From the Pastor's Pen - THERE'S ALWAYS MORE

THERE’S ALWAYS MORE These are the words I kept repeating Sunday, having the chance to preach at all the Masses; as a way to summarize the next 6 months of Sunday liturgies. We’re in “Ordinary Time”, and we’ll just get a slice of the Gospel each Sunday, without an overarching season or feast. So as we go through these weeks, this is my handy summary of what each Gospel tries to open us up to. There’s Always More: money, energy, patience, time, hope—whatever we fear we don’t have enough of, each Gospel will open us to God’s view that there’s more than we fear. See if this theme tracks well in the coming weeks.

We can now announce the financial profit from our Parish Festival in May: $14,200 ! This is a great achievement, especially in light of rains that cut both evenings short a bit. It’s an important part of our budget, and we’re all very indebted to Erik and Trish Wuelling and their whole committee for uncountable hours of work, and very effective work. Beyond this financial profit, and Festival again was a great occasion for our community to come together and spend good time together. We’re just as indebted to the committee for providing this benefit.

Speaking of the benefits, our recently concluded Garage Sale was a smashing success. Numbers are still coming in, but we appear to have broken the $30,000 level for the first time! Like the Festival, these funds go into the general parish revenues and help with everything we do for our people—the facilities, school, parish nurse and Sr. Emily and parish staff. And again, the money isn’t the only benefit. Hundreds of neighbors had good exposure to the friendliness and faith of our parishioners. Thanks from all of us to Tom and Kathy Mudd and their whole committee, and the many volunteers including school families.

Did You Know—St. Rose Philippine Duchesne herself now has a star on the St. Louis Walk of Fame in the Delmar Loop, as a famous St. Louisan??

Finally—this week we resume the Patriotic Rosary on the 4th of July, after missing it for a year. Though they weren’t members of the church, the Founding Fathers had a lot to say about God in government. We’ll fill out our prayer with Christian faith in the Mass at 9—followed by fireworks!