Calling “ALL SAINTS!”

Mark your calendars:  St. Agnes Faith Formation will be sponsoring a SAINTACULAR on Sunday, Oct 29th.  One feature will be a free saint book give away for our parishioners. We are asking anyone who might have a book on saints to share this for our giveaway.  We are especially looking for books that children might enjoy.  If you would like to donate any saint books, please bring them to the parish office.  We are also asking for anyone who might like to help with the “Saintacular” to call Iris at the parish office.

A Mass of Commitment will be held for all Confirmation candidates on Sunday, Oct 8th at the 5:00 PM Mass.  All candidates should plan to attend!  Family members and sponsors of candidates are encouraged to come to support our confirmands as they continue to prepare for the reception of Confirmation.  There will be no Confirmation session in the morning of Oct 8th.  We do encourage all confirmands to attend  the youth

From the Pastor’s Desk::

The celebration of the Eucharist is the center of our Catholic Worship and Faith. There is no greater gift that God could give us. When we come to Sunday Mass we are stepping into a sacred space. As the celebrant walks down the isle and Mass begins we then step into sacred time. Christ comes among us in the congregation, the priest, the Word and the sacred Eucharist. We listen to the life of Christ and consume the living word Himself as come to Holy Communion.

The celebration of the Eucharist takes place within the community and we are to carry that celebration out into the world by our words and deeds. In order for us to be able to do that we need to first be present and then to be active within the liturgy. Just showing up at Mass at the last minute and leaving as soon as the celebrant walks down the isle is not enough.

Each of us need to look at commitment to the Mass. Are we going to Mass on a regular basis? During the liturgy are you actively involved whether during the readings, or the prayers with the proper responses.

Praying the prayers in our minds is not community. I know there are people who do not like to sing, or feel they cannot sing. I am reminded of one of the old pastors when I was growing up and what he said about singing because he could not sing, “I know I can’t but God gave me this voice and I’m going to give it back to Him!”

God never gave up on the People of Israel, Jesus never gave up on His apostles and He will never give up on us. Come to Sunday Mass in order to receive Him through Holy Communion, to be feed spiritually and then carry that great gift into the world. Share the gift you receive in Holy Communion and invite those who have drifted away from Sunday Mass since the Covid year to return. Be active in your faith, be a disciple to those around you.

Travel in the Footsteps of St. Paul with Fr. Lewis Hejna, beginning May 25-June 4, 2024.

The cost of the trip, including roundtrip airfare from Springfield is $4,999.00. Contact Fr. Lewis at St. Agnes (417-831- 3565) for information or a trip itinerary. You may also go on line at www.proximotravel.com. Please refer to trip #1054 when registering And look for trip with Fr. Lewis Hejna.

WOMEN OF FAITH

Please join the Women of Faith group on Saturday, October 28 at 9:00 am in the dining room of the school for a presentation by Sr. Pauline Nugent, CCVI, PHd on Prayer and Ways to Deepen your Prayer Life. We will begin our morning with the recitation of the rosary, followed by Sr. Pauline’s presentation, time for socialization, and a catered lunch. Please call the parish office at 417-831-3565 to sign up for this event so that we will know how much food to order. Bring a friend with you!

Calling “ALL SAINTS!”

Mark your calendars: St. Agnes Faith Formation will be sponsoring a SAINTACULAR on Sunday, Oct 29th. One feature will be a free saint book give away for our parishioners. We are asking anyone who might have a book on saints to share this for our giveaway. We are especially looking for books that children might enjoy. If you would like to donate any saint books, please bring them to the parish office. We are also asking for anyone who might like to help with the “Saintacular” to call Iris at the parish office.

A Mass of Commitment will be held for all Confirmation candidates on Sunday, Oct 8th at the 5:00 PM Mass. All candidates should plan to attend! Family members and sponsors of candidates are encouraged to come to support our confirmands as they continue to prepare for the reception of Confirmation. There will be no Confirmation session in the morning of Oct 8th. We do encourage all confirmands to attend the youth event "Adoration Under the Stars" after the Mass.

ARE YOU A CRAFTER?

