For more than 25 years, Msgr. John Ossola has celebrated Mass for untold thousands of visiting Catholics on the two Saturdays of the Illinois State Fair in Springfield.

Msgr. Ossola relies on volunteers — both drafted and undrafted —to assist him in the auditorium of the Illinois Building. Drafted Aug. 9 as servers were William Lesko of St. Aloysius Parish in Springfield and Nicole Feldman, who was visiting the State Fair with her family from Schaumburg and members of St. Matthew's Church in the Chicago suburb. Undrafted volunteers included cantor Nancy Siders and pianist Ann Hine of Msgr. Ossola's Church of the Little Flower in Springfield.

Giving credence to the verse from Matthew "... where two or three are gathered together in my name, I am there in the midst of them." (Matthew 18:19–20), Msgr. Ossola recalls some humorous situations in the early days of Mass at the State Fair. At one time, Mass was held in a tent near Peoria Road.

"Next to us was a circus and one year as I was getting ready, a guy came up and said 'you may want to wait a little bit before you start because they're about to shoot the guy out of the cannon.'"

After Mass was moved to its present location in the Illinois Building, Msgr. Ossola recalls "another fella" who cautioned that he may want to wait to start Mass. Apparently a magician in the previous act on the stage prior to Mass employed as part of his act a bear who was being stubborn about vacating the premises before Mass was allowed to proceed.

Msgr. Ossola observed that "people are so alive and fully participate. So many of them come up and thank me. They're just good people who are used to going to church."

A diocesan priest since 1964, Msgr. Ossola has served a number of parishes and in 2007 began his second stint as pastor at Little Flower Parish in Springfield.