria Purvis' Full Speech at the National Eucharistic Congress

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DyQJCZh5A8Y - Sister Bethany Madonna's Full Speech at the Eucharistic Congress

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hQwx6Ph3cQsPaula UmaƱa's Full Speech at the 2024 National Eucharistic Congress

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=U2WbArhnI34 - Tim Glemkowski's Full Speech at the National Eucharistic Congress

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ejuMYWQ9b8A - National Eucharistic Congress Exhibit Hall

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7CoHsQ6_yYU - This Priest Was Brought to Tears Hearing Confessions at the National Eucharistic Congress

Drew Mariani's Full Speech at the National Eucharistic Congress - YouTube

w.youtube.com/watch?v=tZ1EmAdrhg0 - Astronaut Mike Hopkins' Full Speech at the 2024 Eucharistic Congress

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=H7iZEOxAWoE -  Actor Jonathan Roumie's Full Speech at the National Eucharistic Congress

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=l2QtWaEFq3E - Dynamic Fr. Mike Schmitz's full speech at the Eucharistic Congress

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_wwO9JxiMCM - Bishop Robert Barron's Full Speech at Eucharistic Congress

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LccklgQU8SA - Chris Stefanick's Full Speech at the 2024 Eucharistic Congress

    You can’t make it to Indianapolis, Indiana?  No problem!  You can participate and watch on EWTN cable, satellite, or internet at www.ewtn.com as four walking Eucharistic pilgrimages with the Blessed Sacrament in view with many stops to meet the faithful on the way, originating in Minneapolis (the Marian Group), Brownsville-Texas (the St. Juan Diego Group), New Haven-CT (the St. Elizabeth Seton Group) with a few miles on our own Ohio River near Steubenville, and the fourth walking pilgrimage from San Francisco (the St. Junipero Serra Grou) that moved through the Rocky Mountains……all converging on the National Eucharistic Congress in Indianopolis.


    Alarming polls conclude that most Catholics do not believe in the true presence of Jesus Christ in the Eucharist, the core belief of the Catholic Church.  This is the main reason that so many Catholics are drifting away from the Church.  To confront this crisis of unbelief the Bishops of the United States have organized a three year Eucharistic Revival at the diocesan, parish, and national level.  The revival culminates with the 10th National Eucharistic Congress.  PRAY FOR ITS SUCCESS!


    The National Eucharistic Congress features the best Catholic speakers in the country, lay and religious.  The National Eucharistic Congress will help you to become effective Eucharistic missionaries. Tell your relatives and friends about the awesomeness of the Eucharist…the body and blood, soul and divinity of Jesus Christ himself, the Son of God!  DON’T JUST KEEP THE FAITH; SPREAD IT!

10th National Eucharistic Congress Program on EWTN cable, satellite, and internet at www.ewtn.com 

Wednesday July 17 at 6 pm – Opening Ceremony with a welcome for the pilgrims that have walked with the Eucharist over a thousand miles from the North, South, East & West.

Thursday July 18 at 8 am – Mass; 10:30 am – Impact Session: “Empower”; 1:30 pm – Breakout Session: “Cultivate the Family Experience”; 6:30 pm – Revival Session: “The Greatest Love Story (II)”, Adoration, & Eucharistic Procession..

Saturday July 20 at 8 am - Mass in the Syro-Malabar Rite; 10:30 amImpact Session: “The Youth Experience”; 1:30 pm – Breakout Session: “Beautiful Revelation” and “Breaking Free From Post Christian Influence”; 6:30 pm – Revival Session: Keynote Speaker Bishop Robert Barron on “This is My Body” and Adoration.

Sunday July 21 at 8 am -  Revival: “To the Ends of the Earth” and Adoration; 10 am – Closing Mass presided by Papal Delegate Cardinal Luis Tagle with music by the Indianapolis Symphony Orchestra.

Supreme Knight Patrick Kelly Urges All Knights of Columbus 

to Become Knights of the Eucharist

      Many people all over the United States 

 have drifted away from the Church.  People have become very lax in full-filling their very serious Sunday obligation, thus putting their salvation in danger.  Mass attendance is much lower than 25 years ago when it often was standing room only. 

    Most, even those who do assist at Mass regularly on Sundays do not take seriously the Eucharist, God’s greatest gift on this side of eternity, His very self……Body and Blood, soul and divinity.  

