STA parish e-bulletin May 24, 2023 😇

May 24, 2023

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This weekend Father Robert Karris, O.F.M. will celebrate Masses with us and speak about a ministry providing direct relief to the poor throughout Latin America and the Caribbean: Food For The Poor.

Father Karris will share personal witness about Food For The Poor’s mission to care for the destitute as a means of living out the Gospel mandate to love one another. Fr. Karris was ordained for the Franciscan Order in 1965. Before preaching on behalf of Food For The Poor, he taught at Catholic Theological Union in Chicago, was Provincial Minister of his Province, was General Councilor of the Order and was stationed in Rome. Fr. Bob is Professor Emeritus of St. Bonaventure University in New York where he worked for over 16 years. He has published more than fifteen books and continues to write and edit from his home at St. Peter in the Loop of Chicago.

Please welcome Father Karris into our STA community and open your hearts to the universal call of the Church to care for the poor.

Watch the Ordination Mass on Saturday, May 27 at 10am as Deacons Casey Flack and Jeffrey Frieden are ordained for service
in the Order of the Priesthood: DBQArch.org/live-broadcasts, Facebook Live, and YouTube.com/DBQArch

Totus Tuus 2023 – Save The Dates!

Hosted at STA July 9-14

A week of faith, fun, and friendship to inspire young people to fall deeper in love with Jesus and His Church through Mother Mary.

Grades 1 - 6* meet Monday through Friday from 9am - 2:30pm.
Grades 7 - 12* meet Sunday through Thursday from 7pm - 9:15pm.

*Grade level as of Fall ‘23

Stay tuned as registration is coming soon and very soon! In the meantime, contact Lisa Schmidt at lisa@staparish.net or 515-292-3810 as needed.

Deacon John Donaghy
+ Rest In Peace +

"As Jo Myers-Walker was working on the creation of the STA Story Wall for the Gathering Space, she told me that she was going to put an image of the Good Samaritan and the man fallen among thieves on the wall. She mentioned that she wanted to put me as the Good Samaritan with a Central American as the man fallen among thieves.

I had been working with some refugees in the parish, advocating for justice in Central America, and had been visiting El Salvador for many years.

By the way, my interest in El Salvador and Central America was a gift of the people of the parish of St. Thomas, especially its Charity, Justice, and Peace Commission. I knew of Central America before beginning work there in 1983 but it was not an area of major concern until parishioners moved me to respond. Thus, Jo wanted to portray me as the Good Samaritan.

I explained to Jo that in many ways the people of Central America had served as Good Samaritans for me, helping to heal my wounds, helping me to grow in faith, rescuing me from a commitment to justice that was just in the head. They opened my heart to God and to the poor. Thus, I should be the one being attended to by the Good Samaritan.

Also, I noted that the Good Samaritan was an outsider, one despised by the religious leaders of Jesus’ time. It was thus appropriate that the Samaritan be an outsider, one who was despised and seen as less than human, as Central American refugees were depicted then and as refugees are still treated.

The image – a Central American Samaritan and me as the man fallen among thieves – is at the top of the story wall sculptures."
––John Donaghy

A Blessing

The world now is too dangerous
and too beautiful for anything but love.
May your eyes be so blessed you see God in everyone.
Your ears, so you hear the cry of the poor.
May your hands be so blessed
that everything you touch is a sacrament.
Your lips, so you speak nothing but the truth with love.
May your feet be so blessed you run
to those who need you.
And may your heart be so opened,
so set on fire, that your love,
your love, changes everything.

Congratulations to the High School Graduating Class of 2023!
To learn more about what are some of their plans after graduation, please visit: anchorames.com/senior-recognition