From the Pastor’s Desk:
A week ago, on Saturday morning the world awoke with another war in the Middle East. The Palestinian Hamas launched hundreds of rockets into parts of occupied Palestine. It is a confusing mess with the result of death and destruction on both sides. In the Ukraine the war continues as the Ukrainian forces continue to fight to free their country from the Russian invasion. There is constant fighting continuing in other parts of our world that are overshadowed by these two major conflicts. Why do I bring this up in my letter?
October is designated by the Catholic Church as the “Month of the Rosary” because in this month the Church celebrates the Marian advocation of Our Lady of the Rosary on October 7th. The feast of Our Lady of the Rosary, was established by Pope St. Pius V in 1571 to celebrate the miraculous victory of the Christian forces in the Battle Lepanto on October 7th of that year. Before the battle St. Pius V had requested all Western Christians to pray the rosary; so with the victory he attributed the victory to the power of the Marian prayer, rather than the power of the outnumbered ships and cannons.
The dedication of the month of October to the Holy Rosary became common in the Church thanks to Pope Leo XII who was an enthusiastic promoter of the rosary. Within five years, Pope Leo wrote eleven encyclicals on the rosary. In our life time, St. John Paul II called the rosary his favorite prayer. As we celebrate the beautiful colors this October, pray the rosary asking Mary to petition her son, Jesus to send the Holy Spirit to bring about peace in our torn and troubled world.
This week, I will be attending the Priest Institute in Cape Girardeau as will be the priests and permeant deacons. Fr. David Miller will celebrate an 8:30 am mass Monday through Friday of this week at St. Joseph here in Springfield on North Campbell.
Our second Eucharistic Session will be held on Monday October 16th at 1pm, or Tuesday October 17th at 6:30 pm in the Cafeteria: 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?” Jesus asks this same question of us: who do you say Jesus is?
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 avtrip 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.