Volume 8, No.2

March - April 2007
In This Issue:
  • Anti-Cloning Lobby Day
  • Catholic Charities of Northwest Missouri Luncheon
  • Lenten Radio Retreats in Spanish & English
  • Almsgiving: Operation Rice Bowl
  • Lenten Retreat: March 10
  • Volunteer with Catholic Charities

Anti-Cloning Lobby Day:  March 7

Loopholes in Missouri ’s Amendment 2 constitutionally protect human cloning. A growing movement of citizens plans to descend upon Jefferson City on Wednesday, March 7, to engage their legislators.  Plan to join other concerned citizens at the first Anti-Cloning Lobby Day.  

Take the day off and carpool, or call (816) 353-4113 to reserve your spot on a chartered bus.  The St. Joseph area connection for the chartered bus is (816) 324-1306. If you are unable to attend but would like to make your voice heard, please follow this link to find out who represents you in Jefferson City .  A service of the Missouri Catholic Conference, this legislative look-up tool will help you identify your representatives and offers suggestions for making your point. For more information, please visit:  www.RespectLlifeMissouri.org.6  

Reflections of Hope: March 7
 

Catholic Charities of Kansas City ~ St. Joseph is hosting a business as un-usual lunch on Wednesday, March 7, at Stoney Creek Inn, in St. Joseph . To reflect community solidarity with the poor, the event offers a simple soup lunch. Come prepared to applaud recipients of the 2007 Community Service Awards.   

Please contact Moira Healy at (816) 756-1858, ext. 560, for $25 event tickets or for information about corporate or parish sponsorships.6
  

Lenten Radio Retreats in Spanish & English

In collaboration with Franciscan Radio, the USCCB’s Catholic Communication Campaign is offering a series of Lenten retreats for online listening or to download and share.  The half-hour programs are designed to help focus the Lenten practices of prayer and reflection.                

Beginning with the fist Sunday of Lent, weekly editions of the retreats will be posted in English and Spanish at www.radioretreat.org.  Hosted by Elia Castillo, each segment features a bishop as the guide and homilist.6


30 Years of Lenten Inspiration
Catholic Relief Services’ Operation Rice Bowl
For more than 30 years, Catholic Relief Service has touched the hearts and minds of Catholics with its Lenten solidarity program.  Through prayer, fasting, learning and giving, participants learn about the everyday challenges to living around the globe, pray and reflect on justice for all, and fast in solidarity. 

An efficient human resources agency, CRS pledges to use 75% of all contributions for food security projects, the remainder addresses needs at the local level.  For information about growing a parish or school Rice Bowl campaign or to serve on a newly-formed diocesan steering committee, please contact Jerry Young, at (816) 756-1858, ext. 534. 6 


Find a Pathway to Holiness: Prayer on March 10

Explore the internal forum at a one-day retreat on Saturday, March 10.  Sponsored by the Institute on Religious Life and held at the Franciscan Prayer Center , in Independence , the event features talks by Fathers Thomas Nelson, O.Praem, and Mitch Pacwa, SJ, and Sisters Elena Morcelli and Clara Remartini, AIL. For further information, please contact Sister Connie Boulch, (816) 756-1858, ext. 245. Cost is $10, and pre-registration is required.6

Gathering for Senior Care Ministers – M arch 13

If you are involved in the pastoral care of senior adults, make the time to share experiences, joys and concerns with other parish volunteers and pastoral ministers on Tuesday, March 13, from 9 – 11 a.m., in St. Peter Parish Hall, 6415 Holmes, Kansas City.  Sponsored by Catholic Charities Senior Care Services, the meeting features breakfast and fresh ideas for serving the senior members of our faith community.  Kindly RSVP to Sandy Silva, (816) 221-4377, ext. 341, by March 9.6

Make a Difference—Volunte er!

Catholic Charities of Kansas City ~ St. Joseph has many worthwhile opportunities for volunteers to “make a difference” in our community.  Whether it’s delivering meals to the homebound or driving a senior adult to a medical appointment, assisting at our program offices or helping with a fundraising gala or golf tournament, there is a volunteer opportunity to suit your time and talents. Please contact Teresa Sosinski, (816) 756-1858, ext. 561 to learn where you can make the difference.6

 

Before Catholic schools appropriated the words and court orders stigmatized “community service,” the Greeks used the term leitourgia. Each citizen had an assigned work – maintaining a section of the wall or digging a length of the community drainage ditch. By formalizing community work, they acknowledged that each had something to offer and all had something to gain.

Taxes and public work projects did away with the leitourgia, but not the need for a place to give our gifts and become a piece of the whole. Maybe the family table is still that place? Whether it’s white linen with sterling silver flatware or mismatched plates and Royals’ cups, it’s the table that brings us together and lifts us out of being alone.  

Throughout the gospels, Jesus was present at the table.  From the beginning of Mark to the end of John, He demonstrated that around the table the young and old, sinner and saint are one. This year, let’s give the table its just desserts. Fill it. Crowd around. Linger. I suspect that this is a lot more than a ritual of food but more appropriately a liturgy of life.6

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