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Parish Feast of Maria Reina |
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Written by Administrator
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Tuesday, 24 August 2010 |
Fr. Patrick Hayden is a missionary in Bolivia and has served there since 1993. Below, he shares uplifting words about the August feast of Mary Queen, patroness of Maria Reina Parish in La Paz, Bolivia.
 We had very good celebrations all this past week, since Saturday, August 14th, with the pilgrimage of Mary Queen through the different communities, chapels and homes of our parish; the pilgrimage concluded last Friday afternoon, August 20th, when the men of Albergue “San Vicente” and members of the Comunidad Papa Juan XXIII came in procession with Our Lady from the albergue to the church.
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Hello From Belize! |
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Written by Caroline Leritz
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Friday, 09 October 2009 |
Caroline is a parishioner at Ste. Genevieve DuBois Parish and a 2009 graduate of Nerinx Hall High School. She is currently volunteering in Punta Gorda, Belize. She is working at St. Peter Claver School and St. Benedict School.
 HELLO FROM BELIZE! Right now I have been here for about a month and a half, so let me fill you in on just how I got here and what I have been up to until now:
I arrived in Belize on August 19th with my sister's friend (now my friend) Casey. We knew we would be spending our time volunteering at St. Peter Claver School in Punta Gorda (PG), Belize.... but that is basically all we knew. We had a host family set up for us to live with and we had been waiting all summer to leave on our trip. The trip down ran pretty smoothly (other than a minor delay at the Dallas airport). We made it to PG at about 9pm, at dinner, and went straight to bed. Casey and I were in complete culture shock. The first night was the worst part of the trip. Waking up the next morning and getting to see everything in the light made things seem so much better than we had thought the night before. The town is RIGHT on the sea (our first house was about a 2 minute walk) and there were palm trees and a beautiful blue sky and the sun was wonderful. Of course there were the less positive things to notice about PG. Our town -- being in the poorest district of Belize (the Toledo district) --- was pretty rundown looking. Lots of the houses were made of wood and were falling apart in front of our eyes, the school system needed as much help as possible, and drugs are definitely a problem. It has only been a few years since paved roads have been put up to get to PG so it is slowly but surely growing and getting better.
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Life in Chimbote, Peru |
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Written by Jennifer Lay
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Thursday, 17 September 2009 |
Jennifer is a native of Cedar Rapids, Iowa and a 2009 graduate of Saint Louis University. She is currently serving with the Incarnate Word Missionaries in Chimbote, Peru. Her main mission work will be with St. Francis Parish, where she will be assisting with a number of youth programs at the parish, as well as exploring other ministry opportunities.
 I have now been living in Chimbote, Peru for just over two weeks and there is certainly a lot to learn about this new city and culture. Every day is filled with new surprises and insights into the varied life and customs of Chimboteans. I have divided these paragraphs by subject in order to share some of these different realities of daily life for many in Chimbote.
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Books for Belize Project |
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Friday, 05 December 2008 |
Dr. Nancy Blattner is the Vice President and Dean for Academic Affairs at Fontbonne University.
 This summer my best friend Tammy and I were having lunch at Ruby Tuesday’s in Cape Girardeau, where she lives and where I commute on the weekends. We had been discussing Fontbonne University’s fall 2008 emphasis on the U.N. Millennium Goals and the progress that still would have to be made in order for the goals to be realized in 2015, the ‘end date’ of the project. Feeling somewhat overwhelmed by the work left to be done, Tammy asked, “What can we do?” I certainly didn’t have an answer at that moment, but I thought about her question for the next several weeks.
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Listen, Learn, and Announce! Congress in Quito, Ecuador |
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Monday, 25 August 2008 |
Msgr. Francis Blood is the Director of the Archdiocesan Mission Office in Saint Louis, Missouri. He is a former missionary, serving in La Paz, Bolivia from 1988 to 1993.
