Dear Parishioners,
Today we celebrate the Solemnity of the Most Holy Body and Blood of Christ (Corpus Christi). Something unique happened at the Last Supper and happens whenever we share in the Eucharist. Jesus instituted a new covenant, sealed in his Body and Blood. The covenant between God and us means that we are deeply connected not only to God, but to one another. Our connections, and the commitments they imply, extend to all people everywhere. Participating in the Eucharist may be the most challenging thing we are invited to do.
Next weekend we “really” return to “Ordinary Time,” as we will celebrate the 10th Sunday in Ordinary Time. The arc to redemption is not without conflict, suffering, division or challenge. Its meaning is premised on mercy overcoming what is incomplete or fractured. This has been borne out throughout history, including in Jesus’ own life. By God’s unending love and mercy, and we are called to extend it to others.
Parish Carnival: Thanks to all who worked so hard on the Parish Carnival. Since this is being written on May 24, I have no idea as to what the weather would have been like … but I hope that everything went well. Thanks for coming.
The Saint Vincent de Paul Society: We are blessed to have a very active Saint Vincent de Paul Society here in our Parish. We are also blessed that so many of you use your extra envelope regularly to assist the Society. However, the SVdeP Society needs additional help. It has asked that the follow- ing be in this week’s bulletin.
We are a Catholic lay organization of volunteers who offer person to person services to the needy and suffering of all faiths in the tradition of its founder, Blessed Frederic Ozanam and patron St. Vincent de Paul.
No work is foreign to the Society. It includes any form of help that alleviates suffering and promotes human dignity and personal integrity. The goal is to help individuals lift themselves out of their situation through systemic change.
We believe that helping people starts at home. We serve persons living within our parish boundaries as defined by our parish map. Often we are called upon for one-time assistance or to supply emergency help or further services and referrals. We also assist other parishes as needs arise.
Our St. Monica conference currently has 8 members from our parish serving the needs of those who seek help. We answer a phone message line and respond to the needs of the caller. We average annually 85 consultations/visits and 300 clients with $40,000 in assistance.
Monetary Donations – All donations given through our parish go into our conference account.
100% of donations are used in the ministry, with no overhead. No money is given directly to clients, only to utility, landlord, etc.
Food Pantry – Our parish pantry gives out an average of 72 bags of food/month to our clients and 11 bags/month to St. Agatha in the city, run by the Precious Blood Sisters!
Clothing Donation Bin – The bin on the upper parking lot is emptied quarterly by SVDP-St. Louis and our account is given an average of $120/quarter.
SVDP Thrift Stores – there are six stores around the St. Louis area for your household donations. We offer vouchers to clients, if there is need. There is a new one opening on Olive at Graeser (11015 Olive Boulevard, the old Walgreen’s Store), on Tuesday, June 12th.
Other – we provide help with homeless, utility, rent, transportation, burial, prescriptions, car repair, Christmas giving tree presents for current clients,
Room at the Inn, and many other needs. Thank you for your generous donations and prayers!
Parish School and Finances: This is a follow up to last week’s article. I ran more numbers and this is what I found out. From the period of July 1, 2017 to May 27, 2018, 11 months of our fiscal year, parish- ioners who have students in our parish school contributed a total of $185,250. That is $16,841 a month or $3860 a week. For the ten months, July 1, 2017 to April 30, 2018, the school expenses were a total of
$1,181,154. In addition to the $185,250 we also received tuition and book fees amounting to $380,899. We had “Grant Revenue” of $58,163 and “Other Revenue” of $21,989. With those numbers and other revenue, income directly credited to the school account was $576,259. If one would take the entire contributions of school families to the parish as “school income,” without any money going to anything in the parish other than school expenses, there would be income of $761,509. There are currently 46 parish families who contribute to the school. As already mentioned their “tithe” this year was $185,250, or an average of $4072.17 per family (not per child!). (There are only 46 “school families” who donate at all; meaning that 14 “school families” do not donate anything to the support of the parish, including the school.) Since the budgeted “Cost to Educate” each student at Saint Monica is $8971 (based on 158 students) we surely can’t continue in this deficit spending mode. As mentioned last week being a Stewardship Parish means ALL the parishioners share in the costs associated with the school. However, parents should have an additional responsibility and obligation to assist all the parish ministries, includ- ing the school, with their donations. We continue to urge that all parishioners prayerfully consider a 5% donation of gross income to the parish … hopefully closer to 8%. It is pretty obvious, given the area in which we live, that many of our families, school and non-school, are not doing that. PLEASE pray that all would “shoulder the costs” as well as the benefits of having a first rate Catholic Parish along with a first rate Catholic School. In addition as of May 21, school families owe $65,678.28 to the parish for various unpaid fees. That includes $15,560.50 that are over 90 days past due. Those 18 families received a letter from me this past week requesting that they come in and speak with me about their
past due bills. There will be more coming about this during this last month of this Fiscal Year.
Faithfully yours,
Fr Joe Weber