From The Pastor’s Desk

Remembering saints and martyrs and dedicating a specific day to them each year has been a Christian tradition since the 4th century. In 609, Pope Boniface IV decided to remember all martyrs and originally May 13th was designated as the Feast of All Holy Martyrs. We know that Pope Gregory IV in 835 moved the commemoration of martyrs from May 13th to November 1st. He extended the celebration to include all the saints, changing to the Feast of All Saints. The night before became known as All Hallows Eve, or “holy evening” and eventually it became Halloween.

Whether Pope Gregory was trying to assimilate pagan peoples of Ireland and England into the church will always be up for debate. There are no medieval writings which tell that the pagan peoples of these lands gathered and celebrated a major Celtic festival on the eve of winter. In contrast, New Year was a huge pagan celebration. However, it was the Irish farmers living in Ireland hundreds of years ago which prepared for the All Saints Day and the following All Souls day the night before, by going door-to-door collecting food and goods for a village feast and bonfire. Those who contributed were promised prosperity; those who didn’t received threats of bad luck. And yes, you are right, the Irish Catholics who immigrated in the 1800’s brought the practice of “trick or treating” with them to America. The rest is the great United States use of advertising and commercialism. Next to Christmas, Halloween is the largest money-making “holiday” for businesses. Unfortunately, our society has turned a night of prayer and celebration into one of haunted houses, witches and ghosts.

On November the second we celebrate All Souls Day. November has been/is the month in which we remember our beloved dead in prayer in a special way. Traditionally it is in the offering of a Mass in their name. Our teaching or tradition of praying for the dead is found in the Old Testament in the twelfth chapter of 2nd Maccabees. In Maccabees is found the necessity of purgation after death, thus the name Purgatory. “A holy and wholesome thought to pray for the dead that they might be loosed from their sins.” If when a person dies they either go to Heaven or Hell, the offering of sacrifice in the temple for the dead would not make sense, because those in Heaven have no need of prayer and those in Hell are there for eternity. Similar passages regarding purgation, thus pointing to a place or state in which the purgation of the soul must take place can also be found in the New Testament. Both St. Peter and St. Paul speak of a “cleansing Fire.” Please remember your beloved dead this November.

HUNCHBACK OF NOTRE DAME MUSICAL

Springfield Catholic High School presents their fall musical,

Hunchback of Notre Dame on November 14, 15, & 16 at 7:00pm, November 17 at 2:00pm. Tickets are available at Springfield Catholic High School, 887-8817, and St Agnes parish office, 831-3565. Order soon – they’re going fast!

CALLING ALL BAKERS!

On Nov. 2nd and 3rd the parish will be holding our annual Fall Bazaar. The Seniors Unlimited group always have the best bake sale table because of all the help they receive from their fellow parishioners. Please consider contributing to this event by donating your delicious baked goods. Your goodies may be brought to the parish office on Friday or directly to the bazaar anytime on Saturday. Please label your goods so we know exactly what it is and whether it contains nuts.

We so appreciate all the efforts to make this a successful weekend. See you at the bazaar!

ST. AGNES PARISH 5 YEAR PLAN KICK OFF EVENT

We hope you can join us for a night of hospitality and love Monday, November 4th featuring guest speaker Sister Richard Mary Burke. We will meet from 7-8:30pm in the school cafeteria. Dessert & coffee will be provided.

From The Pastor’s Desk

It always surprises people when they say, “What do you mean, I am not a member of the parish? I have gone to church here for 3 years, etc.” My response, “You are not listed. Did you ever register?” Well…no, but you know me. That may be true, that I know a person; but if they have not registered, they could just be attending mass here because it is convenient. Belonging to a parish at the very least, means being registered and attending mass on a regular basis, (Christmas and Easter liturgies is not a regular basis).

Our Children learn from example. Many adults believe that children do not understand many things; but as a former teacher and being around young people constantly, believe me they understand. They are always watching the adults that surround them, especially parents, teachers, coaches and priests. Whether we believe it or not, our actions speak and teach young people, perhaps even more than textbooks. Textbooks teach knowledge, actions teach how to use that knowledge. When parents skip Mass on Sundays they are teaching their sons and daughters that Mass and God is not that important. I have heard directly from young people that their parents say, “ it is the only day they get to sleep in, we do not need to go to Mass you already went to mass twice this week.” If we push God aside on Sunday, then lying, stealing, being disrespectful, cheating; all of these can be pushed aside as well. These are God’s laws and when we make God second or third place in our lives, morality begins to crumble. It is no wonder drugs, gangs, killing, and robberies are on the rise across this country and even in our city.