 Besides the Olympic Games in Beijing, China, another tremendous experience was taking place in Quito, Ecuador. From August 12 to 17, 2008 over 3,000 Catholics involved in the missionary work of the Church held an awesome international congress called in Spanish: El Congreso Americano Misionero. This was the third such congress. They are held every 4 years. They are convoked by the Latin American Bishops’ Conference (CELAM).
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A Devotion to the Missions |
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Wednesday, 02 July 2008 |
Daniel is a member of the Daily Worldmissionnaires, and has participated in the program since 1978.
 My devotion to the missions began as early as grade school when I was encouraged to save my pennies to send to the missions. In high school, one of my classmates became a Maryknoll priest and I was very impressed by that. I married in 1961 and my wife and I seriously discussed joining the missions through PAVLA. After much reflection, we decided it was not for us. We did, however, go on to have nine children and nineteen grandchildren.
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D.W.M. Reflection |
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Wednesday, 02 July 2008 |
Jack is a member of the Daily Worldmissionnaires, and has participated in the program since 1979.
 We were recently asked to explain why we were members of the D.W.M. I was asked by a neighbor many years ago to attend a D.W.M. meeting along with other neighbors and fellow parishioners. The presentation and the movie must have inspired us because I think we all joined.
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Mexico: A Rewarding Week |
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Tuesday, 27 May 2008 |
Melanie is a Senior at Nerinx Hall High School and a member of St. Margaret Mary Alacoque Parish. She participated in the March 2008 Uxpanapa, Mexico Immersion Trip with Nerinx Hall, St. John Vianney, and St. Mary’s students.
 "May God bless you with foolishness to think that you can make a difference in this world, so that you will do things which others say cannot be done."
-Franciscan Benediction
I think many would be skeptical to hear that students from area high schools were going down to a small village in Mexico where no one speaks English and make a difference in the community. Yet, that is exactly what we did. As a group, we worked on the farm, painted murals, poured cement floors, poured a basketball court, picked beans, and herded sheep and cows. I left St. Louis only knowing a few phrases of Spanish, but came back being able to hold a conversation.
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Mexico: Simplicity and Gratefulness |
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Tuesday, 20 May 2008 |
Laura is a Senior at Nerinx Hall High School and a member of St. Raphael the Archangel Parish. She participated in the March 2008 Uxpanapa, Mexico Immersion Trip with Nerinx Hall, St. John Vianney, and St. Mary’s students.
 After nearly two months of being back in America, it gets harder to continue living my virtues I learned from Mexico: simplicity and gratefulness. With so much going on right now, I feel like I am just pushing this experience to the side as I rush through my day completing tasks. Here, I feel like everyone has small goals to reach by the end of the day. Once one is reached, another one is already in line. Besides that, I am constantly reminded via email and photos of my friends I made. It's the little details I see here that cause me to think back to the trip: the single mother and her children, fences on a farm, bottled water, and school.
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School Supply Drive for Mexico |
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Monday, 19 May 2008 |
Kacie is a Junior at Nerinx Hall High School and a member of Queen of All Saints Parish. She participated in the March 2008 Uxpanapa, Mexico Immersion Trip with Nerinx Hall, St. John Vianney, and St. Mary’s students.
 When we arrived back in St. Louis it was hard to think about anything else but the great times we all had together in Mexico. We continued having meetings to process every thing we learned and to talk about what we could do in the future to try to stay connected to the people of La Chinantla. We talked a lot about what we could do here in St. Louis that would benefit our new friends. We decided to hold a School Supply Drive right away. This idea evolved very quickly and every one was willing to help, which is why it was so successful. We were able to get other people involved that didn't go on the trip by inviting them to donate any new or gently used supplies or money to help fund the shipping costs. We made creative posters and flyers, and we advertised it on the Morning Show. We also celebrated Cinco de Mayo with chips and salsa at lunch for one dollar. That money helped pay for shipping boxes. Everyone had a lot of fun with the school supply drive, even those who did not attend the immersion, because they all knew that their efforts would greatly benefit our amigos in La Chinantla. The enthusiasm of the girls was tangible.
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