Dear Beloved Parishioners,
Though you will also see this in the bulletin for this coming week, I thought to get this out there in as many ways as possible, so you know where we are in the process.
All Things New – status report, from the Archdiocese…
Recently, a team of nearly 50 volunteers, including religious orders, Kenrick-Glennon Seminary faculty and staff, associate pastors, permanent deacons and lay people synthesized all the information the Archdiocese of St. Louis has received regarding its 178 parishes during the All Things New pastoral planning initiative. Information gathered included feedback from key parish leaders, parish listening sessions, online surveys, individual letters and emails. The summaries will be another important piece of information as Archbishop Mitchell Rozanski makes a final decision on the future of the parishes.
The volunteers were asked to follow four guidelines: that they offer a fair representation of what people said; include the real contradictions and tensions reflected in the feedback; offer the good ideas and key insights shared; and ensure they are concise. Volunteers were not allowed to synthesize any information for parishes in their own planning area.
The initial drafts of the parish feedback summaries have been shared with pastors, who were asked to share the summaries with their Key Parish Leaders and provide feedback. Every parish feedback summary is now public at allthingsnew.archstl.org. You should contact your parish office for more information if you do not have access to the internet. All of this is geared toward the Archbishop making a well-informed, discerned decision for the spiritual well-being of the Archdiocese, looking at the feedback of the people and the needs of the Archdiocese.
The All Things New planning committee is expected to refine the draft models to one model per planning area. Armed with the feedback summaries, parish workbooks and financial data, the team will analyze each model to ensure each one has the resources to sustain the new structure. Another round of draft model options will be shared with the priests in early February, with a period of feedback. Other factors will come under consideration, including redrawing maps of the archdiocese and priest reassignments.
It is expected that by the end of April, Archbishop Rozanski will have met with Consultors to review final draft models, and then he will have a month to pray and discern before announcing a final decision on May 28, the feast of Pentecost. Implementation of these plans will take effect beginning in fall 2023 through 2026.
Please continue to pray for the gift of true discernment so that we may continue to do the Will of God in all things
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So, in my last missive, I shared the feedback from our Key Parish Leaders about our SJM Parish Feedback Summary. And, in the OOPSIES category, the feedback in Section 7 meant to read: NOT INSURMOUNTABLE. It was a bit late as I was putting the final touches on the missive, and I was editing a double negative, and fixed half of it, but not the other half… Sorry to the folks from St. Elizabeth for that late night error… (ps – I used slightly different wording with the Archdiocese that WAS correct…) Thus, it was meant to read:
Section 7 – Though none of us could recall making that comment, we were all in agreement that whatever issues might lay between us historically would NOT be insurmountable to a proposed merger. (And since they are paired with us in all the models, we will find a way to make it work)
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Teacher scholarships…
I have been so edified by the response to my ‘Adopt a Teacher Raise” plea. To date, at least $45,000 has been pledged by 12 families/individuals, with me not being sure of the amount for three of the twelve. They caught me after Mass, and in the midst of the usual chaos, I remember THAT they said they would pledge, but not the amount they said they would. What a gift their generosity is to our school families. Their pledges have picked up just under 25% of the total increase to our school payroll.
I am still in need of more ‘scholarships’ for our teachers, and the rest of the staff. (Someone asked if they could help with our pre-school teachers – to help out there. Of course you can.) We will send you a little pledge card with some options as to when you would like to make that pledge. One time, quarterly, semi-annually, etc. The increases go in effect on July 1st, so we have a little time before the money is needed for this expense. We will remind you of your pledge… So, as you continue your amazing support of our Mission to educate and form this next generation of believers, do a little discernment about this coming year’s stewardship. I promise, God is never outdone in generosity…
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The Deeper Dive into the Sunday Scriptures, comes to us from America Magazine and Fr. Terrence Klein, S.J., who, in his usual insightful way, approaches the beatitudes from a different angle..
It may be the most famous shot in Hollywood history. Reggie Callow, an assistant director of “Gone with the Wind,” credits it to the film’s production designer, William Menzies. “He devised and created the shot, and it was his suggestion that we use an oil derrick crane in order to pull the camera back to such a high position.”
On the eve of Atlanta’s fall to General Sherman’s Union army, Melanie Hamilton is about to give birth, so Scarlett O’Hara goes to the train yard to fetch Doctor Meade. Searching for the physician, she glides, without a glance, among stretchers bearing wounded soldiers. The camera begins to retreat from her progress, ascending into the air, revealing more and more wounded Confederate soldiers. The vista of injured continues to inflate, stunning us with the immensity of the suffering. The scene eventually expands to include a tattered Confederate battle flag, blowing forefront, high in the wind, the symbol of an oblivious pride that has wrought so much suffering.
If you have ever wondered why the Scriptures insist that only the meek and the humble can find God, this scene can offer an explanation. When we are proud and pushy, we are like Scarlett O’Hara and the South that birthed her. Lost in ourselves, we cannot see. Or, to be precise, the precious little that we do see is nothing compared to the reality of a world alienated from its creator.
Indeed, one way to think of God is as the vast swath of reality that eludes us. Not so much the very image of God’s nature, it is nonetheless an apt description of our experience of God. When we finally begin to see all the world, which our self-centeredness has made smaller, we experience the immensity of God, the mystery that envelops us. Immensity, because it has no terminus. Mystery, because we cannot exhaust it, cannot fathom the depth of what is, the ultimate reality, in which the world truly rests.
If we understand that self-centeredness, occupying the position where God should properly stand, blinds us to the real, then we can begin to appreciate the Beatitudes as avenues of access to God. The poor in spirit, those who mourn and the meek: In contrast to the happy and the haughty, they begin to see God. Likewise, to hunger and to thirst for righteousness is to step outside ourselves. To show mercy is to recognize that we did not create, nor do we ultimately adjudicate, the world.
Our word for the revelation of God that follows our personal eclipse is grace. We recognize that our glimpse of a God whose immensity eludes us is itself a gift. To be clean of heart, to set upon the path of peace: These are gifts of God. Without them, we are all immature Scarletts. In the insecurity of self-indulgent blindness, we continue to connive, wondering why God has abandoned us.
Pray for grace. Pray for an inner eye that pans back and above. One that sets aside scheming and begins finally to see all that eludes those who are lost in themselves. “Seek the Lord, all you humble of the earth” (Zep 2:3).
Seeing the world as it is—a land cut off from its creator—will not shower us with success. Far from it. A world that cannot see itself must persecute those who do. Their perspicuity, their very existence is a challenge to such a world.
Yet “blessed are they who are persecuted for the sake of righteousness, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven” (Mt 5:10). Whatever the kingdom will someday be, it is already an expanded view, an embrace of the real. When we can stand aside, stand outside ourselves, we finally see what surrounds us: a world created in love.
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The Song of the day is an oldie, one from the singer/songwriter Harry Chapin. It is called “Flowers are Red”. You can hear the 60’s and 70’s with their protest themes very clearly in the song. This particular version of the song is ‘live’ from the Tonight Show, featuring guest host John Davidson. You hear a brief introduction to the inspiration behind the song.
And it is a reminder to me, to never ‘bruise a reed or quench a smoldering wick” (Isaiah, 42:3), but rather to continue to affirm, as our teachers do on a daily, if not hourly basis, the zeal and quest for learning among our children…
If you haven’t thanked a teacher today for the ways that they have helped you and your children love learning and love coming to know the Lord, then make sure you jot a little note of appreciation.
Or better yet – sponsor a teacher’s raise for next year. [Did you see what I did there…? 😉 ]
Blessings,
Fr Bill