Jerrine and Nadine Racek were startled when they saw a tall man in black clothing on their front porch.
After all, it was Christmas Day and they were snowed in.
"I got so scared. I didn’t know what to think. Who would come out in weather like that?" Nadine said.
The two women didn’t need to be frightened. The man in black was their parish priest, who’d hopped aboard a snowmobile to take communion to as many people as he could.
The Rev. Brian Kane is priest at St. George Catholic Church in Morse Bluff and Sacred Heart Catholic Church at Cedar Hill.
Kane celebrated Mass at 6 p.m. Christmas Eve at the St. George parish. About 40 people attended.
Kane tried to drive to Sacred Heart for midnight Mass, but couldn’t get there because of the drifts.
About 15 people attended 9 a.m. Mass on Christmas Day at St. George, and Kane planned to visit his grandparents in St. Edward, but that didn’t happen. Instead, parishioner Jake Walker, a senior at North Bend Central High School, stopped by to give him a ride on his snowmobile.
"We went riding through the drifts and had a great time," Kane said.
The two went to Walker’s home, where Kane got an idea: Maybe a few people who didn’t get to attend Christmas Mass would enjoy receiving communion.
Walker gave him a few pointers, and after a test drive, Kane was ready to go. He returned to church for his prayer book and stole (the fabric priests wear around their necks when they visit the sick and homebound) and the communion hosts.
His first stop was to a parishioner’s home in Morse Bluff.
"She didn’t recognize me at first. I had on the snowmobile goggles and three layers of clothes," he said, adding, "As I took off my hat and goggles, she realized it was me."
The surprised parishioner was happy to receive communion.
Next, Kane headed to the home about three miles south of Morse Bluff, where Nadine Racek and her daughter, Jerrine, live.
At first, the women couldn’t figure out who was at their door.
"He did look a little ominous in that black outfit," Jerrine said.
Soon they realized it was Kane.
Because he had snow on his boots, Kane opted to have a Christmas communion service in the Raceks’ kitchen. They said Christmas prayers and he read the story of the birth of Jesus.
Kane left the residence and said he had enough communion hosts to visit 10 more people, but the drifts were too big and he was concerned he might get stuck.
So he returned to the Walker residence.
"We had Christmas Mass in their living room, because their family wasn’t able to get to church either," he said.
After dinner, they decided to have a midnight Mass on Christmas Day, then Jake’s dad, Drew, took Kane back to his home in Morse Bluff via snowmobile.
Kane enjoyed the holiday.
What was the best part?
"Getting to share a little more Christmas with people who normally would have been at Christmas Mass and were missing out on it," he said.
Kane could have a very different Christmas next year as he is a chaplain with the Nebraska Army National Guard and is scheduled to go to Iraq in June.
"I’ll be in the middle of a desert instead of riding around on a snowmobile," he said.
In the meantime, he’s enjoying the memories of a very interesting Christmas.
"I think it will probably go down as one of the more memorable Christmases of my life," he said. "It was a great day."
