CRS Advocacy Alert

The U.S. House introduced an appropriations bill that would reduce foreign aid in the fiscal year 2024 federal budget by $7 billion. At a time when global hunger and poverty are on the rise, these cuts would have devastating consequences for millions of people around the world. Foreign assistance accounts for less than 1% of the U.S. budget.

You can make a difference to ensure this critical aid isn’t reduced further!

Visit https://support.crs.org/act/budget?ms=mamcrs0223m2c00gen00 

to send your urgent email.  It takes less than 1 minute! 

From the Pastor’s Desk:

As I spoke last week in my homily, Advent is a season of expectation.  However our society has taken the month of December and turned it into a hectic time of parties, traveling and overspending.  Everyone has the same amount of time to spend each day.  We have the time, but the struggle is deciding what really matters in our life and how we should spend our precious time.

We make time for what we regard as important.  In the creation account from Genesis, “the earth was without form or shape, with darkness over the abyss and a mighty wind sweeping over the waters”.  Even before God created any living thing, God arranged the days and brought order from the chaos.  One of the major obstacles for spiritual growth today is that people’s lives are in chaos rather than order.  Many people struggle to find order amidst the chaos because we allow ourselves to be pulled in many different directions.  Our prayer life is overcome by immediate and unexpected demands from family, work or over tiredness.

We falter in our spiritual lives because we do not keep to prayer plan which can quickly become words and wandering without a purpose. True prayer is building and strengthening our relationship with God.  It takes work to truly pray, just as it takes work to maintain a good friendship or relationship within marriage.

Within our Catholic Faith there are many different forms of prayer.  The celebration and attending of Mass is the highest form of prayer/worship.  But there are many other forms of prayer, reading/mediating of Sacred Scripture, the rosary, spiritual books, personal type of prayer, Stations of the Cross.  As Advent is quickly moving toward Christmas, take the time (long or short) to pray each day.

On Sunday December 17 we will begin our Christmas Novena.  Beginning at 7 pm it will conclude about 7:35 pm.  In the quietness of the Cathedral, in candle light and white Christmas lights, different scripture readings are proclaimed all pointing to the coming of the Messiah.  Use one or more of these evenings to slow the pace and listen to the Lord speaking to us down from the ages. 

CHRISTMAS NOVENA/OPEN HOUSE

CHRISTMAS NOVENA/OPEN HOUSE

December 17 th Christmas Novena 7 pm

December 18th Christmas Novena 7 pm

December 19th Christmas Novena 7 pm

Open House 7:30 pm A-I

December 20th Christmas Novena 7 pm

Open House 7:30 pm J-P

December 21th Christmas Novena 7 pm

Open House 7:30 pm Q–Z

December 22nd Christmas Novena 7 pm

Open House 7:30 pm (those who missed)

December 23 Christmas Novena 7 pm

PARISH HEALTH NURSING

Coping Strategies for the holidays

Practice mindfulness and meditation, prevent burnout – it’s ok to say NO, take a break, get some fresh air and sunlight, if you’re in therapy, stay in therapy, and try to avoid overspending and focus on celebrating together and showing affection by being present, engaging, and supporting each other.

Www.psychiatry.org

VOLUNTEERS NEEDED at LIFEHOUSE CRISIS MATERNITY HOME

LifeHouse is bursting at the seams with 15 residents, ten babies, and four toddlers! Ladies, if you have a heart for holding babies and the occasional three-year-old, we have daytime, evening, and weekend hours available. Also, with so many residents who need to go to various appointments, we urgently need transportation volunteers. If you have a few hours per week or month to help our mothers and babies, please get in touch with Jill Guise at 417-720-4213 or jguise@ccsomo.org. Thank you!

From the Pastor’s Desk::

Waiting seems to be a part of our earthly life. We spend so much of our time hurrying to get somewhere and then----

waiting. Waiting is also an essential part of our spiritual life. But waiting as a child of God, a disciple of Christ is not an

empty waiting. It is a waiting with a promise in our hearts; we wait during Advent for the birth of Jesus. During the

Easter Season we wait for the coming of the Holy Spirit; and after the Ascension of Jesus, we wait for His coming again in

glory. We are always waiting, but it a waiting in the knowledge that we are walking in the footsteps of God.

As I spoke in my homily last weekend, “I”, we are not usually a very patient person/people. Our modern technology has

just made that worse. If the internet is slow by a few seconds, “What’s wrong??” We would not make a very good

Jewish person during the time of the prophet Isaiah. Promises and prophies from God to His people were simply not on

God’s timeline. All of those centuries before the birth of Christ, the people waited for God to fulfill His promise to send

the Messiah.

Waiting for God is an active and hopefully, joyful time. If we get impatient with God, we should stay cool, and look in

the mirror, because God is always waiting for us. As we wait for God, whether for His second coming, or for His answer

to our prayers, our waiting is to be an active waiting in which we live the present moment to the fullest, in order to find

the signs of “Him” whom we are waiting for. Waiting for God’s answer means paying attention to what is happening

right now before our eyes and seeing the first rays of God’s glorious coming.

