She gave all she had. This weekend we remember two people, Monsignor Wade and Margo Schorno, who gave all they had to this parish. Since they've died, every year at November near their deaths we gather for a brief memorial service at their graveside. But this is the 10th anniversary of their death, so we're spending a little more time remembering them and sharing them with those who did not know them.

Monsignor Wade was born in Ireland in Galway. In 1933, along with six other priests, he came to serve in the Archdiocese of San Francisco. He did not receive a welcome but, rather, an insult. This man, who was a master of poetry, a master of English, a master of Shakespeare, was sent to St. Patrick's Seminary to improve his English. They left him there till Christmastime, when he was needed in a parish in Stockton, and he was told to go to Stockton. He wasn't told how to get there, but he was told to go to Stockton. He went there for two weeks and actually never heard again from any authorities, so he ended up serving there for 11 years.

Eventually, he became the pastor of St. Columbus in Oakland, and he built the church there. That's the church where Fr. Aidan McAleenan is now serving. Then he came here in 1962 and he served as our pastor at Christ the King for 26 years. He finally retired at the young age of 82.

I didn't really know him, and I came as the pastor. And I had heard that he was very caring, and that he was very rigid, and very strict, and very conservative. I found out that none of that was true. I found out that he was faithful and he was a great deal of fun. He was faithful to Communion calls, to sick calls. He would beat me to the phone when sick calls came in the middle of the night. He walked every day around the lawn out here with his little Sheltie Blarney. And along the way he would stop so he could teach religion and poetry in the classrooms, and give counseling to people he would run in to, and then spend hours in a chair at the last row of these pews, praying for the parish and praying for us.

But if you had a hat that you liked that was a little different, you had to be careful, because it would soon disappear and then he would appear wearing it. Or, if we had costumes for any event, he would don them and be running around.

He died November 1st, fitting, on All Saints Day, at the age of 94. Margo Schorno, who became his close friend and especially his confidant in his final days, died two weeks later after a 17-year struggle with leukemia.

Margo was born in Oakland, and she graduated from Bishop O'Dowd High School. After a year or two, she joined the Adrian Dominican Sisters as a teaching sister. She taught in Chicago; she taught in Delano, California; she taught in Bisbee, Arizona. And then she was appointed associate pastor at St. Pascal's in Oakland. After five years there, she was appointed associate pastor at St. Bonaventure's in Clayton. After five years there, Father Brian Timoney was named pastor at St. Perpetua's, and he deliberately stole her from St. Bonaventure's. She served at St. Perpetua's for five years, and then she came here.

What we most remember about her was her energy and creativity. And she was fun. If you look at the pictorial book of our parish, you'll notice a paragraph about her that says she knew that the young parents needed support and needed a break, so she began the Lifeworks network. She knew our spirituality needed some quiet time and refreshment, so she brought the brothers from Taizé in Southern France, and the Taizé prayer continues throughout Pleasant Hill.

She was convinced that our worship had to be traditional with ritual but needed always to be revitalized, so she planned our worship weekend after weekend. And she brought resources from all over the country. She began -- this list is long -- our hospitality committee; she began our communications ministry; she invented our coffee and donuts after Mass on Sunday; she began our clown ministry; our Newcomers Mass; she started our bereavement ministry; and liturgy for children from Halloween to Christmas and Easter -- a great deal.

And besides, she got into the travel business with us. She coordinated and led trips to the Holy Land, to Greece, and to Italy. And she was fun. She would get people to do anything. She got a number of our musicians to dress up to do "Sister Act." She got the staff to sing "Mack the Knife" with gestures to go along with it.

Both Monsignor and Margo have been and continue to be the wind beneath our wings. They continue to bring us the blessing of God's spirit, the breath of God's love. Let's sit back and remember them.