From the Pastor’s Desk
The whole world seems to be in some sense hurting. The continuing war of aggression against the country of the Ukraine, the ongoing war in Gaza, therein the terrorism on every continent, hunger, human trafficking, all types of disease, weather related disasters. The list can go on and on. Jesus did not sugar coat things or pretend everything would be just fine. He led by example. His life was one of rejection, ridicule, suffering and a horrible death. For hundreds of years Christians have offered up everything that happens in their day: the joys and suffering, offering to God as a prayer.
God’s ways are not our ways and suffering reminds us of that more than anything else. We live in a culture that despises any type of pain and suffering. Thus we have pain relievers that are constantly being given to us in the form of pills, products, experiences. Anything that can help us to avoid suffering is on the market. The secular world cannot make sense of suffering because it views suffering as worthless. Jesus’ suffering had tremendous value and as His disciples our suffering is somehow connected to his suffering in ways we will never fully understand in this lifetime. Suffering is a part of life. In my homily last weekend, I called it “loss”. Like so many things in life that we have little or no control over, how we respond to suffering makes a huge difference.
Once we come to the understanding of the inevitable sufferings of life, offering it to God as a prayer for ourselves and for others. We become filled with a deep and abiding peace. Since the dawn of Christianity the Church Fathers, the heroes, champions and saints of Christianity have been meditating on the passion and death of Jesus Christ. The world changed that Friday afternoon when Jesus gave up His life upon the cross.
Jesus was very clear in the Gospel when He told His disciples, “If you want to become my followers, let them deny themselves and take up their cross daily and follow me.” As we begin the Lenten Season let our prayer be, Jesus, teach me to embrace the unavoidable suffering of life, and keep me ever mindful of those who suffer more than I do. May the Church and our country help those who are suffering?
ST. AGNES FAMILY SMALL GROUP
Join us to talk about God and the Mass. We will meet in the preschool room every Sunday of Lent directly after the 11:30 am Mass. Feel free to bring your own snacks and/or lunch for your family. The kids can play and the parents can talk!
We welcome the following families to St. Agnes Parish:
Eric Gibbs and Michelle LaPointe
Ana Lohmiller
John, Mary Ann, Cole and Jacob Dobbs
Taylor, Stephanie, Angelina, and Giovanna Newton
Evelyn Tippie
Noah Harrison
Salvador, Bethany and Santiago Barron
Edward, Cassandra, Derek and Dane Simek
Alexander Clavijo-Bejarano, Linda Fajardo, Linda Clavijo-Fajardo, Prisca Fajardo, and Jeff Clavlio-Fajardo
Michael, Jennifer, George, Liam, Hazel, Alice, Edward, Andrew, and Louis Dwyer
Jacob, Heather, and Isaiah Dorsett
MARCH FOR LIFE
The annual state-wide March for Life in Jefferson City to raise awareness of the sanctity of life and to let our elected officials know we want them to work on upholding the dignity of life in all its stages will be Thu., May 01, 2025. T-shirts are available to purchase for $8, to guarantee a shirt, you must register by April 1, 2025! Registration is now open to order T-shirts and to ride the chartered bus from Springfield, For more information, please contact Sharon Ostendorf, Office of Respect Life, at sostendorf@dioscg.org or (417) 866-0841. Additional information may also be found at https://midwestmarchforlife.com
From the Pastor’s Desk:
Beginning this Sunday January 26, Catholic Schools across the United States are celebrating National Catholic Schools Week. It is a week set aside each year to celebrate Catholic School and the ministry they perform in educating young people in the Catholic Faith, in Christian morality and in providing academic excellence.
The first Catholic school that opened in the United State was called St. Mary’s School in Philadelphia, in 1783. It took years before the curiosity for Catholic education grew. The number of Catholic schools grew as the massive inflow of Catholics from all over the world began in the late 1800s. By the 1920s, more than 6,000 Catholic elementary schools accepted and enrolled almost two million students and employed 42,000 teachers. By the latter half of that century, enrollment grew, even more, reaching double the number of students. Ever since Catholic schools have been widely perceived and established as a viable means of education.
The theme this year 2025, is Catholic Schools: United in Faith and Community. Each of our Catholic schools, will host Masses on a daily basis as normal, several different assembles, events and other activities for the students, families, parishioners to join in the celebration. Our Catholic schools are an important part of our parishes.