Even though Church law stipulates Confession at least once a year, most have not taken advantage of the graces of the sacrament since childhood as though mortal sin has gone out of style, as if people don’t sin anymore.  Monthly confession is recommended to grow in virtue and holiness.  Thus the Eucharist becomes routine, some even going to Communion and then quickly exiting the church without spending a few precious moments with the Lord in thanksgiving, in intimate prayer, and communion with the infinite awesome God.  Shocking, are surveys indicating that most Catholics do not believe in the true presence.   

    Being aware of this alarming situation, the Bishops of  the United States have initiated a three year program of national Eucharistic revival.  It is a movement to restore understanding and devotion to this great mystery….. by helping us renew our worship of Jesus Christ in the Eucharist” (see www.eucharisticrevival.org). 

\The Supreme Knight sees it as “a call to renew – or perhaps even spark for the first time – each Catholic’s understanding of and devotion to the Eucharist.  As knights, we should be at the forefront of responding to this call.”  The first year focuses on the parish level, the second year at the diocesan level, and the third year will be climaxed by a national Eucharistic revival in Indianapolis IN July 17-21 2024.   Every Catholic has an important role in the revival.

At the national, state, and council level, the Knights of Columbus are actively engaged in the Eucharistic Revival.  According to Supreme Knight Patrick Kelly, “As Catholics and as Knights, the Eucharist is the ‘source and summit of the Christian life (Vatican II)’– in all that we do, the root of our strength. When we receive our Lord in Holy Communion, we are fed, then sent forth to be Christ’s emissaries to those we encounter — in our homes and neighborhoods, at work and in our greater communities.”

In fact Supreme Knight Patrick E. Kelly is urging each member to become a “KNIGHT OF THE EUCHARIST”.  That implies a willingness to promote an awesome respect for the Eucharist and to defend it from desecration even with his life. 

The more we devote ourselves to the Eucharist, the more we will understand what it means to be a Knight.  I personally challenge you to find ways to participate in this revival individually, as well as in community with your local council or state council.   I ask that you prayerfully consider what you can undertake. For those of you with families, how can you lead them on this journey as well?   We must “nurture a deeper love of Our Lord in the Eucharist among every member of the Church, beginning in our own hearts.”

    The Greatest Love Story of All Time And True.  God is love personified and His first act of love was to create us, his most magnificent creation, to share Heaven with us for eternity.  Adam and Eve yielded to temptation they knew was wrong, but didn't care.  Aren't we the same?  As a consequence of committing the original sin, God the Father closed the gates of heaven to humanity, but in His Divine Mercy promised a Redeemer.  

    Four thousand years later He kept that promise and sent his only begotten Son,  Jesus Christ, the second person of the Holy Trinity, humbling Himself to become one of us with many of the same difficulties of living, first as a helpless infant and later to teach us how to live and save us from our sins. 

  In anticipation of His Ascension into Heaven Christ instituted the sacrament, the Holy Eucharist on Holy Thursday......"This is my Body" and "This is my Blood", the transubstantiation of ordinary bread and wine into His body and blood, soul and divinity....the Lamb of God which the apostles consumed.  He then ordained the apostles and their successors to do the same today with the words:  “Do this in memory of me”.  

    The very next day, Good Friday He gave us His own Mother from the Cross of Calvary; and offered Himself and His immense suffering as a sacrifice in reparation for all the sins of the world…..past, present, and future….thus opening the gates of Heaven and unimaginable happiness for us if we follow Him and His teaching through the Church.  

    Our Lord continues to sacrifice Himself for us in an unbloody way through the priest at the Holy Sacrifice of the  Mass 24/7 all over the world as Calvary is brought to us in a mysterious way that transcends time (time collapses).  And we have the opportunity to participate in that awesome sacrifice every time we assist at Mass.

      The moment of sacrifice begins when the priests raises the Eucharist under both species and says the prayer, "Through Him, with Him, and in Him is to Thee Almighty Father all honor and glory.....".  The sacrifice is complete when we consume the Lamb of God as the Jews of the Old Testament did with their sacrifice of an unblemished lamb.  The Romans also consumed their pagan sacrifices.  Thus the early Christians preferred death than to eat of the pagan sacrifice which would mean active participation in a pagan ritual.

When we receive the Eucharist, we are for a few precious moments in intimate communion with the almighty God, the creator of the Universe, Christ the King of the Universe.  How awesome is that?  Our Lord loves us so much that he desires an intimate relationship with each one of us.  He manifests His infinite love for us in the gift of Himself in the Eucharist.  He departed from us when He ascended into Heaven, but yet remains with us in a real way in the Eucharist.  

