Dear Beloved Parishioners,
Of many things…
Thanks to the cast and crew of Beauty and the Beast, Jr, for a thoroughly enjoyable performance on Thursday and Friday. I, who had never seen Beauty and the Beast in my growing up years, truly enjoyed seeing this for the first time through your talents and skills. Thank you for such wonderful performances. And thanks to Mrs. Schroff and the good people from Stages for their lighting and sound. Thanks as well as thanks to some VEEERRRYY TALENTED set makers and designers. I have seen high school plays that weren’t nearly as elaborate or amazingly done as this set was.
And, thanks to all the talented parents who also disassembled the stage by the time that the cast party was over. I saw more than a little sadness in the eyes of some of the cast members who came over to find their parents for the ride home, only to discover firsthand how fleeting time is – the set was already a memory. (But WHAT a memory!) Thanks one and all for an amazing show…
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(And just as a flashback, if you remember, two years ago, I was standing at the door to our gym, with a counter, making sure that the number of people gathered indoor in one place was not over the magic number settled by the county for indoor spaces during those first days of the Covid Shutdown. How things have changed, thanks be to God…)
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Thanks to Stacie and Eric Rackley and their intrepid crew for a lovely, first of its kind, Springfest here at St. Justin. I think they made about 100 pounds of pulled pork, not to mention numerous hot dogs and burgers for the over 240 people in attendance. What a lovely gathering it was – replete with an Easter Egg hunt, games, a Corn-hole tournament, a petting zoo and just some chances for people to connect socially after what seems like a long hiatus. Certainly God was not outdone in the weather department – what an absolutely perfect day. (I am praying for a repeat for the day of Service on Saturday, May 7th…) In that regard, we were all winners.
Thanks to all who set up, volunteered their time, and helped to clean up. When I returned from the ACA kickoff meeting, all that was left to do was lock the doors of the church.
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Lest we fall to the temptation of making prayer a kind of magic charm, devoid of any commitment on our part, let me say this. The ACT OF CONSECRATION of Ukraine and Russia to the Immaculate Heart of Mary, as wonderful and historic as that was, is not a ONE and DONE event. Rather, it is an ongoing commitment to living and praying daily; working for and creating in our own homes and lives the very peace we ask Mary’s intercession for. Each day, we double down on our commitment to live holy lives that are consecrated to our Lord through our Lady’s intercession. Each day, we practice turning the other cheek. Each day, we steel our will to say yes to sacrificial love all over again. As we do that, we then shape the world that we prayed for in our Act of Consecration…
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The Easter Sunday Collection – is for Retired Priests in the Archdiocese. Here is the Archbishop’s letter to us all.
Dear Faithful of the Archdiocese of St. Louis,
During the Lenten season, we seek to strengthen our relationship with God through prayer and sacrifice. Lent also provides us the opportunity to demonstrate our devotion to the Lord and those in His service, cultivating a spirit of charity by sharing what we have and who we are with those in need or suffering.
The annual Archbishop’s Collection for Retired Priests is an important opportunity for our Church to provide support and care for the priests who devote their lives to the Lord, their parishes, and the communities of this Archdiocese. Through their ministry and decades of service, our priests have been there when you, your family and your fellow parishioners have sought their guidance. They are there to celebrate the happiest moments of your life as well as provide comfort in times of need. But in retirement, it is they who count on you for prayers and support.
Your individual gifts to this collection help meet the needs of our aging priests including physician services, hospitalization, nursing home care, vision care and disability. It is essential that we support our priests and provide them with the peace of mind that they will be cared for in retirement.
This year’s collection will once again be taking place in our parishes on Easter Sunday, April 17. However, because our priests need ongoing support, you are also welcome to contribute at any time through June 30 by donating online at archstl.org/retiredpriests, texting 4PRIESTS to 314-648-2391 or scanning the QR code that will be included on all of the collection’s support materials.
Please consider a gift to the collection and join me in honoring the Everlasting Devotion of our retired priests. Together, we can help to ensure that care is available to them so that they can continue to give the entirety of their effort towards serving you, your loved ones, and our faith.
Please know our retired priests are praying for you and your families.
Sincerely yours in Christ,
Most Reverend Mitchell T. Rozanski
Archbishop of St. Louis
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By the time most of you will have read this, the Disciple Maker Index will have closed. Thanks to all of you who have taken the inventory. By the time the paper copies are added to our online total, we will be at 86% of our Sunday Mass attendance having taken the index. Which speaks well of our community.
And, contrary to discussions I have been a part of, let me say this clearly. There is no “All Things New Plan” yet, no predetermined outcome, already on somebody’s desk in the back room, ready to be floated out once we have the appearance of having let the laity and priests have their say. There is still only ‘a plan to make a plan’…. So, your input, both with the now completed DMI and in the future survey about Catholic education matters very much.
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In that regard, as promised, the Archdiocese wants to provide an opportunity for all individuals within the Archdiocese of St. Louis to provide feedback about Catholic Education, both our Catholic Schools and Parish-Based Religious Education programs. Below are some important details pertaining to this survey.
- The survey is intended to get a snapshot of attitudes, beliefs, and decision-making criteria from various stakeholders about Catholic Education in the Archdiocese. This critical baseline information will be used in considering the future of Catholic education.
- Survey respondents will have the opportunity to share their input about Catholic Schools and Parish-Based Religious Education programs (e.g. PSR).
- The survey is designed to be taken by anyone regardless of parish affiliation, including those individuals who are not Catholic.
- It is not required that survey respondents currently send children to a Catholic School.