I ask every adult to become more involved in our parish. Don’t just come to Mass to get an obligation out of the way, come to praise, worship, and give thanks to our God. Coming to Mass, is not coming to be entertained by the priest or the choir. The celebrant and the choir are only leading in worship. Celebrating the Eucharist means being involved in the prayers and in the music and living our faith by our actions.

Being involved in your parish means being involved in more than just Sunday liturgy. We are so fortunate here at St. Agnes with all the many adult and youth activities as well as our grade school. Our different opportunities to study scripture, our women’s groups and their activities, the Knights of Columbus and their activities, adults teaching their faith to students who attend public schools, the parish council, Bingo Workers, I Love My Parish committee, prayer group of 33 days, adult formation classes, the many adults in our bell choir and traditional choir, being an Extraordinary Eucharistic Minister, being a Lector, being a greeter at Mass. There are so many ways for a person to be involved with our faith community. When I talk with other pastors, or classmates about what is happening here at St. Agnes, they simply say, “Stop, just listening to you makes me tired!” In short I challenge everyone to get involved and make our parish a

stronger, more faith filled parish.

SCHS Theatre production of Hunchback of Notre Dame

Springfield Catholic High School presents their fall musical, Hunchback of Notre Dame on November 14, 15, & 16 at 7:00pm, November 17 at 2:00pm. Tickets are available at Springfield Catholic High School, 887-8817, and St Agnes parish office, 831-3565. Order soon – they’re going fast!

ST. AGNES PARISH 5 YEAR PLAN KICK OFF EVENT

We hope you can join us for a night of hospitality and love Monday, November 4th featuring guest speaker Sister Richard Mary Burke. We will meet from 7-8:30pm in the school cafeteria. Dessert & coffee will be provided.

ST. AGNES FALL BAZAAR...A PARISH EVENT

Coming the weekend of Nov. 2/3 we will hold our annual parish bazaar. There will be several booths for you to come and browse and, hopefully, find something for yourself or a Christmas gift or stocking stuffer. If we support our vendors they will continue to come each year and support our causes! We can always use volunteers to help for an hour or two each day:

♦ Friday - setting up for the event

♦ Saturday & Sunday - staffing the parish booths in shifts from 9am-3:00pm on Sat., 8am-1Pm on Sun

♦ Sunday - returning the cafeteria to its original state, 1-2:30pm

♦ Many bakers needed for the Senior’s Bake Sale table

Please contact Karen (417-761-9616) if you are able to volunteer. We truly appreciate our volunteers!

From The Pastor’s Desk

For the past two years I have been presenting an adult class on Sunday mornings. One set of classes covered St. Paul the Man, another set of classes covered Church history, another set looked at the New Testament. This fall I began a set of classes which I have titled, The Beginning of the Church. I chose this topic because many people do not have a good knowledge of early church teachings and doctrine, how and why they developed.

The Catholic Church gave the world the Bible, the Church didn’t come from 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. The New Testament contains 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 complied 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) it needed to have wide spread acceptance and usage in the early Christian communities, 3) known for its orthodoxy, fitting with other books, not having strange ideas, and 4) used in liturgy in the different communities.

If we look to early Church Fathers we can see Justin Martyr (150 AD) writing about three gospels; Matthew, Mark and Luke. St. Irenaeus (170 AD) writes about the harmony of four gospels; Matthew, Mark, Luke and John. It is the writings of Origen (182 AD) who designated as the “New Testament” the collection of Christian scriptures that we would recognize as the New Testament Canon. His list was shorter than what is found in the New Testament today, but he acknowledged as scripture the Four Gospels, and the Acts of the Apostles, the fourteen letters of Paul, 1 Peter, 1 John and the Revelation of John. St. Athanasius, the bishop of Alexandria in his thirty ninth festal letter in 367 AD, listed the twenty seven books that we know as the New Testament. The process of selection of which books were included in the New Testament grew out of the life of the early Christian community, as that community used those books and found someof them more valuable than others. They were not imposed or forced upon the people.

I invite anyone to join us for our Sunday morning 10:00 am class on the Beginning of the Church.

CONFIRMATION NEWS

The next Confirmation session will be held Sunday, Oct 13th beginning at 3:00 pm in the cafeteria. All candidates should plan on attending. Remember if you were not baptized at St Agnes, a copy of your Baptismal certificate is required. Contact Iris Bounds at ibounds@stacathedral.org with any questions.