He welcomes us with open arms to receive Him in the Eucharist and spend time with Him in prayer during Adoration.....one on one.  Jesus further manifests His infinite love for us in His divine mercy in the sacrament of Reconciliation and when we ask for it with sincere sorrow and repentance.  His great love for us is further manifested in His instituting the Church and the sacraments.  

In His love He sent us His Holy Spirit to teach us, to guide us, and to sanctify us.  He constantly shows His love in answered prayer.  He even sends His own earthly mother Mary to perform miraculous cures of ailments and to deliver messages of peace and repentance as a modern day prophet in her apparitions to selected people as the greatest missionary ever over the centuries.

In times of greatest crisis He has raised up the greatest saints and Popes as leaders, as models for living, as messengers (modern day prophets).  By all logic should not have survived through 2000 years due to periods of intense persecution, laxity, corruption, secularism, and materialism.  Today the Church still stands under the guidance of the Holy Spirit whom He sent.  The gates of hell shall never prevail against it.

Completing certain devotions as the First Fridays of the month, tje First Saturdays, reciting the Diving Chaplet in the presence of a dying person are great aids to salvation.  The power of His grace has changed many a life headed toward perdition.  

Our Lord allows us to participate in His work of on-going redemption.  That is through redemptive suffering by prayer and offering up of one's crosses (suffering due to illness, accident, hurts, misfortunes, etc.) as dynamic prayers for the conversion of sinners as Mary requested at Fatima, for world peace, for the Church, for our country, for our loved ones.  In that way suffering becomes productive instead of misery.        

       Awesome, but true.  Just look at Chapter 6 of the Gospel of John. CHRIST explicitly said:  “If you do not eat the flesh of the Son of Man and drink His  blood, you have no life in you”.  Only a symbol?  If so, Christ would have made a clarification when most of the people who heard Him walked away.  Is it beyond the power of our omnipotent God to change the bread and wine into his Body and Blood, Soul and Divinity through the priest, another Christ during the Mass? 

        Need more evidence?  Look at the numerous miracles of the Eucharist over the centuries, the most notable being the Eucharistic Miracle of Lanciano in Italy.  There the bread was transformed into flesh (heart muscle by analysis) and the wine into blood (Type AB), still preserved after a millennium.  The rather rare Type AB blood is common to Eucharistic Miracles and the Shroud of Turin as well.  All of the Eucharistic miracles are similar.  Go to www.therealpresence.org and the book, "The Eucharistic Miracles of the World" by the Institute of St. Clement I published by Eternal Life, Bardstown, KY.         

    The Knights of Columbus published a pamphlet with recommendations for the knights as individuals, his local council, and at the state level.   Each knight is asked to make sacrifices for the Revival (including offering daily crosses and setbacks; abstaining from meat on Fridays as a form of penance; prayer; devotions such as praying the Rosary at least on the 12th of each month (in honor of Our Lady of Guadalupe, the patroness of the order, for the success of the Revival and an increase in devotion to Christ in the Eucharist.  

    Prepare your heart: arrive 10-15 minutes early to each Mass to contemplate Jesus’ gift of himself. Give thanks: offer 5 minutes of prayerful praise after each Mass.  Be with Our Lord: Spend 30 extra minutes every week outside of Mass sitting or kneeling before the Blessed Sacrament. Attend Daily Mass: On days you cannot, make an act of Spiritual Communion.  

Pray for the gift of the Spirit during the National Eucharistic Procession.  Starting May 10, 2024, pray the Novena to the Holy Spirit in preparation for Pentecost and start of National Eucharistic Procession (May 17th) Learn more about the National Eucharistic Procession at www.eucharisticpilgrimage.org.  Unite with fellow Catholics: Register for the National Eucharistic Congress and encourage others to join you! (July 17 – 21, 2024, Indianapolis, Indiana.)  Knights of Columbus members are eligible for a discounted registration by visiting www.eucharisticcongress.org and using the discount code: knights.

