Vocation Day at St. Gianna
More than 120 students, including more than 40 high school teens, attended a Vocation Day April 20 at St. Gianna Parish in Wentzville. Several archdiocesan priests and men and women from area religious orders shared their vocation stories. The event also included the Rosary, Mass, eucharistic adoration, confession, spiritual direction and a Q&A with the priests and men and women religious.
The Next Chapter
The Next Chapter Program is a six-month program for people who are approaching retirement or who are recently retired. The program assists individuals who are discerning who God is calling them to be and what God is calling them to do in their next chapter of life. The program is grounded in Ignatian spirituality and is sponsored by the Office of Ignatian Spirituality of the Jesuits USA Central & Southern Province. The next cohort will begin in October. Information sessions will be held at 6:30 p.m. Monday, May 13, and Wednesday, June 5, at Mercy Conference and Retreat Center, 2039 Geyer Road in Frontenac. To RSVP for an information session, email Tom Auffenberg at
[email protected]. For more information, see
www.nextchapterprogram.org.
Mercy to build new Wentzville campus
Mercy announced that it has filed a letter of intent with the Missouri Department of Health and Senior Services to construct a 75-bed hospital in Wentzville. The new campus will address a population growth in the state’s tri-county area, including St. Charles, Lincoln and Warren counties. With a projected investment of $650 million, the 483,000-square-foot medical complex will be located on approximately 60 acres near the intersection of Interstate 64 and Interstate 70 and be the state’s first completely new, acute-care hospital campus built since 2015 when Mercy opened its hospital in Joplin following the 2011 tornado.
Mercy’s focus on the tri-county region began in 2010 when a community master plan was developed, tapping area residents and leaders for feedback about needed services. It intends to expand its model of health care to the tri-county area in the years to come.