WE NEED YOU! The annual Holiday Market will be held on Nov. 4th & 5th in the Catholic Center Gym. We are looking for vendors to participate in this event. If you are a crafter or have a business, we need you! Cost is $35 ($40 if you do not have a business license) Please contact Judy at 1-641-751-6632 or judyhauschildt@gmail.com Hope to see you there!

From The Pastor's Desk:

Throughout the country, the Roman Catholic Church is in the Year of the Parish Revival.  I have been asked, “What does that mean?”  Each parish, each diocese is to focus on the Eucharist.  In our humanness, we so often take those we love for granted.  The same hold true for our loving savior who gave His life that we may have eternal life.  Jesus left the Eucharist, His Body and Blood to spiritually nourish us.  The celebration of the Mass, the time spent in quiet prayer during Adoration is the real heart of our Catholic Faith.

         We will begin our seven-session series this October 9th in the afternoon and October 10th in the evening.  Each session is built upon a video featuring a different bishop, followed by prayer and scripture, followed by a story from a Catholic from different parts of our country.  These are the seven sessions.

Session 1:  What’s our story?   The Bible is the story of God’s love for us.  He created us out of love, redeemed us by his love and transforms us in his love.

Session 2:  Who is Jesus?  Jesus is both God and man, therefore he reveals who God is in relation to us.  Jesus asked Simon Peter, “Who do you say that I am?”  He asks this same question of us: who do you say Jesus is?

Session 3:  Am I Saved?  Salvation is a gift from God through Jesus Christ that requires our “yes”.

Session 4:  Why a Church?  Jesus didn’t simply leave us a written message or instruction manual to follow.  He gave us a living, dynamic Church where we encounter him personally and allow ourselves to be transformed into his likeness.

Session 5:  God is with us.  God’s presence in the Old Testament foreshadows the gift of the Eucharist, one of the seven sacraments of the Church.  Jesus established the Eucharist to give us strength and accompany us at every moment of our earthly journey.

Session 6:  The Story of the Eucharist.  The story of the Eucharist can be traced throughout Scripture.  From Genesis to the present day, this session explores how the Cross is the new Tree of Life, and the Eucharist is its fruit.

Session 7:  Bread for the Journey.  The Eucharist sustains us on our spiritual journey.  Our participation at Mass through the Liturgy of the Word and Liturgy of the Eucharist is an offering of thanksgiving to God.  We are then sent forth to share what we have received.

I invite everyone to attend at least one or two sessions, to help you/us grow in our faith.  To grow closer to God.

Come Garden With Us at Catholic Charities of Southern Missouri

The Garden Friends at LifeHouse Crisis Maternity Home invite you to join us on Tuesday, September 26, from 9:00-11:00 a.m. We will continue to plant and harvest cool-weather crops, begin getting beds ready for winter, and work on maintaining the grounds. The gardens help feed the mothers and babies at LifeHouse. Many hands do indeed make light work. For more information, contact Jill Guise at jguise@ccsomo.org or call 417-720-4213.

YOUTH ACTIVITIES

First Reconciliation:   Families, if you have children in 2nd grade above who are preparing for Reconciliation, please remember to complete the registration form and submit Baptismal information to Iris at the parish office.  If you need information about the steps necessary for the sacrament of Reconciliation, please call the parish office.

Not too late to sign up!   Our Parish School of Religion Classes for the year are up and running and we welcome all families with children in grades K-8th grade.  Our classes meet on Sunday mornings from 10:00-11:00 AM in the school.  We offer sacramental preparations for Reconciliation, First Eucharist and Confirmation.  We also offer classes for children who may have special needs. We welcome families who may have been away from the church for any reason. If you have children you would like to enroll, please email Iris at ibounds@sta-cathedral.org or call the parish office at 831-3565.

Confirmation Mass of Commitment;  Our Mass of Commitment for second year Confirmation candidates will be held Sunday, October 8th at the 5:00 PM Mass.  We ask candidates to attend to be recognized by our parish.  If you have any questions about the Confirmation process, please contact the parish office.

ARE YOU A CRAFTER? WE NEED YOU!

