This week brings our one-year anniversary as a combined parish! God’s been taking care of us throughout this whole process, and so to celebrate our one-year anniversary next weekend, we’ll be giving away wristbands that say, “God Has This.” I went in with some other priests to buy them during All Things New as an expression of faith and hope, but I never found the right time to use them. One year after our parish transition, reflecting on all the ways God has provided for our community, I think their message works even better as an expression of faith and gratitude. We can trust that “God Has This” transition we’re going through and the year ahead because we’ve seen — thank you, Lord! — that God did have this. He took care of us.
To honor our first year, we’re having a parish listening session on Sunday Aug. 4, 2024, at
11:30 a.m. in the SSP Parish Hall. Please come with your ideas on what’s been going well in the last year and what we should work on in the year ahead. We’re going to try also having a virtual listening session via Google Meet on Tuesday, Aug. 6, 2024 at 8 p.m. We hope this will be a good option for people with busy Sundays, busy summers, or trouble getting around. The link for the Google Meet is https://meet.google.com/byp-cbsx-fiy.

Our first year as a combined parish was both wonderful and messy. Over the summer, we’ve been working on getting organized for the year ahead, hoping to keep all that was wonderful and smooth and to tidy up some of what was messy. Many thanks to everyone who gave us ideas on how to better organize our calendar, our ministries, our events, and our organizations. This weekend we have for you an exciting product of all that hard work: a Ministry, Events & Organizations Booklet!

This booklet collects in one place all of our parish ministries, organizations, and events, giving a short description of each and the name of the person in that organization who can help you learn more. If you are looking for ways to get involved, serve others, and meet new people, check out this resource. Paging through the booklet is also a opportunity to give thanks to God for the many ways our members love God, love others, and make disciples through their generous service.

Each of our organizations, events, and ministries has the potential to help us grow our parish. For the sake of that vision, for the sake of our parish becoming a thriving community of growing disciples of Jesus Christ in South St. Louis, it’s key that our parish staff and our volunteer leaders work together well. This weekend we’ve sent to the leader of each parish organization a document summarizing our organization and event expectations. These organization and event expectations are our best first guess on what better coordination looks like.

Most of all, I want to take this moment in the life of our parish to emphasize that everyone’s contributions count, and to remind you why everyone’s contributions count. Helping people meet Jesus and helping Jesus meet others isn’t the job of some of us. It’s the job of all of us. May the Holy Spirit continue to help us respond to God’s call!

Immaculate Heart of Mary, Saint John the Baptist, and Saint Stephen Protomartyr, pray for us! May God bless you!