In Memoriam:
Francis Kelly Nemeck, OMI: April 19, 1936–Sept. 11, 2014

Father Kelly Nemeck, OMI passed away in San Antonio on Sept. 11 and was laid to rest in a private service at Lebh Shomea in Sarita after a funeral Mass was celebrated at Our Lady of Guadalupe on Sept 17.

He was born on April 19, 1936 in Prescott, Arizona to Lt. Col. Francis Leonard “Kelly” Nemeck and May Yeary. The family moved to San Antonio where Father Nemeck enrolled at St. Anthony High School Seminary. He made his novitiate year in Mission, Texas, in preparation for joining the Missionary Oblates of Mary Immaculate and professed his first vows as an Oblate in 1955.

In preparation for the priesthood, he studied philosophy at DeMazenod Scholasticate (today’s Oblate School of Theology) in San Antonio and theology at St. Joseph Scholasticate in Ottawa, Canada. During the course of these studies he was drawn by the thought of the Jesuit cosmologist and theologian Pierre Teilhard de Chardin, who envisioned all of creation evolving to ultimate reunion with Jesus Christ. Teilhard’s thought was a lifelong influence in Father Nemeck’s spirituality. His other model was St. John of the Cross, whom he studied very deeply and followed in his spirituality very closely.

Ordained a priest at St. Mary’s Church in downtown San Antonio in 1961, his first assignment was to DeMazenod Scholasticate as a professor for five years. Then, after briefly serving among the Chontals in Tehuantepec, Mexico, and at parishes in Midland and Houston, he began studies for a doctorate in spiritual theology at the Catholic Institute in Lyons, France. During this time he also taught and directed retreats in Ontario, Canada. His dissertation in 1973, under the direction of Father Henri de Lubac, SJ, developed the thought of Teilhard de Chardin and St. John of the Cross on the constructive value of human suffering.

In late 1973, Father Nemeck joined the house of prayer founded earlier that year by Father Tom Marcoux, OMI, in the former main house of the vast La Parra Ranch surrounding Sarita, Texas, on the parcel of the ranch bequeathed to the Oblates by Sarita Kenedy East in gratitude for the long ministry of Oblate missionaries in South Texas. The fact that Father Marcoux had named the house of prayer Lebh Shomea,
Hebrew for “listening heart,” after King Solomon’s request for a listening heart when God offered to grant the king anything that he wanted, corresponded with Father Nemeck’s own contemplative spirit.

Together with hermits Marie Theresa Coombs and Maria Meister, Father Nemeck developed Lebh Shomea during the subsequent 40 years into a nationally recognized place of silent contemplation and discernment for thousands of people from all walks of life. Father Nemeck and Coombs coauthored several books on spiritual discernment, which have also been translated into Spanish.

Father Nemeck also traveled to San Antonio to teach courses in spirituality and discernment at Oblate School of Theology for several years. In 1988-1991 and 1994-1999 he served on the Provincial Council (leadership group) of the Southern Province of the Missionary Oblates. When his health began to significantly deteriorate in late 2013, Father Nemeck moved to the Oblate Madonna Residence in San Antonio.

His sister, Ann Nemeck Henry, his nieces Elizabeth and Kathryn, and his Missionary Oblate brothers survive him.