The annual Holiday Market will be held on Nov. 4th   & 5th in the Catholic Center Gym.  We are looking for vendors to participate in this event.  If you are a crafter or have a business, we need you!  Cost is $35 ($40 if you do not have a business license)  Please contact Judy at 1-641-751-6632 or judyhauschildt@gmail.com           Hope to see you there!

From the Pastor’s Desk:

Last Sunday I met with young people who are beginning their spiritual studies to receive the Sacrament of Confirmation.  In confirmation we receive courage and other gifts of the Holy Spirit we need in order to be witnesses to Christ in our daily lives.  Through the sacrament of Confirmation we are enriched with a special strength of the Holy Spirit and we are to spread and defend the faith by word and deed.  We are enabled to take on a more active role within the Church.

The Sacrament of Confirmation is a special event in the life of an individual Catholic and the entire parish family.  Its call and grace confirm discipleship.  The gifts of the Holy Spirit help to form a Christian more fully in the image of Jesus Christ.  We use the term an adult Catholic within the Church with all the responsibilities that parents had accepted when they asked to have their son or daughter baptized.  Thus, Vatican II decreed that the rite of the sacrament be revised–that those receiving the sacrament be fully educated so that its connection with the whole church and the rite of Christian Initiation be understood.

As early as the 7th Century, the post-baptismal anointing with Sacred Chrism by the bishop became the regular practice in the Western Roman Catholic Church.  Medieval theologians saw   Confirmation as a gift of the Holy Spirit for the strengthening of the candidate’s inner life and  social witness.  By the 16th century, the general practice after the Tridentine reforms was to confirm, as an affirmation or public profession, the baptismal commitment that had been made by parents and      godparents at the time of Baptism. .The word confirmation means “strengthening.”  The Catholic Catechism states,“ the sacrament of confirmation both confirms baptism and strengthens baptismal grace.”

Following Vatican II, two major understandings and approaches to the sacrament of  Confirmation became accepted: 1) the importance of Confirmation as a part of the RCIA with the Easter Vigil; 2) the maturity model as a person becomes more active within the Church, using their gifts and talents for the building up of God’s Kingdom by asking for the fullness of the Holy Spirit in one’s life.  Our Diocese has placed the normal age for the reception of Confirmation around 13-14 years of age.

EUCHARISTIC ROSARY CONGRESS

The Diocese of Springfield-Cape Girardeau Eucharistic ROSARY CONGRESS is a

diocesan-wide effort to join together, not only in our diocese, but with other dioceses across the nation, to ask Our Lady’s intercession before Jesus in the Blessed Sacrament, and to offer reparation to God through Our Lady, for our families, our Church, and our country! This year the Rosary Congress will be held Oct. 7-13, 2023, and includes praying the rosary out loud at the top of every hour, along with Adoration of the Blessed Sacrament for seven days and nights at a particular location. If you would like to sign up for an hour of adoration and to lead or participate in the rosary at the top of the hour, please contact:

Saint Francis Hospital Adoration Chapel, Cape Girardeau — Donna Anderson, at andersondl@charter.net

Holy Trinity Adoration Chapel, Springfield —  Marilyn Gibson, at marilyngibson@outlook.com

Sacred Heart Adoration, Webb City — Stephanie Attaway, at smattaway14@gmail.com

Please visit https://www.rosarycongressusa.org/ for more information on the Rosary Congresses

FIRST RECONCILIATION/FIRST EUCHARIST SESSION

For children who are in 2nd grade & above & wish to receive the sacraments this year, an informational session will be held Sunday, Sept 17th at 10:15 AM in the dining room. Children should be enrolled in our Catholic schools or in our parish PSR program. Please bring Baptismal information to this session.

Children will be asked to sign our book of commitment at the 11:30 AM Mass & also receive a gift from the parish.

CONFIRMATION UPDATES!

Our first Confirmation session for 2nd year candidates will be held Sunday, Sept 17th at 10:00 AM in the library of the school.  If you were unable to attend our parent candidates session on Sept 10th, please attend this session. You can email ibounds@sta-cathedral.org or call the parish office for information on registration forms, schedules, or to receive a Confirmation packet.

