Father’s Day Mass Sunday, June 15, will celebrate 25th anniversary of Father Jerry Blake’s ordination to the priesthood
Fr. Jerry Blake ...
Day of Ordination ... Fr. Jerry Blake stands with his mother, Mary, during the day of his ordination to the priesthood. Fr. Blake was ordained June 3, 2000 at the Cathedral of St. Raphael in Dubuque. Submitted photo.
The public is invited to a special Jubilee Mass to celebrate the 25th anniversary of Father Jerry Blake’s ordination to the priesthood, Sunday, June 15, at 3 p.m. at St. Mary’s Church, Hanover. A reception and meal will follow at St. Patrick Catholic Church Hall, Waukon.
HISTORY
Father Jerry William Michael Blake was born November 28, 1954 in Waukon. He was the ninth of 13 children, born to John Patrick and Mary (Hammell) Blake.
Fr. Blake attended kindergarten through sixth grade in a one-room country schoolhouse before attending Waukon Junior High School. He attended ninth grade at St. Patrick High school (before it closed) and finished his high school career at Waukon High School, graduating in 1973.
After high school, he spent 21 years farming with his brothers on the family’s organic farm near Hanover.
After taking a lay ministry class from 1991-1994, he was accepted as a seminarian for the Archdiocese of Dubuque in 1994 and attended St Paul Seminary in St. Paul, MN, where he achieved his Master of Divinity in 2000.
He was ordained to the priesthood by Archbishop Jerome Hanus, OSB (Order of Saint Benedict), at the Cathedral of St. Raphael in Dubuque, June 3, 2000.
The group of five priests ordained that day was “the largest in a decade for the Dubuque Archdiocese,” according to a story in the Dubuque Telegraph Herald that ran at the time.
ASSIGNMENTS
Fr. Blake’s first assignment was as associate pastor at St. Francis Xavier Basilica in Dyersville. He later served in the Hancock/Winnebago Counties Cluster, Key West (near Dubuque) and surrounding area and Traer (in a newly formed cluster). Since 2014, he has served at the Holy Family Cluster in Clarion.
Fr. Blake’s daily Litany begins with the Blessed Mother and ends with St. Joseph. Some others he includes in his daily prayers are St. John Bosco, St. John Vianney and St. Francis DeSales. On his days away from the parish, he returns to the Hanover area to work on the family farm with his brothers.
THE JUBILEE
Following the 3 p.m. Mass at St. Mary’s in Hanover Sunday, June 15, the public is invited to a reception and meal at. St. Patrick Church Hall in Waukon. The meal will be catered by Wings of Dorchester, and WW Homestead Dairy will supply the milk.
The menu will include chicken cordon bleu, beef tips, mashed potatoes with gravy, carrots, various salads, rolls, and cake for dessert.