Our St. Agnes Penance Service will be this Monday, December 11th. Please take the opportunity to receive the sacrament

at the beginning of Advent not at the end. Let the Advent Season be one of prayer and expectation, a longing and

preparing for the coming of the Lord.

ADVENT 2023

We will continue our project for the

poor and homeless this Advent. There will be baskets

with Advent symbols at the doors of the church. On the

back of each is a suggested item to buy for a child or

adult. As they are brought to the parish office I will see

that they are delivered to the right place. Please return

the symbol as well as I use them from year to year.

Saves work that way. Thank you in advance. S.

Elizabeth Ann

SUPPORT CATHOLIC CHARITIES

SUPPORT CATHOLIC CHARITIES

Our Faith Formation Program will be assisting Catholic

Charities during the Thanksgiving and Advent

season. We will be collecting hygiene products during

this time. There are 3 items that are greatly needed. The

items specifically requested are lip balm, men's and

women's deodorant and hand warmers. We will be

collecting those items through December 17th. You can

bring these items to the parish office, to PSR classes or to

the collection boxes in the Cathedral.

AREA PARISHES PENANCE SERVICES

Dec 10 @ 3 pm Our Lady of the Cove

Dec 11 @7 pm St. Agnes Cathedral

Dec 12 @ 7 pm St Joseph the Worker

Dec 13 @7 pm Sacred Heart

Dec 14 @ 10 am 12 pm, 6 pm I C

Dec 18 @ 7 pm St Elizabeth Ann Seton

Dec 19 @ 7 pm St Joseph

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.

This coming weekend in the Church we will celebrate the 1st Sunday of Advent. Our culture’s expectation of Christmas contrasts with the experience of longing for the coming of Christ. We all 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.

Just as our Advent prayers and Scripture readings are a prelude to Christmas, so should our Advent decorations lead us to the celebration of Christmas. The blue violet color of Advent can become the background for Christmas. Using ribbon or material intertwined with gold can be enhanced in the Christmas season. The purples can be added to with gold or silver. Greenery can be left unlit through Advent and then become aglow during the Christmas season. Regardless, as we celebrate Advent this year, we are called as God’s holy people to open our hearts, individually and communally, to the reality of Jesus Christ.

The parish has an Advent Booklet to help you walk through the Season of Advent, please pick one up at Church or stop by the office or chapel. Our Advent Penance Service will be on Monday, December 11 at 7pm.

AREA PARISHES PENANCE SERVICES

Dec 3 @ 3 pm Our Lady of the Lake Branson

Dec 5 @ 10 am , 3 pm & 8 pm -H.T.

Dec 10 @ 3 pm Our Lady of the Cove

Dec 11 @7 pm St. Agnes Cathedral

Dec 12 @ 7 pm St Joseph the Worker

Dec 13 @7 pm Sacred Heart

Dec 14 @ 10 am 12 pm, 6 pm I C

Dec 18 @ 7 pm St Elizabeth Ann Seton

Dec 19 @ 7 pm St Joseph

Springfield Catholic Schools Annual Fund

Springfield Catholic Schools Annual Fund

Please prayerfully consider supporting the Springfield Catholic Schools Annual Fund. The money raised directly benefits families seeking a Catholic education. 27% of SCS students receive tuition assistance. The actual cost to educate is 22-31% higher than the tuition collected. Thank you for supporting Springfield Catholic Schools!

SUPPORT CATHOLIC CHARITIES

Our Faith Formation Program will be assisting Catholic Charities during the Thanksgiving and Advent season. We will be collecting hygiene products during this time. There are 3 items that are greatly needed. The items specifically requested are lip balm, men's and women's deodorant and hand warmers. We will be collecting those items through December 17th. You can bring these items to the parish office, to PSR classes or to the collection boxes in the Cathedral.

From the Pastor’s Desk:

We live in a time and culture in which there seems to be no recognition of sin.  That should not surprise those of Christian Faith, as more and more Americans no longer state they are Christian.  Remove the moral foundation of the Bible and sin no longer exists. No one wants to take responsibility for their actions.  Learning to say “I’m sorry” and “I forgive you” is part of growing into maturity.  To admit when we are wrong and to ask forgiveness of the person, gives us some idea of what it means to sin against God and to ask forgiveness from Him.

Sin is saying no to God, to His laws, and to His will.  Each of us have sinned and do sin and we need to have those sins removed.  Removal of our sins is the beginning of a restoration of our relationship with God, it is a “reconciliation”.  True reconciliation with God comes to us through Jesus Christ.  He is total compassion and total love.  Through His love upon the cross, He overcame sin.  By His suffering and dying Jesus achieved the forgiveness of all our sins.  In the Sacrament of Reconciliation we admit to ourselves and to God that our actions have hurt others and God because we have chosen not to follow God’s laws.