Sunday January 26 the 11:30 liturgy will be led by St. Agnes students, who will also handout bookmarks they have made. On Tuesday as we celebrate community, donation to Life House needs, and community builder games led by STUCO. Tuesday will feature trips of the movies and special treats provided by Home & School. Wednesday is a Color Guard presentation with First Responders and St. Agnes Open House. A special prayer time for Vocations, along with vocation/job dress up day. On Friday will be a special lunch for Faculty & Staff, along with dress as your teacher day.
National Catholic Schools Week is a celebration for everyone. Come and celebrate with us.
Safe Environment Requirements for all diocesan personnel—clergy, employees, and adult volunteers
The mission and ministry of creating a safe environment for all to flourish and thrive is a responsibility we each share. Before regularly working or volunteering with minors or vulnerable adults, all diocesan personnel (clergy, employees and adult volunteers) are required to first complete:
the Safe Environment Training;
a Background Screening; and,
a current, signed Code of Conduct.
The Safe Environment training is available Online after creating an account in the VIRTUS system, through the VIRTUS Website: https://www.virtusonline.org/virtus/.
The Code of Conduct is required annually and is made available at the beginning of the fiscal year, July 1, and expires December 31 the following year.
The Background Screening Application is now accessed through the VIRTUS account. These forms and the Safe Environment Policies are available on the diocesan Website, under the Office of Child and Youth Protection at https://dioscg.org/child-youth-protection/. Questions about these requirements may be directed to the Office of Child and Youth Protection at (417) 866-0841 or by Email: childandyouthprotection@dioscg.org.
7 DAYS of PRAYER for HEALING from ABUSE
The 7 Days of Prayer for Healing from Abuse prayer guide was created by a local priest with the hope and intention of bringing healing and peace. Pamphlets have been created with the prayer model and are available from the Office of Child & Youth Protection and available to download from the diocesan Website at https://dioscg.org/healing-prayers/
CAMP RENEWAL Registration
Registrations are currently being accepted for Camp Renewal Summer 2025! Camp Renewal is open to youth who will be entering 5th through 9th grade. For those entering 10th, 11th and 12th grades and adults, there is a need for volunteers. Please complete the online registration as soon as possible. Parents must sign the online registration. Deadline for Camper application is April 18th, 2025. You can obtain more information by picking up a brochure in the vestibule of St. Agnes Cathedral, in the parish office or in the school. You can also register online by going to https://dioscg.formstack.com/forms/camp re new all
FIRST EUCHARIST
Families with children who are preparing to receive their First Eucharist should plan to attend an informational session on Sunday, Feb 2nd at 10:15 in the Upper Conference Room of the school. Following the session, the young people preparing for Eucharist will attend a Mass of commitment at the 11:30 Mass in the Cathedral. If families have questions or need resources, please contact iris at ibounds@sta-cathedral.org.
From the Pastor’s Desk
This weekend we celebrate Epiphany, it comes from a Greek word meaning “Manifestation”, “striking appearance” or “Vision of God”. Within the Roman Catholic Church we celebrate it as the revelation of the Son of God as human in Jesus Christ. The normal, traditional date for the feast is January 6th, however it is moved this year to the Sunday January the 5th. The date is not as important as it is celebrated the 2nd Sunday after Christmas.
The Feast of the Epiphany is celebrated by both the Eastern and Western Catholic Churches. Within the Roman Catholic Church the feast mostly celebrates the coming of the Magi with only a minor reference to the Baptism of Jesus and the miracle at the Wedding at Cana. The Eastern Church celebrates the Baptism of Christ in the Jordan. Regardless both traditions are celebrating within the feast, the manifestation of Christ to the nations.
Again depending on what day of the week that Christmas falls, depends when the Christmas Season within the Roman Catholic Church ends. This year due to Christmas being celebrated on Wednesday, means that the Baptism of the Lord is celebrated immediately after Epiphany on Sunday January the 12th and Ordinary Time begins the following day January 13. As I wrote at the beginning of Advent, it would be a short Advent Season and a short Christmas Season.
On January 13th we begin the first week of Ordinary Time and continue for seven weeks until March 5th when Lent begins with Ash Wednesday. For those who follow the weekly scripture readings, we began at the first of Advent Sunday Readings in Year C, the weekday readings are from Cycle 1. There are for Sundays a three year cycle; A, B and C. The weekday are only a 2 year cycle, but during the three years the Roman Catholic Church reads a great amount of the Bible.
