The men, The mission, The rosary.

For a self-proclaimed “recycled teenager” Fr. Richard Jones, SJ seems to have wisdom by the basketful.

For a retired salesman, Dick Schimmel has energy by the basement full.

They found a mission where each complemented the other, to honor God and serve others.

 “I don’t really know what people in the non-Indian world do,” Fr. Jones chuckles as he draws his chair closer to hear the questions. He has just joined the St. Camillus Jesuit Community after over 40 years of work on the Rosebud
Reservation in St. Francis, S.D. At 92, problems with hearing and eyesight persuaded Fr. Jones to come away from his mission of serving the Lakota people. It came to a head last summer. He realized it was the “end of the trail” for his life on the reservation and the moment to move into a new phase of life.

 Schimmel, at age 77, is still a live wire jumping around and talking about his mission and his basement. The sub- structure of his home is filled with rosaries and other religious medals and statues.

 “I was just drawn into this work,” said Schimmel. “Why does someone do anything? Why does someone become a priest? Why do that? I guess I have been helped by the Holy Spirit. I don’t see visions or anything or images mprinted
on a wall, but when I get up in the morning my day is laid out for me.”

The mission they have worked on together is to foster the recitation of the rosary.
Fr. Jones was one of the many missionaries to whom Schimmel shipped rosaries over the last eight years. In fact, Jones was the first outlet for the more than one million rosaries that Schimmel has shipped, at no cost to the recipients, to mission stations and schools around the globe.

 Schimmel, who spent a work life selling Schlitz beer before his retirement, tracks all of the rosaries he sends out in a notebook. There, on the first dog-eared page, is the notation showing that 100 rosaries were shipped to Fr. Jones on Aug. 5, 1998.

 Fr. Jones traces his devotion to the rosary back to his mother and to his days at Creighton Prep in Omaha, Neb. He also remembers a time in the novitiate when he and a fellow Jesuit in training came back from a walk that lasted too long.
“The novice director wasn’t happy with us; but he asked us, ‘Did you take your rosaries along?’ and we both reached into our pockets, pulled out our rosaries and showed them to him, so I guess that saved us a little,” Jones said.

The rosary serves many purposes. The repetitions of the Hail Mary’s, coupled with the mysteries recalled during each decade, put a person into a meditative state where the focus shifts, from one’s own thoughts about one’s life to God’s
thoughts about one’s life – a remarkable and illuminating transformation.

 People on the reservation have developed a great appreciation of the rosary.

 “It just seems to me that the Blessed Virgin holds a special place as a spiritual mother to the Indian people,” Jones explains. “She is someone they can go to. And she will listen to them. The rosary means something to them and they pick
it up in their time of need.”

The radio station on the reservation – KINI-FM – once took its regular recitation of the rosary off the air. It was quickly deluged with complaints and requests to bring it back on, where it remains today.

The team of Schimmel and Jones has distributed 7,500 rosaries in St. Francis, S.D.

 “I contacted Fr. Jones and we hit it off right away,” Schimmel said. “I sent him some rosaries and he ran with it. He would just give everybody a rosary. And I said, ‘Father, don’t you dare ask for them back.’ He saturated the tribes.”

 Fr. Jones smiled when he heard the term “saturation” calling it a bit of an overstatement. He does go on to talk about laying rosaries on the table inside the entrance of the church and about bringing rosaries to wakes.

 “Most Indian people have a two-night wake,” Fr. Jones said. “One night we would hand each person attending a rosary and say the rosary. Then at the end we would say you are welcome to keep them.”

“One morning I had several baptisms and I looked down and two of the little tykes were wearing rosaries around their necks. It impressed me that there was a devotion to the Blessed Virgin. Even if the rosary is worn like a medal, it is a devotion to Mary. You are asking for protection and it still shows love and devotion to the Blessed Virgin.”

Both men believe they have been greatly blessed in life.

Schimmel says he has been blessed with a wonderful family and admits that his wife Rosemary thinks he is a little crazy at times because her basement is full
of religious materials. But, she must be used to her husband’s traits since they have been married more than 55 years and have been going together since she
was 14.

“I am an army of one,” Schimmel laughs. “I just want to get these rosaries to people to help them pray.”

Fr. Jones too says he has been blessed. “Dealing with people you become a part of every family,” he said. “You get to share their life, their joys and sorrows.”

Although Fr. Jones once served as rector/president of Marquette University High School in Milwaukee (from 1955 to 1963), he considers his work on the Rosebud
Reservation to have been the most meaningful for him. It is where he found his calling and his life.

“When you show the Indian people love and care and trust,” Jones said, “they have that same love and care and trust for you.”

That is wisdom by the basketful or at least a few decades worth.

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