LADIES OF THE PARISH!!!

All are invited to our upcoming PCCW activity; "Wreath Making Party!" The event will take place Tuesday, Oct 22nd from 6:30-8:30 in the dining room. We will have all the supplies necessary to make a fall wreath or a Christmas wreath. We will have wreath bases, pine cones and every kind of ribbon to create your own festive wreath. More importantly, you can spend time with other ladies of our parish. What a great way to create community among our ladies! Bring a friend, bring your mother, daughter, sister; all are welcome! There will be no charge, but donations will be accepted to help offset cost of supplies. Of course, we will have food and drink. We do ask that you call either the parish office at 831-3565 or Regina at 417-988-9662 to sign up so we have enough food and supplies. Please register by Friday, Oct 18th. Hope to see many of you there!!!

KNIGHTS OF COLUMBUS

Next weekend is October’s breakfast sponsored by your St. Agnes Knights group after the 7:00 & 8:30 Masses. This month is French toast, eggs, sausage and/or bacon. Please come join your fellow parishioners for good food and fellowship.

From The Pastor’s Desk

When I mention stewardship, is seems like people only think about, “Father wants more money!” Within marriage, money is a lot of times a touchy subject due to budgets and unexpected emergencies, so it is within “church”. It is not easy to tackle this subject within the parish family. So let’s forget about money, budgets and talk about true stewardship.

This past weekend the Parish Council hosted St. Agnes Stewardship Fair. We have not had one here at St. Agnes for at least four years. It presented many of the different ministries which our parish is involved in both here in the parish as well as in the community. Many of the ministries are a combination, parish and community.

It is easy to look at the examples of the Saints before us and throw our arms up in defeat, saying, “Giving up all of my possessions is not realistic—I have a family to take care of. So I guess I cannot do this stewardship thing.” But that thought process is kind of like missing the “spirit” of the law because one is so focused on the “letter” of the law. In the spirit of the great Saints before us, let’s all consider how our lives, our priorities, and our decisions reflect Christ and make some changes where necessary.

Ask yourself: How can I use ten minutes this day, or an hour—whatever is the case, to thank God for all of the blessings he has bestowed on me? I have $5, $50 or $500—how can I use it to help others in need? I have skills in music, computers, listening, carpentry, gardening—whatever talents you’ve been blessed. How can I use these gifts to show God that I love my brother and sister as I love myself?

Stewardship isn’t a contest of who can give the most money. It isn’t a popularity contest of who is in the most activities. And it certainly isn’t a “Who’s Got Talent” contest of who has the most impressive gifts from God. Stewardship is a very personal commitment to God and to our faith community. And just like jumping back on the diet wagon after you have eaten a dozen donuts, Stewardship is a decision to be made daily—hourly—one at a time. It is never too late to choose Christ as the first priority in your life. And making that choice certainly does not mean that you walk away from your job, your house, and your belongings. Stewardship simply means remembering that all we have: in our bank accounts, in our resumes, our hobby rooms and on our calendars…ALL we have is a gift from God and we should treat it all accordingly.

I do want to take this time to thank all the many volunteers who help around our parish plant. I will not try to name people because I will leave some of you off the list as I keep seeing different people doing different things. I also want to thank all of you who give in the collection to help keep the parish solvent. If you ask pastors, “what is your biggest concern”, almost all will tell you, “Is there enough money to pay the bills this month.” So again I thank all of you who use your Sunday envelopes, and ask those who do not contribute, to please consider helping to pay the family bills.

SAVE THE DATE: Tickets for SCHS’s production of Hunchback of Notre Dame, Nov. 14,15,& 17, go on sale to the public Oct. 12, 2019

CONFIRMATION NEWS

The next Confirmation session will be held Sunday, Oct 13th beginning at 3:00 pm in the cafeteria. All candidates should plan on attending. Remember if you were not baptized at St Agnes, a copy of your Baptismal certificate is required. Contact Iris Bounds at ibounds@stacathedral.org with any questions.

Youth Activities

Youth in grades 8-12 are invited to dinner & a movie on Wed Oct 9th beginning at 6:30 pm In the dining room. We will begin with a brief discussion of the rosary, followed by lasagna & movie fun with “Hocus Pocus”. All are invited! No cost!