Hopefully this helps to explain some of how the Church liturgy is celebrated. Again I want to thank everyone who had helped in the decorating the church and in all the ministries during the Advent and Christmas Seasons. Our Christmas was truly spiritual liturgies.
VIETNAMESE 1st RECONCILIATION
Please keep our 1st Reconciliation recipients in your prayers as they continue their faith journey. Bronwyn Barge, Gigi Dinh, Lilian Nguyen, Jakob Nguyen, Mikai Nguyen, Kylie Nguyen, Sullivan Tran, Nhi Ai Nguyen, Leah Nguyen, Emily Vo, Chloe Vu, Cedric Tran
Thank You, Thank you, Thank you!
A HUGE thank you to all who participated in our Jesse Tree Project! The generosity of all who participated was overwhelming! So many people came forward with gifts and donations! We took boxes and boxes of items to LifeHouse, Sammy's Window, Sacred Heart Men's Shelter and Grace United Methodist Church Women's Shelter. The parishioners of St. Agnes Cathedral are so very generous. These organizations will benefit not only during the Christmas season, but also into 2025. A huge thank you to several people who helped in the delivery of these items too. Thanks to Irene Francka, Doris Mantei and to Connie McNabb.
CATHOLIC MEN'S CONFERENCE
Join hundreds of men for a day of life-changing inspiration at the 6th annual Catholic Men’s Conference on Sat., Feb. 22, 2025, at Springfield Catholic High School. This year’s event will motivate men to take concrete steps in building authentic friendships and strengthening our parish communities. Keynote speaker John Edwards will share his passionate testimony of transformation, along with the secret to building bonds of brotherhood. This will be the launch of a new grassroots movement in our diocese, so don’t miss out! The day begins at 8:00 a.m. with Holy Mass, celebrated by Bishop Edward Rice. Additional information may be found at https://catholicconference.men/events/2025/
From the Pastor’s Desk:
The earliest record of the observing of the birth of Christ on December 25, is 180 A. D. in Egypt. For the first 200 years after the birth of Jesus Christ, there was little interest about when he was born. There was no one around taking notes as to the exact date that Jesus was born. The references to the birth of Jesus being celebrated on December 25th appeared in Antioch in the middle of the 2nd century. The early church placed the most emphasis on the day people died, not on their birth. The saints were remembered on the anniversaries of their deaths, when the soul entered heaven. But by the early third century the view of birthdays began to change.
The Christians were still being persecuted by the Roman Empire and it was not until the Council of Tours in 567, that the Season of Advent as a time of special preparation and grace for the birth of Jesus was established. It was also at this time that the 12 days from Christmas to Epiphany was set as a sacred, festive season.
Most historians agree that the Western Roman Catholic Church chose December 25 as the day to honor the birth of Jesus Christ as it was competing for followers with the popular pagan Roman god, Mithras. Once the December date was set, the church forbade any feasting or merrymaking by pagans on that day in order to disassociate Christmas from the pagan holidays.
As Christmas began to be celebrated, it was exclusively a sacred holiday. However, secular traditions refused to die and over the years Christians began exchanging gifts and celebrating during the Christmas Season. By the Middle Ages the Church gave into people and their local traditions and December 25 became the most popular holiday of the year, with religious meaning and secular traditions.
In the New England colonies the Puritans considered Christmas customs as sacrilegious since they had no basis in scripture. During the late 1600’s and for the next 350 years each wave of immigrants have brought their own unique Christmas customs to the United States. It wasn’t however until the great wave of German immigrants came in the nineteenth century that many of our major Christmas customs began to flourish on a large scale.
Let all the beauty, all the traditions from around the world, lead us to the manger and the new born Christ Child. Have a blessed and safe Christmas Season. Thank you for all your cards and gifts this Christmas Season.
We welcome the following families to St. Agnes Parish:
Andrew and Gabrielle Cook and children
Zayden and Lillian
William and Emily Steppig and children
Louis and Charles
Matthew Snodgrass and Ashley Fennewald
Benjamin and Liana Gray and child
Elsie
CROSSLINES IS IN NEED OF VOLUNTEERS!!
A few of your fellow parishioners volunteer at Crosslines on the 4th Tuesday of each month. Due to various reasons our volunteer numbers have decreased, but the need has increased. The hours are 9:00 - 2:00, but most choose either morning hours or afternoon; not all day. Volunteers pair with shoppers to help fill their grocery bags through the food aisles. Some volunteers also help in the back room putting groceries into the shoppers' cars and doing other things.
