Of Many things…
Taylor Leffler and Padraic Stack… Remember these names. They belong to two seminarians who will be sharing their Sunday mornings with our St. Ann community, beginning August 30th. One of my hats is to be an adjunct formation advisor for two seminarians. Padraic I know from my first year of doing this. Taylor is a new assignee, as my other advisee transferred to a different seminary for this fall. As a way of helping the adjunct formation advisors (aka: me) know their seminarians and see them in a more routine environment, they will be doing a portion of their field education work here at St. Ann. As I understand it, the focus of this year in their field education will be to work with the elderly. I imagine them doing some communion calls and some home visits, at least in the beginning. More than that, I will find out at an orientation meeting next Thursday. It will be good to have some seminarians around for us to pray for and support and mold and challenge as they prepare for the life of service that priesthood is. I ask that you welcome them with your usual St. Ann hospitality. (And if you have any great ideas for things that they can be doing, I am all ears…)
Fall is also the time when we begin the Rite of Christian Initiation of Adults (RCIA) process here at St. Ann parish. One of the wonderful restorations of Vatican II was the recovery of the rites of initiation and the way the early church brought new members into the community. It is a formation program for both the mind and heart, opening up a way for people to join in the full communion of the Catholic Church. So, if you have been attending St. Ann for a while, but are not Catholic, and would like to be, now is your opportunity. Classes will begin in September – at a mutually acceptable time and day of the week. If you are interested, or know of someone who is, please call me (314-385-5090 ext. 855 at your earliest convenience. Or if you know someone and would like me to call him/her, let me know that as well.
Finally, the Committee working on the Archdiocesan sponsored “Parish Planning Process” is 2/3 of the way through our work. There will be a series of meetings to invite the feedback of EVERY PARISHIONER at St. Ann. All are welcome to this ‘second implementation’ – to look at the conclusions of the control group, refine and evaluate the strengths and challenges before us at St. Ann, and finally, to come to a consensus about contingency plans for staffing the parish in the years to come. The committee will be looking at some dates that will accommodate as many people as possible. I will relay those to you when they are set. In the mean time, keep us in your prayers…