Saints Under Construction - The Leedys

Herb and Becki Leedy followed different journeys of faith and life before they came together in marriage nearly three decades ago, but they both recognize the hand of their Creator in guiding them to their spiritual home at Mary, Queen of Peace Parish.

“We moved to Louisiana in 2002 and, while we weren’t ‘shopping’ for a parish, Mary, Queen of Peace just felt like home from our first Mass here,” Herb observed. “We were welcomed warmly and invited to join, and before a year passed we had been invited to lead ministries. More than 20 years later, it warms my heart to see so many young families attending Mass and getting involved in ministries and the MQP community. With each new pastor who leads us, the same feeling of the Holy Spirit remains strong.”

Becki recalled how the heartfelt hospitality of her newly found MQP family and their pastor, Father Ronnie Calkins, felt “very humbling and welcoming at the same time.” While she was not raised in a church-going family, she said, “I have always had a sense of The One who created me, the earth, and all things around me. Now the richness of my Christian faith, guided by the Catholic Church, supports that sense.”

A California native who pursued a 36-year career as a physical therapist, Becki was baptized as a teen in the Episcopalian religion and had two children from a previous marriage that ended in divorce. Herb, raised in a Catholic family in east Texas, was in the midst of what became 39- year career as a marine biologist for the U.S. Department of Interior when he began a six-year assignment in California in 1996. He met Becki the following year at a barbecue hosted by an office colleague, beginning a courtship that led to marriage and birth of a child shortly after Herb’s reassignment to Louisiana.

Becki’s conversion to Catholicism through the RCIA process “brought a sense of being at home at last as I learned about the Faith and all the beauty of its history,” she said. “This is the reason it is called the one, true Church. As a convert, I came to appreciate these traditions more deeply.”

For Herb, “the Catholic Faith has been a constant for me,” he said. “It keeps me grounded and always is there to keep me on my path to God. Becki calls them, ‘God moments.’” 

Together, their dedication to living their faith has blossomed at Mary, Queen of Peace as they have committed themselves to a deeper relationship with Jesus through prayer, Bible study, worship and service. Herb serves as an Extraordinary Minister of Holy Communion and has engaged in other MQP ministries including the Men’s Welcome Retreats and That Man Is You. Becki has led Bible study programs, served in youth activities, proclaimed the Word as a lector, and participated in the Pastoral Council. She has inspired personal reflection and exploration of our shared Faith as a witness, formation leader and continuation team participant for Women’s Welcome Retreats at MQP. She also collaborated with Valerie Englehardt, RN and former parish nurse at MQP, to conduct the Christ-centered wellness program “Three-Way Fitness.”

Faith-inspired service to sisters and brothers in need has been a defining quality of both Becki and Herb throughout their lives. Becki’s life of service began as a member of an adult team that led California youth groups on three separate weeklong missions to impoverished Appalachian regions where they worked to complete critically needed home repairs. For the past six years, she has volunteered at the Habitat for Humanity ReStore in Mandeville to support sales operations that help to fund home construction for limited-income families. 

Herb’s dedication to service harks back more than four decades to his youthful Peace Corps assignment in the Central African Republic offering guidance to villagers in gaining self-sufficiency in fish farming. On one bicycle ride down a dirt road to reach a remote village, he came across the local priest setting up for celebration of Mass under a mango tree.

“I stopped and helped him set up as villagers started to arrive and help, and then it struck me,” he recalled. “Ever since, I have taken great comfort in knowing that, at any given hour around the globe, a Mass is being celebrated – and we are all a part of that celebration.”

Becki observed that through the many challenges of her life – coping for years as a single parent, beating cancer, raising children “in this world of misguided truths” – she has always “found a strong corner to lean on,” embracing the truth that God will never abandon her even “in the muck, the unknowing, and the anger. I have come to see that, in all things, God works for only good in all His children.”

“I’d like to take a picture during any Mass from the altar, looking out into the congregation,” she remarked. “That photo would reflect the true saints under construction in our parish. And when we look around us to see congregations of many faiths and denominations gathered in praise and worship, there too we will find God’s people under construction – there too we will find the unity that binds us all.”