      Local Councils are asked to pray together:  Each month invite members to pray the Rosary together on the 12th of the month for the success of the Revival and an increase in devotion to Christ in the Eucharist.  Adore and reconcile with Our Lord: Organize the Holy Hour Program with the Sacrament of Reconciliation.  Encourage parish participation: Share the Knights of Columbus Eucharistic Revival & Eucharistic Procession materials with your pastor/chaplain and offer to assist him in promoting Adoration and coordinating a Eucharistic Procession (www.kofc.org/eucharist). Unite at the Congress:

    Talk to your pastor to see if your parish will be represented at the National Eucharistic Congress. Register as a group from your parish/council for the National Eucharistic Congress (July 17 – 21, 2024, Indianapolis, Indiana).  Invite your council lector or another speaker to speak on topics related to the Eucharist. 

Monday, June 3, 2024

(290) Larry Haas (1961-2021) From Operating Room Nurse to Cancer Patient.......Care Giver to Care Receiver

 AMDG


A photo of Larry Haas in his prime as an operating room nurse in Columbus and later St. Mary’s Hospital in Huntington. 

            It’s three years this April that we lost Larry Haas.  Jaga and I brought him Holy Communion every Sunday during his fight against cancer.  His closeness to God continues to inspire.  He shared a lot with us and gave me some photos and other materials.  I promised that I would use it in an article that I would share with the members of our parish community and the knights. 

When he seemed to be winning his battle with cancer, Larry wanted to become a knight and in anticipation of becoming one attended a meeting.  If he had recovered his health, Larry would have been one of our most active members.  Thus I believe it is appropriate to write his story in our Knights of Columbus Newsletter.  We all can learn from his experience because sooner or later the time will come when each one of us will have to confront a serious medical problem and we all will pass into eternity.


The operating room where Larry Haas worked.

Larry Haas devoted his life to serving others as an operating room nurse first in Columbus and later at St. Mary’s Hospital in Huntington.  Larry Haas was instrumental in saving the lives of many a patient and helping them to recover.  His work included operating a heart-lung machine as a specialist in Perfusion Science.  He had considerable contact with anesthesia, disinfectants, etc. over many years.  

Finally, a carcinogen got to Larry and he fought cancer (multiple myeloma) with frequent doses of chemo, initially once a week and later once a month depending upon his blood level.  The doctor tried to keep a delicate balance of drugs to maintain a stable blood level.  He still suffered from severe pain and fatigue.  

The former health care worker made a career of serving others and trying to follow in the footsteps of the great healer.  Reminiscent of St. Damian who died of leprosy, Larry became a cancer patient himself and had to go through much of the turmoil and struggle, physical and  spiritual that his patients had to go through. 

Despite a prognosis of only 3-5 months, he depended upon doctors and nurses serving him for the next 18 years…..radiation, chemo, new forms of chemo, and more treatments…….progress, hope and then setbacks. He was hospitalized for pneumonia, caught Covid, and got over them both.  He never gave up and continued to trust in the Lord with faith and courage.  What a valiant fight!  

Larry would still make it to Mass when he could, wearing a mask even before the Covid-19 Pandemic because his immune system was compromised by the chemo.  He even attended one of our Diocesan Men’s Conferences.

     

Larry is with a former nurse, his beautiful wife Lee Ann who faithfully stood by him and cared for him until the end even though she herself had cancer.  Really they gave care to each other.  She had a video prepared for his funeral.  On the cover are the words: “No matter what the distance is, I will be with you…” from the song by Wolfgang Van Halen. That perhaps is being echoed by Lee Ann to Larry today.

      His wife Lee Ann, a beautiful person, has three different cancers and continues to fight on.  Both had a tremendous faith and trust in God through it all.  It’s beautiful how Lee and Larry took care of each other while Patty Hays regularly took him to the Cleveland Clinic for treatment.  Their faith, courage, and determination to continue on is exemplary.  They are unsinkable. 

Jaga and I brought Communion to Larry every week to complete the Mass on EWTN until Covid-19 hit.  We told them that suffering is a mystery and can be very productive.  That is by uniting their crosses with the Lord’s cross and offering it all up to the Lord as a dynamic prayer for the Church, our country, and for loved ones can be most effective.  Accepted in that way with trust in the Lord can make one a saint.  The Church calls it "Redemptive Suffering".  They were doing that and it gave them strength to continue on.

       Mother Theresa was “especially keen on the tremendous value of redemptive suffering.  Once a  journalist asked, “Mother, to what do you attribute the tremendous success of your order, over 400 nuns all over the world .  She explained that they have a corps of sick, suffering, and invalid people, each of whom are matched with one of her nuns.  Each is called the particular nun's “other person”.  The other person's mission is to offer up his/her cross for the work of the nun.  