From the Pastor’s Desk:

Over the weekend I had a number of people comment on my homily.  They all mentioned that the way I put historical background into much of my homilies helps people to understand the scriptures better.  Perhaps that is the 17 years of teacher in me.  The scriptures are not the easiest “read”, and I am not claiming to be any great scholar.  I do believe if you have the historical understanding of the time in which the scripture was written, it helps to understand the lesson better.  The books of the Bible are as much as 3,000 years old and many of the lessons contain words and phrases that do not translate well into today’s English.  And when they do translate they sometimes make no sense.  For example in last Sunday’s gospel, where it sounded like Jesus was calling a woman a dog.

As I was taught in my scripture courses, to understand the books of the Bible: 1) you needed to know when it was written, 2) who wrote the book, 3) why was it written and 3) to whom was it written.  It is also helpful to know what language it might have been originally written in.

The Catholic Church gave the world the Bible.  The Bible is not a historical record of events, but it is a book of FAITH.  The New Testament is the most reliable of ancient texts.  The earliest copies date to the early 200’s.  The originals of the Gospels Matthew, Mark, Luke and John have not survived, but their copies have survived.  Copies written from texts less than a hundred years old.  If the four Gospels were written from 50-110 AD as most scholars and theologians believe, then the copies of the manuscripts that exist today are very close to their sources.  How reliable are they since they are copies, we may ask?  The ancient Christians were copying the New Testament, seeing and believing it to have been inspired by God.  They also used the books for study and in worship.  Were they really sloppy and careless?  I do not believe so.  They understood it to be a sacred task, not something to be taken lightly.

Within the New Testament there are found four Gospels, but more were written. How were the four Gospels chosen, if there were more? The early Church Fathers referenced and talked about the other gospels when they compiled the New Testament, but they used a fourfold criteria to choose which gospels they placed in the New Testament.  1) The gospel needed to be rooted in an Apostle, or a follower of an Apostle, thus Apostolic tradition, 2) The gospel needed to have widespread acceptance and usage in the early Christian communities, 3) The gospel needed to be known for its orthodoxy, fitting with other books, not having strange ideas, and 4) The gospel needed to be used in liturgy in different communities.

GOLD Cards, a fundraiser for the school system, will be available after all masses this weekend!

RCIA CLASSES

We will be having RCIA classes beginning on Sunday August 27th at 9:30 am in the cafeteria.  If you know anyone who is interested in joining the Catholic Church, please ask them to call the parish office at 417-831-3565 to sign up for the classes.

YOUTH ACTIVITIES

PSR Resumes

PSR classes for students in K-8 have resumed & will be held on Sunday mornings from 10-11 AM in our Cathedral School. All are welcome! We also have a special needs class for students. Even if you missed our registration, we invite you to join us. You may also call the parish office 831-3565 or email Iris at ibounds@sta-cathedral.org.

Children’s Liturgy of the Word (CLOW) resumes Sunday Aug 27th at the 11:30 AM Mass. Children of preschool age through early elementary school are invited. Children hear the word of God at an age appropriate level. No need to sign up. All are welcome! Visitors are always welcome too!

If your child has not received First Reconciliation or Eucharist & is in 2nd grade & above, we ask families to attend a session to be held on Sunday, Sept 17th at 10:15 in the dining room of the school. Young people should currently be enrolled in a catholic school or in our Parish School of Religion program. Parents who home school need to sign up with our office too. Baptismal information should be brought to the session. Any questions contact Iris at parish office or email ibounds@sta-cathedral.org

From the Diocese of Honolulu:

Bishop Larry Silva, Bishop of Honolulu is requesting prayers and financial support for “those affected by the devastating wildfires that have ravaged the island of Maui.” In 2008 the Hawaii Catholic Community Foundation (HCCF) was established as a 501©(3) nonprofit. A dedicated webpage has been created so donations can go directly to HCCF to support relief efforts of those affected by the Maui wildfires. You can make a tax-deductible contribution by visiting the following link: https://tinyurl.com/MauiCatholic

Every donation, no matter the amount, will play a crucial role in helping to rebuild lives and restore hope. Bishop Silva ends his request: “May God bless you all abundantly, and may our efforts bring comfort and hope to those in need. Maria Lanakila (Our Lady of Victory), pray for us! 

