May is here, and fun is coming! Our Mother’s Day breakfast in the SJB cafeteria on May 12, 8 a.m.-noon, is free for everyone, so invite a mom you know to join you for breakfast after church. Many thanks to the Men’s Club for this generous gift to the moms in our parish. 

Our SSP Parish Picnic is one month away on June 5! It’s a classic South City event, and I hope you’ll join us. The chairs, co-chairs, and many leaders are getting everything ready for a great event. For me, part of the joy has been seeing people come together from all three of our churches to help. I’d like to give a special shout out to Peggy Kuehner and the Ladies Sodality for their work on the Cake Walk, Jody & Mike Ewing bringing back the String Pull, Zoe & Josh Patalano running the Tooth Smash game booth, Brenda & Ray Bucher working with Raffles of Fun, Martha & Lazaro Navarro organizing the Lollipop Pull, Maureen Lenz and Serve Together for help staffing Chicken Dinners and Bingo, and Laura Dooley leading the Plant booth.

We also have feast day celebrations coming up for two of our three parish patrons: the Immaculate Heart of Mary, and St. John the Baptist!

This year the feast of the Immaculate Heart is Saturday, June 8, and we have a secret plan for feast day fun. I’m telling you, but don’t tell Fr. Andrew Burkemper or any one in New Melle, Missouri. New Melle has the only other church in the Archdiocese of St. Louis dedicated to Mary’s Immaculate Heart. To celebrate our shared feast day, we are going to flash-mob them! Join me and your fellow SSP parishioners in a morning drive to beautiful New Melle, where we’ll surprise those parishioners at their Saturday 8 a.m. Mass and then celebrate with food from two New Melle eateries: the Bavarian Smoke Haus and the New Melle Bakery Company. We’re not telling anyone that we’re coming, and you are now in on the secret. So invite your friends and family to join us, but don’t let Fr. Andrew and New Melle natives find out! Our parish carpool to New Melle will depart from the IHM St. Louis parking lot at 6:45 a.m. on June 8, or you can meet us there.

The feast day of St. John the Baptist is Monday, June 24. To celebrate, we’ll change things up for one special day and move our 4:30 p.m. Sunday Mass from SSP church to SJB church, just for that week. Our seasonal choir will sing and Fr. Carl Scheble, a former pastor of SJB, will be our special guest and main celebrant at Mass that evening. Right after Mass, we’ll continue the celebration with pizza and ice cream in the SJB cafeteria. And yes, this special vigil Mass in honor of St. John the Baptist also counts for Sunday.

I’m already looking forward to the fun (and food) and I hope you are, too. Mark your calendars and save these dates!

God bless you!