Permit me to share some thoughts from Larry Haas himself in his own words from notes he left with me “with the prayerful and humble intention of possibly helping others suffering from cancer”.  In October 2003 he received the diagnosis of  Multiple Myeloma which has a six month life expectancy.  “I was immediately crushed.  My wife and I took a two week spiritual pilgrimage to Rome to see St. John Paul II as he was offering his sufferings up to God.  I came back with a better sense of the purpose of life”.  Our time on earth is really a preparation for eternity.

Then a patient instead of a health care worker giving care, “I learned to humble myself and let others help me.  My parents suffering showed me how to suffer for the good of others.  Larry quoted St. John of Avila: “You may well be content to serve our Lord in illness; for when He calls people to suffer instead of working for Him, He is calling them to a higher state.  It is most fitting that we should carry the cross with Christ.” 

“God’s plans and our plans aren’t always the same, but in the end God knows best.  He has a reason for all of us to be here even if we don’t see it right away.  God doesn’t always give us what we ask for, but He gives us what we need ”. 

Larry had a tremendous admiration for his parents, who “learned to rely on God for His help and guidance especially through the Great Depression.”  His father Don served in World War II at the age of 17 as a marksman and frogman (today Navy seal) who often dove without scuba gear.  “Don entrusted everything to God and made it home alive.”  This Navy veteran continued to serve our country by suffering for the rest of his life due to the severe mental effects of PTSD.  

His mother, “Rose Mary’s health was not very good.  She had many surgeries, including fibroids that left a quarter of an ovary.  She was told she had less than a 5% chance of having kids.  With God’s help Barbie, Larry, and Carolyn were born.  In 1980 Rose Mary developed breast cancer and died in 1987.  She; offered her prayers and sufferings to God for others as she went through her treatments. This trust in God was such a gift handed to us kids.  Our parents are also our heroes.”  This shows the legacy that parents give to their children that has effects for eternity……for good or bad.

Thank you brother knight (certainly in spirit) for your inspiration and for sharing your thoughts with us.  Thank you for making your suffering, your cross a prayer by offering it all to God for us and for praying for us now from eternity.  May we put into practice what we learned from you until we meet again in Heaven.  Let’s all make sure that we get there.  You made it; so can we with God’s grace!  

This thought gives the prayer….“Holy Mary, Mother of God, pray for us sinners now AND at the hour of our death.”…renewed meaning and importance especially when we see others go through a passion before death and can anticipate our own passion sooner or later.  We can’t say that prayer too many times.  Pray the Rosary and offer up every cross for peace and for the conversion of sinners.

APPENDIX

AMDG (Delivered at His Memorial Mass at St. Louis Church on April 27, 2021)

A EULOGY FOR LARRY HAAS (1961-2021)

        The prayer….“Holy Mary, Mother of God, pray for us sinners now AND at the hour of our death.”…….never had as much meaning to me than when we had the privilege of bringing the Eucharist to Larry three days before he died.  He was very restless and in severe pain, perhaps undergoing spiritual warfare.  He was going through his personal passion as we all will have to go through sooner or later.  So I learned that we cannot say that prayer too many times and in the rosary.  We all will very much need Mary’s prayers at the hour of our death.

       Larry Haas followed in the footsteps of the great healer as a respiratory therapist and perfusionist in open heart surgery for over thirty years until cancer forced him to retire.  Since 2003 with a prognosis of 3 to 5 months to live and a trip to Rome with a papal audience, Larry fought a valient battle…..radiation, chemo, new forms of chemo, and more treatments…….progress, hope and then setbacks.  He never gave up and continued to trust in the Lord with faith and courage.  He faithfully attended the Sunday Vigil Mass while he was able.  We would often talk after Mass.  Larry even attended a few of our men’s conferences despite feeling very tired.   He wanted to join our Knights of Columbus and attended a meeting with great enthusiasm.  Too bad that cancer would not permit his formally becoming a member. 

        Later, as Extraordinary Eucharistic Ministers, Jaga and I had the opportunity to know Larry well.  It was an awesome privilege to bring Christ Himself and His love to Larry in Holy Communion on Sundays when he could not attend Mass, to pray with him, and to help him in a little way prepare for his encounter with the Lord in eternity.  

Jaga and I were supposed to minister to Larry, but he ministered to us as much or more than we did to him.  He placed great value on the Eucharist and it gave him strength to continue on.  