From the Pastor’s Desk:

It seems like only yesterday that school was letting out for the summer, and now we have begun the 2023-2024 school

year this past Thursday. The date itself is scary. Where does the time go? I am now in my 42th year of priesthood. That

in itself does not seem real. As I get older it seems to go even faster.

As the school year begins, I want to remind parents that each grade level comes with its own challenges not only for

parents, but also for students, and teachers. The Second grade is the year of preparation and reception of the

sacraments of Reconciliation and Eucharist. Here in our Diocese the Sacrament of Confirmation is celebrated normally in

the eighth grade year. Thus these two class levels are extremely important years of our young people’s faith growth.

I urge parents to not forget their children’s spiritual life–the most important part of educating a child. All outside activities

need to be balanced. The best way to keep our families together and our young people strong is to keep God in the

picture always. Do not wait until a crisis comes into your family’s life; come to church regularly on Sunday, and pray

together as a family. Work your spiritual life and language into everyday conversation. School also brings new

opportunities for parents to teach their young people respect, service, and to take responsibility for their actions.

Parents who always come running to straighten situations out for their children are missing good teachable moments.

Don’t pass up an opportunity to give your young people practice in figuring things out for themselves while they are still

young. Many times it is tempting, in our fast-paced world, to do things that kids should do for themselves. It’s quicker and

we are pressed for time. No parent wants to see their child in trouble, but children need to learn that poor choices bring

consequences that sometimes are not pleasant. There are many ordinary opportunities to explain to young people that

just because their friends are allowed to do something, doesn’t mean that they should also. The sooner parents become

parents, rather than their child’s best friend, the more respect their child will have for them. They have best friends; they

need parents who will teach, guide, set limits, and provide discipline. All of this will help them deal with peer pressure

today, say no to different types of additive behaviors, hard-to-deal-with bosses in the future, and to be able to follow

rules and laws.

Next weekend will also begin RCIA classes for those seeking to come into the church at Easter, as well as those who would

like to study our Catholic Faith. Our Catholic Faith has a richness and depth that so often we do not remember or have

never understood. All are welcome to attend the classes on Sunday morning in the band room beginning at 9:45 until

10:45.

St. Agnes Cathedral PCCW Budget Meeting

St. Agnes Cathedral PCCW Budget Meeting

August 8, 2023

The PCCW budget meeting was attended by Pat Rues, Iris

Bounds, Jan McEvoy, Mary Seibert, Judy Hauschildt, Yvonne

Heath, Janet McBride, Mary Doshier, Cheryl Wagstaff and Sr.

Elizabeth Ann.

As of this date the PCCW has $7,758.10 in our parish account.

The most recent deposit was from the garage sale in the

amount of $5,336.95. The trust with the diocese has a total

balance of $10,830.29.

A discussion of the upcoming year’s budget includes the

following items:

· Dues for Regional, Diocese, and National

· PCCW functions

· Charitable giving

· Gifts (particularly at Christmas)

· Emergency fund

It was decided that $5,250 will be put into the Parish Building

Fund, with $2,500 kept in the parish PCCW fund for the

above items.

As a side discussion it was mentioned that dates for PCCW

activities will need to be decided soon and placed on the

parish calendar.

Respectfully submitted: Janet McBride

Coffee and donuts will resume Sunday, Aug. 20th after the

8:00 AM Mass. Meet in the cafeteria for coffee, donuts and

socialization. All are welcome!

Children's Liturgy of the Word (CLOW

Children's Liturgy of the Word (CLOW) will resume

Sunday, Aug. 27th during the 11:30 AM Mass. CLOW is

open to children preschool through early

elementary. This is an opportunity for children to hear

the word of God in a manner that they can more fully

understand. There is no signup required. All children

are welcome. Visitors are always welcome as well. If

you have any questions about CLOW, please call the

parish office at 831-3565 ext 107 and ask for Iris.