Dear Beloved Parishioners,
Here is the body of the letter I shared with our SJM day school community this afternoon. I thought you all would want to know as well.
So, after a few weeks of preparation in developing a principal profile, sorting through candidates to interview, and having conducted our screening interviews, I am pleased to let you know that Mrs. Kailey Walker Maier was the unanimous choice of our search committee and has been named Principal for St. Justin Martyr School beginning this fall, 2023.
Mrs. Maier has served in Catholic schools for the last decade. She has worked in urban, suburban, and rural Catholic education settings. Currently, she is one of the 5th grade teachers at Holy Apostles Catholic School in New Berlin, WI. Mrs. Maier received her Bachelor’s degree in Secondary Education from Spring Hill College in Mobile, AL, and her Master’s degree in Catholic School Leadership from Saint Louis University. Mrs. Maier has a unique blend of youth ministry, classroom, and school leadership experience that will continue the level of excellence that St. Justin is known for. In her own words: “I am dedicated to cultivating a school environment that the Holy Family would have chosen for Jesus.”
Once she finishes the school year in New Berlin, she and her husband will reside in South City with their corgi, Murphy. In her free time Mrs. Maier can be found cheering on any St. Louis sporting team, Alabama football, the New Orleans Saints, planning her next trip to Disney, or crafting!
Among the exciting things she brings to the table is her deep faith in the Lord, a passion for the stewardship model of parish life, experience in Standards Based Grading, and, “in the deepest, darkest, nerdiest part of my heart, I LOVE curriculum development.” (Straight from her interview – you can’t make quotes like this up!)
Mrs. Schroff will be working with her for a smooth transition over the next two and half months. I look forward to all of you having the opportunity to meet her, and to be as excited as the search team is in her future leadership here. In the meantime, pray for her, for Mrs. Schroff and all our faculty and staff, that we might have a wonderful conclusion to what has been a great school year.
Blessings,
Fr. Bill
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As you know, we offer two different styles of retreat for both our men and our women. The ACTS retreat is a bit more communal in style, relying on talks and shared conversations, along with the use of the sacraments and other prayer experience to deepen a sense of community among those attending, as well as anchoring an experience with Christ in the retreatant. The White House Retreat (Men and Women), are both more of a directed/preached kind of retreat, relying more on quiet and solitude to foster the interior journey and connection with God. They are complementary types of retreat. One is not better than or worse than the other – just different.
So, as the ACTS retreats cycle between winter and summer for the Men and Women, this year will find both of the Men’s retreat within five weeks of each other – the ACTS retreat is June 8-11, and the White House Retreat is July 13-16th. And we will be beginning the ‘work’ side of All Things New – both retreats are a great way to deepen our connection with our Lord so that we can become ever more missionary disciples.
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Mark your calendar for the Day of Service, Saturday, May 6th. More details coming in this weekend’s Pastor’s pen. But as in other years, there will be a lot of events and things to do for the whole family, and for the good of the parish. And in a little twist from other years, instead of a food truck, we will be having a Pizza Party from Uncle Leo’s – pre-order your pizza’s and they will be ready for pickup right after the 5pm Mass that day…
https://forms.ministryforms.net/viewForm.aspx?formId=624f9977-5443-4189-ac07-6d529a1523cc
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The Deeper Dive into the Sunday Scripture…
…was a reflection written three years ago toward the very beginning of the pandemic. I still find the meditation both insightful and challenging, as well as a bit of a trip down memory lane and what those years were like. I share them here for your reflection.
I am by nature a skeptical person,
so I’ve always felt a certain sympathy
for Thomas the doubter.
I generally think that if something
sounds too good to be true
then it probably is,
and certainly the news that Jesus
has been raised up by God from death,
trampling down death by death,
sounds too good to be true.
These past few weeks have provided
ample opportunity to be skeptical,
since the news we receive,
whether good or bad,
seems to be constantly shifting:
just wash your hands and don’t touch your face
and you will be fine;
stay at home, see no one, shelter in place;
masks are useless, don’t bother;
masks are a way to “flatten the curve,”
wear them whenever you go out;
the virus is only dangerous for the elderly;
the virus has killed many young people,
no one is safe;
we should be ready to “open up” in a few weeks;
we should be ready to endure this for many months.