If you are able to help for just a part of one day a month please come to Crosslines, 3055 E. Division on the 4th Tuesday of the month. If you have any questions please call Janet at 417-880-9359
LOVE IN ACTION
CLARET COLD WEATHER SHELTER
1609 N Summit Ave. The shelter is managed and supported by all catholic churches in Springfield and is located at Sacred Heart Catholic church. We are in great need of volunteers to serve on overnight shifts: 7 pm-1 am and 1 am-7am Please consider this opportunity to help provide a safe, warm place for the night. For more information, contact Marianne Jones 417=224-2260 mjintdesign@yahoo.com
From the Pastor’s Desk:
The Advent season is a time for us to reflect upon the threefold coming of Jesus Christ: His birth, His death, and His promise to return in glory. The Sacred Scriptures are to help us recognize His coming, thus we have this beautiful season to help us prepare. Each year we begin the new liturgical year with the season of Advent.
As I take different streets to South Cox Hospital I do see some strange things in neighborhoods. For example, in late October, Halloween skeletons and pumpkins in a yard and across the street, Santa Claus and blow up snowmen. Our culture and society have no real understanding of seasons or what they are celebrating. Our culture has become one of seeking immediate gratification. The Advent Season with the expectation of the coming of Christ at Christmas holds very little meaning for many people in our country.
We need to balance the drive of modern culture which pushes Christ and even the time-treasured greeting, “Merry Christmas,” aside in favor of the generic “Happy Holidays.” That said, we need to keep in mind that we are not celebrating Christmas yet. We are celebrating Advent—the time of looking at God’s promise that the Lord will indeed come and we as Christians need to make ready his way. The Advent attitudes are to be joyous and hope filled, trusting in a loving Father who sent His Son. Many of our Advent readings throughout the Sundays, as well as the weekday readings, refer to events long past and persons associated with Jesus’ first coming. Advent’s focus, however, is not on the past but on the future. Advent sees those events and persons as symbols and models for a new advent which stretches from long before our time to the future of human history. It looks to a time when Christ will return in divine glory.
In our path through Advent, we are made very much aware of the theme of promise and fulfillment. This biblical theme is fundamental for Advent, in which we see the present time as a fulfillment with regard to past history and as a promise of future fulfillment. The New Testament times could look back to the Old Testament and see in the writings the promise of what was now fulfilled in its gospel experience. Today we see how the New Testament itself is fulfilled in its daily unfolding, full of surprises, guided by the Holy Spirit. As we celebrate Advent we are called as God’s holy people to open our hearts, individually and communally, to the reality of Jesus Christ.
ANNUAL CHRISTMAS DINNER FOR ALL WOMEN IN THE PARISH
All women of the parish are invited to the PCCW Christmas dinner and party. It will be Dec. 4th at 6:00 in the school dining room. St. Michael’s will cater the meal. There will be an exciting Rob Your Neighbor gift exchange. Bring a gift of around $10 for exchange if you'd like to participate And it wouldn't be Christmas without music. Maybe there is someone who would like to play the piano. (hint, hint)
Come and enjoy the company of others in the parish. Please call the office (417-831-3565) to sign up if you plan on comi
LOVE IN ACTION
LOVE IN ACTION
CLARET COLD WEATHER SHELTER
1609 N Summit Ave. The shelter is managed and supported by all catholic churches in Springfield and is located at Sacred Heart Catholic church. We are in great need of volunteers to serve on overnight shifts: 7 pm-1 am and 1 am-7am Please consider this opportunity to help provide a safe, warm place for the night. For more information, contact Marianne Jones 417=224-2260 mjintdesign@yahoo.com
WE NEED YOUR DONATIONS!
Our Faith Formation program will be conducting a drive for Life– house during the Fall and Advent Seasons. We will also have some items on the Jesse Tree during the advent season, but right now there is an urgent need for the following items for Moms and Babies. Please note if you bring in clothing items, make certain that they are clean and only slightly worn, Please bring any of the following urgently needed items to the parish office for Iris: deodorant, baby bottles and brushes, baby lotion, plastic hangers, reusable water bottles, baby socks. The following items are always in general need at Lifehouse: leggings, ankle socks, women’s clothing (maternity and non-maternity), slightly used jeans or joggers in all sizes. Thank you !