ST. AGNES FALL BAZAAR...A PARISH EVENT

Coming the weekend of Nov. 2/3 we will hold our annual parish bazaar. There will be several booths for you to come and browse and, hopefully, find something for yourself or a Christmas gift or stocking stuffer. If we support our vendors they will continue to come each year and support our causes! We can always use volunteers to help for an hour or two each day:

♦ Friday - setting up for the event

♦ Saturday & Sunday - staffing the parish booths in shifts from 9am-3:00pm on Sat., 8am-1Pm on Sun

♦ Sunday - returning the cafeteria to its original state, 1-2:30pm

♦ Many bakers needed for the Senior’s Bake Sale table

Please contact Karen (417-761-9616) if you are able to volunteer. We truly appreciate our volunteers!

From The Pastor’s Desk

Last weekend in my homily I talked about all the unique characters in Jesus’ parables. Many of them were not the most upstanding, and for most of His listeners they were disturbing. Jesus was not entertaining, His parables were meant to challenge old ways of thinking. Actually this was nothing new of God. All we need to do is study the Old and New Testaments of the Bible. God used many different people in His plan of our salvation. I do not believe I am being irreverent in my next paragraphs. In fact I think it should give all of hope that we can be of use to God in some way regardless of our past.

I want to look at some of our great spiritual people of the past that God choose. Noah was a drunk, Abraham was way too old to have children, while Isaac was a daydreamer of big things, and Jacob was a liar. Moses could not talk and had to have someone else talk for him, Gideon was afraid, and Sampson had long hair and was a womanizer. King David had an affair, was a murderer and Isaiah preached naked in the streets. The Prophet Jonah ran away from God and Job went bankrupt. There were others in the Old Testament, but let’s not forget the New Testament. John the Baptist ate bugs and good old St. Peter denied Christ. The Disciples fell asleep while Christ prayed and St. Paul was too religious. Timothy had an ulcer and Lazarus was dead.

Sarah was the wife of Abraham and she was extremely impatient. She was not able to conceive a child so she influenced Abraham to have a child with her slave starting a conflict that continues today. At the age of 90 God answered her prayer and she bore a son, Isaac. Through Isaac her son, came the nation of Israel, which gave us Jesus Christ.

Rebekah married Isaac and bore twin sons. She favored Jacob the youngest and through a trick helped him into receiving his fathers blessing, rather than Esau, who was the first-born. God took her mistake and created good by the passing of the blood line for the Nation of Israel from Abraham to Isaac to Jacob.

Jacob worked seven years to win Rachel for his wife. Her father substituted Leah instead, hidden behind her veil. Thus Jacob had to work another seven years for Rachel. Jacob never loved Leah, but God graced her in a special way. Her son Judah was the father of the tribe from which came Jesus.

Rahab was a prostitute in the city of Jericho. She hid the Hebrew spies in exchange for the safety of her family. Her family was saved at the destruction of Jericho and she became the ancestress of King David and from the house of David came Jesus Christ.

Ruth was a pagan who had married a Hebrew. After her husband died she returned to Israel with her Jewish mother-inlaw,

Naomi. She accepted God as her God following Naomi. She married another Hebrew and we find her name listed in the Mathews genealogy of Jesus as an ancestor of King David.

HELP NEEDED

Everyone enjoys coffee & donuts on Sunday mornings! Right now we need a couple of volunteers who are willing to make the coffee and lemonade. If you can help (even on occasion) we would love your help! Please call the parish office at 831-3565 or contact Iris Bounds at ibounds@sta-cathedral.org. Thank you for helping!

YOUR PARISH

Thank you for joining us for the Stewardship Fair. We hope that you prayerfully consider getting more involved In Your parish. If you have any questions about a specific group, please fill out the ministry card in the pews or the back of church and place it in the boxes or you can call the parish office at 831-3565. Thank you for sharing your time, talents, and gifts with your St. Agnes parish. We are truly blessed to have you.

SENIORS OF ST AGNES AND THEIR FAMILIES

On Friday, October 4 at 1:00pm in the Dining Room, representatives for SENIOR RESOURCE NETWORKOF THE OZARKS will be present to inform, and answer questions, regarding resources in our community. In the past, a lawyer dealing with wills and probate, a financial advisor, a pharmacist, a Medicare Insurance specialist, car insurance agent and people from health care and/or\ hospice have spoken to us. Although they represent individual businesses, there has NEVER been any pressure at the meeting to use them specifically, and they are always informative.

School is out at noon that day so parking will be easier. Please call the office if you plan to attend the meeting. There will be a free catered luncheon for those present. Donations accepted. If you have any questions call me at 831-3565, ext.103.

S. Elizabeth Ann