One priest commented that “Those who die of cancer die like saints.  That statement is certainly true in regard to Larry.  He taught us how to live and he taught us how to die.  He was resigned to the will of God with great trust in His Providence……..that no matter what, it would somehow work out for the best in the long run.

        We prayed that the Lord would use all that Larry was going through to make him a saint and we believe He has.  We could see him grow spiritually.  Towards the end, Larry was ready, resigning himself to the will of God, knowing that the Lord is with Him.    

At Fatima Mary not only asked for repentance; she also asked us to “Make of everything you can a sacrifice and offer it to God as an act of reparation for the sins by which He is offended and in supplication for the conversion of sinners.”  Indeed, Larry offered up his aches and pains of his 18 year ordeal, the effects of chemo, and all of his suffering for that intention. 

Larry united his cross with the Lord’s cross and offered it all up to God through Mary as a dynamic prayer for the Church in crisis, the missions, for our country, for a better world and for his loved ones.  God knows how much our country and our world need prayer.  The prayers of the sick and the suffering are most valuable and very effective.  Thus Larry was very productive until the moment he died.  May we follow his example now and when our time inevitably comes.

Lee Ann, his wife, also has cancer and the couple took care of each other as it should be in marriage.  After all, marriage is supposed to be mutual sanctification and Larry taught Lee Ann much about the Church.

According to Lee Ann: “Last December Larry went to the Cleveland Clinic, but despite precautions somehow caught Covid.  Larry was on the list for a new chemo treatment that could have saved his life, but it had to be delayed because of Covid.  Larry was determined to return to me and he beat Covid!  But the cancer became uncontrollable.  That last month with him was precious”.

Towards the end it was much more difficult for Lee Ann.  “For better, for worse, for richer, for poorer, in sickness and in health, to love and to cherish, till death do us part.”  She followed her marriage vows to the end even to the point of exhaustion.  However, Patty Hays was there as an angel to help and to comfort.  She drove him many times to his doctors throughout the area.  Thank you Lee Ann, family, Patty, and Mario for the faithful support and love you have given.  

We love you, Larry.  Good-by until we see you again.  I know that you will be waiting for us when we’re all together again for that most joyful reunion in Heaven.  Let’s make sure that we all get there by being faithful practicing Christians with our lives and cooperate with God’s grace……every one of us!  I’m sure Larry will be praying for us along the way.

 Lawrence Haas Obituary

GALLIPOLIS — Lawrence Joseph Haas, 59 of Gallipolis, Ohio, passed away at home on April 13, 2021. He was born on December 21, 1961 in Ironton, Ohio. He was the son of Donald C. and Rose Mary Schweickart Haas who preceded him in death.

Larry graduated from St. Joseph's Catholic High School in Ironton in 1980, then attended Marshall University, Huntington, West Virginia; Ohio University, Athens, Ohio; The Ohio State University, Columbus, Ohio, where he graduated with a Bachelor of Science in Allied Medical Professions Respiratory Therapy in 1985, working there until 1989.

He then attended and graduated from The Christ Hospital School of Perfusion Science, Cincinnati, Ohio in 1992. He returned to Ironton to help care for his father, working at St. Mary's Medical Center as a Certified Clinical Perfusionist until retirement in 2015.

He is survived by his wife Lee Ann Baker-Haas, daughter, Heather Baker, sisters, Barbie Staggs and Carolyn (Eric) Edwards, brother-in-law's, Charles (Odelia ) Baker and Ryan (Ann) Baker, many nieces and nephews, great nieces and nephews and many beloved friends.

Larry lived to help other people, remaining active in the Catholic community as long as possible. He enjoyed learning, reading, teaching, biking, exercising and spending time with his precious cats.

Due to COVID-19, a funeral liturgy with Mass will be held for the family only. Burial will be at the Catholic Cemetery on St. Rt. 141 in Gallipolis.

A memorial Mass will be on Tuesday, April 20, 2021 at 11 a.m. at St. Louis Catholic Church.

In lieu of flowers contributions can be made to Catholic Relief Services, Billy Two Shoes, St. Louis Catholic Church or a charity of your choosing.

Arrangements are conducted by Waugh-Halley-Wood Funeral Home.

An online guest registry is available at www.waugh-halley-wood.com

To plant trees in memory, please visit the Sympathy Store.

Published by Ohio Valley Publishing from Apr. 19 to Apr. 20, 2021.