Dear friends,
I am pleased to inform you that the Archbishop has appointed Deacon John J.Stoverink to serve here at Saint Joseph Parish. He was ordained to the permanent diaconate in 1993. He served first at Saint Ambrose Parish for twenty-two years and then at the Cathedral Basilica for six years. Here, Deacon John plans to become involved in pastoral care for the sick and homebound, in being present to the students and catechists at the Saint Joseph Parish School of Religion, and in assisting in the celebration of the Sacred Liturgy. Deacon John has been married to his wife, Joanna, for thirty-eight years. They met each other through the Archdiocese Catholic Singles program. Deacon John is recently retired after forty years in information technology, during which time he first served as chief information officer for the City of Saint Louis and later managed information technology security and operations at Saint Louis Lambert International Airport. He holds a Bachelor of Arts degree in business administration from The Citadel and Master of Arts degrees in business and information technology from Webster University. May I kindly ask that you join me in welcoming Deacon John and his wife. Please know that Deacon Del Leonardo, who has faithfully served at the Parish for many years now, will continue in his service as Senior Deacon here and in his chaplaincy to the Filipino community.
This weekend on the 4th of July, we commemorate Independence Day and so call to mind the Declaration of Independence adopted by the Second Continental Congress in 1776. Undoubtedly, the most important words in this pronouncement are that “We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness.” In giving thanks to God for the many blessings He has bestowed upon our country, let us pray that her people will continue to advance in the protection and promotion of the right to life of all persons, from conception to natural death. In this regard, we recall the words of our Holy Father Pope Francis who said in his address to the joint session of the United States Congress, “A nation can be considered great when it defends liberty as Lincoln did, when it fosters a culture which enables people to ‘dream’ of full rights for all their brothers and sisters, as Martin Luther King sought to do; when it strives for justice and the cause of the oppressed, as Dorothy Day did by her tireless work, the fruit of a faith which becomes dialogue and sows peace in the contemplative style of Thomas Merton” (September 24, 2015).
You may have noticed that the altar at church has received a new look. The previous candleholders on the sides of the altar have been replaced with the candleholders that were near the Crucifixion scene. Recently I learned that the candleholders that were on the sides of the altar are of aluminum and had been used at the catafalque in Requiem Masses many years ago. Given that the altar candleholders near the Crucifixion scene are to be used on the altar and are of fine quality, they have been restored and are now being used at the altar.
In Christ,
Father Bené
In today’s second reading Paul offers a wonderful argument to his converts at Corinth for seeking to help those in need. He is dealing with a practical problem, arranging a collection for the poor of the church of Jerusalem; but as he often does, he develops an important teaching about Jesus to make his point.
God’s Time
Last weekend First Holy Communion was celebrated here at Saint Joseph Church. We give thanks to God for the blessings that He has bestowed on all those who received the Sacrament of the Body and Blood of Christ for the first time and ask for His continued blessings upon them. Thank you to all were involved in the sacramental celebrations of these days. They were prayerful and led us to a greater appreciation of the grace of God at work in our lives.
Few of us, even when we meditate on the image of the vine and branches, stop to really think about how God “prunes” us. For some there is the danger of thinking that we are already producing fruit for the kingdom, in deed and truth as John says, perhaps raising a family, being active in our parish, and so on. But even those branches which are bearing fruit, the Gospel tells us, can be pruned to produce still more. Today Saul, freshly “pruned” by his conversion, arrives in Jerusalem and meets resistance. Since he had been persecuting Christians, this was only natural. But even after he is accepted and begins to bear fruit, he meets further adversity, and his letters are filled with many accounts of how his trials “pruned” him to produce greater fruit for the kingdom. Like him, as long as we remain in Christ we will continue to bear fruit and, when the will of the Father determines it is time to prune us, the strength of the true vine must enable us to endure it.