Sometimes conflicting information is spread
because of malice or self-interest or wishful thinking,
but often it is simply the case
that we are dealing with something new
and our best, most-informed guesses
just turn out to be wrong.
And so, in the absence of knowledge, we doubt.
A general skepticism might seem like the wisest course,
and while I think that those
who are publicly violating stay-at-home orders
are mistaken, and dangerously so,
I can understand why they might be skeptical:
we have more time and means than ever
to consume what passes for news
but the messages we receive
are confusing and conflicting;
people we think we should trust
are telling us different and often opposing things.
Thomas is at least receiving a consistent message:
“We have seen the Lord.”
But perhaps he has heard alternative explanations—
that someone stole the body—
and doesn’t know which report to trust.
Perhaps, because he knows how much he himself
would like to believe that Jesus is alive,
he suspects that his friends have suffered
a collective hallucination brought on by grief,
and though they are sincere,
they are mistaken, and dangerously so;
they should remain behind locked doors,
sheltering in place,
safe from those who had killed their master.
Thomas’s response is one that speaks to the heart
of a skeptic like me:
“Unless I see…I will not believe.”
And not just see,
but “put my finger into the nailmarks
and put my hand into his side.”
When Jesus appears again, a week later,
he greets his followers with the words
“Peace be with you”
and he invites Thomas to believe:
“Put your finger here and see my hands,
and bring your hand and put it into my side,
and do not be unbelieving, but believe.”
But Thomas now doesn’t need to touch;
he immediately utters
one of the boldest confessions of faith
in the entire New Testament:
“My Lord and my God!”
What convinces him?
Is it simply seeing the risen form of Jesus?
I don’t think so.
We have in the Gospels numerous stories of people—
Mary Magdalene, the disciples going to Emmaus—
who see Jesus without recognizing him as the risen one.
Perhaps what convinces Thomas
that the one who stands before him
is not imposter or illusion
but truly Jesus risen from death
is the fact that on this night
Jesus has appeared just for him,
to lift from him the burden of doubt,
to open his eyes so that he can embrace
news too good to be true.
Jesus could have simply left Thomas in his doubts.
He could have left Thomas to struggle
with the dubious testimony of the other disciples.
But he makes a special encore appearance in the upper room
just for the sake of Thomas the skeptic.
It’s just such a typically Jesus-like thing to do.
It’s just what the good-but-impractical shepherd
who abandons the ninety-nine sheep
in search of the one who is lost
would do.
It’s just what the holy man
who squandered his reputation
by healing the suffering on the Sabbath
and eating with tax collectors and sinners
and speaking with the Samaritan woman
would do.
It’s just what the one
who loved his own in the world
and who loved them to the end
would do.
Thomas knows that it is truly Jesus
because Jesus has come back just for him,
so that he might have faith,
so that he might believe,
so that he might confess,
“my Lord and my God.”
The Gospel writer tells us
that he has written this story
so that we might believe in Jesus
and have life in his name.
He tells us this story
so that Christ might walk
through the locked door of our doubts
and we might believe
that Jesus is our Lord and God,
the risen one who comes back just for us,
who never abandons the lost sheep,
who finds us while we are yet doubting,
who loves us to the end.
We are living through an extraordinarily confusing time,
and we are struggling to know who and what to believe.
We must try to exercise prudence and wisdom
in discerning the truth during this time of crisis and fear.
But this is something each one of us can and should believe:
Jesus has died and been raised for me,
the powers of death have been put to death for me,
Jesus has return searching for me.
Let us cling to this faith in the midst of doubt and confusion
and may God have mercy on us all.
Posted by Frederick (Fritz) Bauerschmidt
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The SONG OF THE DAY, is a mash up of two lovely, traditional Lenten hymns. O Sacred Head and What Wondrous Love is this. It is complex, with its share of discordant harmonies, but in the end, I think it works really well.
Easter Blessings,
Fr. Bill