The reality of sin which is so ignored in our world today, makes clear the importance of forgiveness.  Sin separates us from God, forgiveness and reconciliation repairs the damage due to sin.  Our modern culture wants God and His laws removed from our world, and to replace them with human laws and lawsuits.  It seems that there cannot be forgiveness and reconciliation in our modern world, without a lawsuit, or the threat of one.

Since sin offends God and others, only God Himself can truly make reparation for sinful offenses and injustices.  Our law courts try to do so by imposing huge settlements upon offended people:  in the news last week, another person’s lid came off the coffee cup and spilled hot coffee, a law suit is coming, a man sued in Florida because a car accident made him a homosexual (received $225,000), Southeast Airlines sued because a flight attendant said “Eenie Meeni Minie Mo” to the passengers, U.S. Department of Health and Human Services estimate $70-126 billion in frivolous lawsuits to doctors and hospitals.

The apparent absence of sin from our culture, means that the passion of Christ and the sacrament of penance and reconciliation has little meaning.  But at the same time people are hurting and emphasis is placed upon relationships and the need to heal them when broken.  Thus we have TV talk shows providing vivid accounts of confrontation, admission of guilt, acceptance and some type of reconciliation all right in front of millions of people.  What a mixed up world!  Non Catholics ask why do you want to go to a priest for confession, and yet millions are watching people’s real life sins on TV.  Within the Sacrament of Reconciliation we are looking not only for human healing, but forgiveness into eternal salvation.

Springfield Catholic Schools Annual Fund

Please prayerfully consider supporting the Springfield Catholic Schools Annual Fund. The money raised directly benefits families seeking a Catholic education. 27% of SCS students receive tuition assistance. The actual cost to educate is 22-31% higher than the tuition collected. Thank you for supporting Springfield Catholic Schools!

ADVENT FAIR

Please note that the date of the Advent Fair has been changed to Dec 3rd. The Advent Fair is sponsored by St. Anne's Group and the Faith Formation program. The Advent Fair will be held in the cafeteria on Dec 3rd (the First Sunday of Advent) from 9:30-11:00 AM and will feature a variety of games, activities and crafts. There will also be spiritual resources for the entire family. We also need volunteers who may be available to help with the games ,crafts and other activities. This is a great opportunity for high school youth who may need service hours. We are also asking for donations of "Little Debbie Cakes" to be used for our "Saints Cake Walk". You can bring the Little Debbie cakes into the parish office. If you have further questions or would like to volunteer to help, please call iris at the parish office or email ibounds@sta-cathedral.org.

First Reconciliation

will be held on Sat, Dec, 2nd at 9:30 AM in the cathedral. The children will have a special penance service and family members are invited to attend. Please keep these young people in your prayers as they prepare for this sacrament. There will be a simple reception to be held in the dining room immediately following the service. We are looking for a few volunteers who may like to assist with the reception. Please call Iris if you would like to volunteer.

From the Pastor’s Desk:

In 835 Pope Gregory IV moved the commemoration of martyrs from May 13 to November the first.  The night before became known as All Hallow’s Eve, or “holy evening,” and eventually it became Halloween.  Our Holy Day Masses for All Saints Day, October 31 at 7:00 pm and on November 1 with be at 8:30, 12.15 and 5:30.

It will always be up to debate, if Pope Gregory was simply trying to simulate the pagan peoples of Ireland and England into the church. The pagan people of these lands already had a celebration on that particular date.  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 this practice of “trick-or-treating” with them.  The rest is the great United States use of advertising and commercialism.  Next to Christmas Halloween is the largest money “maker holiday” for businesses.  Unfortunately our society has turned a night of prayer and celebration into one of haunted houses, witches and ghosts.

This week on November 2, the Church celebrates All Souls Day.  It could be said that All Souls Day is the Catholic Church’s Memorial Day/Month.  The Month of November begins with the feast of All Saints’ Day, followed by All Souls’ Day.  We distinguish between our beloved dead who are in heaven, “all saints,” who pray for us and our loved ones who have died and for whom we are moved to pray.  These are the poor souls who still may be undergoing the purging process of death-to-self that follows repentance.  In the month of harvest and dying, the Catholic Church memorializes the dead and recognizes Jesus as Lord of the living and the dead.

Recycling Dumpster is for CARDBOARD ONLY! Please do not put any other recyclables in it.

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.

SEEKING ALL THOSE WHO BAKE AND/OR WOULD LIKE TO VOLUNTEER TIME TO THE HOLIDAY MARKET

The Holiday Market is in need of baked goods and volunteers to man the parish tables.  Our bake sale table is always a huge success, but only because we have wonderful parishioners who help us out with their baking talents, so please consider donating a baked item or two.  We also need people who would be able to spend an hour or two (or more) to man the parish tables.  If you are able to spend time with us in this way please call Janet: 417-880-9359.  It will be greatly appreciated.  You can bring your baked goods to the parish office on Friday, Nov. 3rd, or drop it off at the Catholic Center gymnasium after 3:00pm.  You could also bring it any time on Saturday, the 4th.

Thank you to all who can help us with this!