The challenges before us…
St. Ann is a part of the Northwest Deanery of the Archdiocese. When demographers speak of our deanery, they speak of 3 separate deaneries – the West-comprised of stable but aging parishes, the Middle – with the highest concentration of Hispanic American Parishes, and the East – stable multiracial population parishes. St. Ann fits into that third category, “served by three relatively stable schools” – St. Roch’s, Christ the King, and our own St. Ann school. And as you heard in the homily last weekend, we are facing a bit of a challenge.
What I ‘like’ about our challenge, is that it is all about our mission – the education and formation of the youth, not just of our parish and some neighboring parishes, but of 75 non-Catholic students from the communities that surround our parish. It is how we make a difference in response to the tensions in Ferguson, MO. As one student said so eloquently: “I learned at St. Ann that no matter the color you are, we are all equal. We don’t think twice about our color.” What an amazing perspective from a 7th grade student.
So this past stewardship Sunday, I invited folks to do some praying and reflecting on their weekly gift back to God in terms of the treasure God has entrusted to them. A $5 per week increase in giving by everyone who uses the envelopes would go far to keeping us afloat. If God has blessed you and you can give more, than that is a good thing. If your income is fixed, and there is not much to spare, I am sure that you will do what you can. Together, we will continue living our faith, as believers have done here at St. Ann’s since 1856.
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RCIA… Every year, we invite seekers to explore what it is to be a Catholic Christian through the Rites of Christian Initiation of Adults. We are gearing up for this year’s class, so if anyone you know is interested in finding out more about their Catholic faith or is interested in becoming Catholic, please contact me at the rectory at your earliest convenience. (314-385-5090 – ext 855)
Finally, it is hard to believe, but our annual Awakening and Growth retreats for the Newman Center are just around the corner. (Oct. 17-19.) I would ask in your kindness if you would pray for our college students who are leading the retreat, as well as pray for the student who will be attending the retreat. And as always, nothing says God loves you quite like home baked goodies – brownies, chocolate chip cookies and the like. So, if you have time and the inclination to send some home baked loving our way, we would be very grateful. You may drop them off at the rectory or the Newman Center by Thursday, Oct. 16th…