- The survey is designed to be anonymous and therefore does not ask for any identifying information, including name or school that an individual may be associated with.
- Survey responses will not be specific to an individual school or parish; therefore, results will not be connected to a particular school or parish.
- There are no survey questions geared toward current students.Other opportunities for current student feedback will be explored for the future.(Remember what I said about ‘a plan to make a plan’ – this survey is an important part of shaping the parameters that will guide the plan, whatever it might be.That being said:
- The survey will be available from Tuesday, April 5 through Monday, May 2 through the following link: www.surveymonkey.com/r/EDUCATIONSURVEY2022 *** ***please note the link does not go live until tonight at midnight)
- The survey can take between 7.5 minutes and 25 minutes, depending on the relationship of the survey respondent to Catholic Education in the Archdiocese.
- There will NOT be paper copies available for this survey, (as it is 57 pages long) because of how it is laid out electronically. On page one, you are given a chance to click up to 7 ‘descriptors’ (eg – I am a Catholic school Alum; I am a teacher. I am a PSR parent.) For each one of these that you click, you will be taken to a segment that will take about 7.5 minutes to complete.(So if I click two of those descriptors, you will be done in approximately 15 minutes.)
More focused opportunities to provide input will be available through the next year as we learn from the output of this survey and progress toward Pentecost 2023.
Fr. Chris Martin
Director of Strategic Planning
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The DEEPER DIVE into the Sunday Scriptures comes to us from Fr. Terrence Klein and the good people of America Magazine.
An adulterous woman is shoved onto the scene in today’s Gospel reading, and her story may have been similarly shoved into St. John’s Gospel. It is not found in primary Greek manuscripts of the fourth Gospel before the sixth century; its location varies in the manuscripts; and the Greek itself differs from the rest of the Gospel, as though penned by another.
But trying to scan beyond the story, insisting on what you think really happened, is a dead end. That would be writing your own Gospel, for which you have no warrant. We only know the story as the Lord, through his church and her evangelists, gave it to us. If it did enter the fourth Gospel as an addition, it fits perfectly, standing as it does between Christ calling himself “rivers of living water” (Jn 7:37) and “the light of the world” (Jn 8:12).
Have you ever been jostled by a crowd? Really crushed, unable to move freely, unable to see, simply pushed forward? It is a terrifying experience for many. The woman must have felt at least some relief when she was finally pushed into a clearing, into what St. John considers to be a corona of light, the spot where Jesus is preaching. For the woman, whatever happens next, at least the suffocating shoving has stopped.
Having been caught in crime, she is brought into the light. It is odd that she comes alone; committing adultery is a two-person act. The fact that her companion is not with her says something about the hearts of her accusers. He may well be in the crowd, as one of them, but to suggest as much convicts me of writing my own Gospel.
Deuteronomy (17:6-7) commands that the witnesses of capital crimes against God’s covenant should be the ones who begin the execution. “The hands of the witnesses shall be the first raised to put the person to death.” If her crime has already come to light, why have they not done so? Why is she shoved into this clearing?
The irony is that this woman is still being made an instrument of men’s intentions. They do not care about her fate; they want to call the light itself into question. They want to show that God’s light is not truly shining among us. The disgraced woman is a ploy to discredit Christ, the light. Will he stand by the law of Israel? How can he be the Christ if he does not?
Yet if he chooses law over mercy, then how is this man any more than another prophet? He certainly cannot be the living rivers of God’s grace, which he claims to be.
Then he who is the living water, the light encircled by the powers of darkness, “bent down and began to write on the ground with his finger” (7:6). This is St. John at his best. The physical reveals the spiritual, as when water is turned to wine; the blind are given sight; the hungry are fed; and baptism and Eucharist pour forth from the wounded side of the savior.
Christ preaches into the dust. He cannot be understood. This is dry land. It rejects the living water that he came to give, that he himself is. He writes out the Gospel he proclaims; he draws himself into the dirt. Then he reveals the paradox of the pretensions surrounding him, rejecting him.
Let the one among you who is without sin
be the first to throw a stone at her (Jn 7:7).
We all live in the dark, in the dust. If we are going to assail evil where we find it, what of the evil we do not see in ourselves? The dust fills our eyes. We strike out at the darkness, no doubt wounding the innocent with the guilty. And others, seeing our evil, strike at us. We all claim the right of law.
The only way forward, out of the crush and dust, into light and water, is what St. Paul found:
For his sake I have accepted the loss of all things
and I consider them so much rubbish,
that I may gain Christ and be found in him,
not having any righteousness of my own based on the law
but that which comes through faith in Christ,
the righteousness from God (Phil 3:8-9).
The great irony is that her accusers have indeed shoved this woman into the light. He, the light, stands before her, and there, out of the dust, a river of grace and mercy flows. Jesus “opens a way in the sea and a path in the mighty waters” (Is 43:16).
“Woman, where are they?
Has no one condemned you?”
She replied, “No one, sir.”
Then Jesus said, “Neither do I condemn you.
Go, and from now on do not sin any more” (Jn 7:10-11).
The Rev. Terrance W. Klein is a priest of the Diocese of Dodge City and author of Vanity Faith.
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The Song of the Day: Let us Every Glory in the Cross of Christ – by Dan Schutte. This was the opening hymn for the funeral liturgy of one of my heroes in the priesthood – Msgr. Jim Telthorst, and really is a perfect preparation hymn for Holy Week. (and there were a few times when I could not sing the verses because of how well the song described my brother priest and his ministry… and my own sorrow at the loss of this good man…)
Blessings,
Fr Bill