Frank: 314.740.1160.

We have an initiative to connect people to small faith sharing groups. If you are interested in joining a small group, please contact Jessica Rowley (314.918.2766 or email).

We Tithe as a parish and we need your recommendations
We donate 10% of our collections to worthy causes. We do this as an act of faith, trusting that, in doing this, we will still be able to meet our financial needs. Please let the Parish Council know about worthy organizations that you would like us to contribute to. Information needed: your name, name of organization you are suggesting, to whom check should be made payable, where to send check and to whose attention. Please send your suggestions to Marilyn Tenholder.

Matthew 25

The Matthew 25 Fund helps members in our community who need financial assistance. All information concerning the people with whom we work is held in the strictest confidence. If you would like to contribute to this fund, make your check payable to Matthew 25, and place it in the collection basket. If you need assistance from the fund, contact Peggy Montgomery.

Membership Care Prayer List
If you have a joy or concern you would like to share on the prayer list please contact someone on the pastoral team.

Jessica Rowley 314.918.2766;

Frank Krebs 314.740.1160;

We have a SafeChurch Policy to protect our children and other vulnerable populations.

Fundraising

Please keep our Schnucks E-Scrip fund raiser in mind when you shop. If you don't already have an E-Scrip card, please call Marilyn Tenholder (314.323.1467) and she will get one to you. There is no charge and all you have to do is activate it by either a phone call or by going online. Simply show the card when you check out and a percentage of your purchase cost will be rebated back to Sts. Clare & Francis. Thank you!

ECC Midwest

Partner Communities

Emmaus

Oshkosh, Wisconsin

San Damiano

Little Rock, Arkansas

St. Jerome

Tulsa, Oklahoma

COMMUNITY CORNER...

our family news

(It is good for us to know what's happening in each other's lives. If you have any news you'd like to share with the community, please email Steve ).

The Weekly News

September 26, 2013

26th Week of the Year

Saturday, September 28, 2013

5:00 pm

Readings: Am 6:1a, 4-7; 1Tm 6:11-16; Lk 16:19-31

Presider: Frank Krebs

Homilist: Mary Rammerman

Readers: Jenn Lay, Art Maines

Eucharistic Ministers: Joan Switzer, Barb Winkler, Marty Campbell

Sacristan: Mary Niehaus

If you are not able to serve in your scheduled ministry, please let Steve know when you get a substitute so that we can publish the correct names in the newsletter. Thanks.

scampbell@ppcsinc.org or call or text 314.603.9991.

Social Justice Retreat

Saturday, September 28, 2013

9:00 am - 4:30 pm

Join us as we welcome our sister, Rev. Mary Rammerman, and brothers, Jim Smith and Jim Rammerman, from Spiritus Christi Church. They will be guiding us through a Spirit-filled day using story, art, photos, prayer, reflection and discussion. A general outline for the day is offered below for those who can only participate in part, but the day will build on itself and we do encourage you to plan for the full day.

9:00 am -11:45 am

Overview: why we engage in works of compassion and justice
prayer, reflection, and small group discussion

11:45 am - 12:30 pm

Lunch break

12:30 pm - 2:30 pm

Jim Smith on Spiritus Christi's prison ministry
group work as it is conducted in a prison setting

2:30 pm - 2:45 pm

Break

2:45 pm - 4:30 pm

Presentation and discussion of Spiritus Christi's partnership with Haitians

Slide show, music, interaction

Lunch will be provided as part of the day and we will cap it with a pot luck dinner after Mass.

If you plan to attend, kindly register with Clarence Heller (marclar123@aol.com or 636.256.6515) to facilitate preparations. There is no registration fee, however participants will be invited to share a portion of the costs as they are able.

Book Club

Monday, October 21, 2013

7:00 pm

Saturday, October 26, 2013

3:00 pm

We'll be covering Chapters 5 & 6. You are welcome to join us for interesting discussion, whether or not you have read the book.

What we've been talking about from The New Jim Crow:

"Imagine you are Emma Faye Stewart, a thirty-year-old, single African American mother of two who was arrested as part of a drug sweep in Hearne, Texas. All but one of the people arrested were African American. You are innocent. After a week in jail, you have no one to care for your two small children and are eager to get home. Your court-appointed attorney urges you to plead guilty to a drug distribution charge, saying the prosecutor has offered probation. You refuse, steadfastly proclaiming your innocence. Finally, after almost a month in jail, you decide to plead guilty so you can return home to your children. Unwilling to risk a trial and years of imprisonment, you are sentenced to ten years probation and ordered to pay $1,000 in fines, as well as court and probation costs. You are also now branded a drug felon. You are no longer eligible for food stamps; you may be discriminated against in employment; you cannot vote for at least twelve years; and you are about to be evicted from public housing. Once homeless, your children will be taken from you and put in foster care.

A judge eventually dismisses all cases against the defendants who did not plead guilty. At trial, the judge finds that the entire sweep was based on the testimony of a single informant who lied to the prosecution. You, however, are still a drug felon, homeless, and desperate to regain custody of your children...

This is the War on Drugs."

Recycling Electronics

Dear Sisters and Brothers --

Cleaning out some stuff, I discovered a whole bag of old phones, cords, plugs, etc. As I considered making space in the closet, it occurred to me that I could offer this for recycling, even though it's of no worth to me. Here is a link to WITS, the answer to my problem! www.witsinc.org

At Sts. Clare & Francis, the used battery recycling mini-project has worked well. SO NOW, I'm bringing a slightly larger box for small electronic or technical refuse. If you, too have stuff like this, bring it along to church, and deposit it in one of the two cardboard recycling boxes. (We're still doing batteries!) But PLEASE: Nothing larger or heavier than an old-fashioned video camera. This maturing person can't manage large or heavy items.

IT MUST FIT IN THE BOX!

I will accumulate this small stuff and get it to a WITS location. The Earth thanks you.

Sue Stolze (scstolze@sbcglobal.net)

Racial and Economic Justice

Fr. Dickson Cemetery Workday and Invitation to Walking Tour

Please join us at either or both upcoming events:

Sunday, October 6, 2013

Fr. Dickson Cemetery work day

9:00 am Blessing of the Baby Heaven memorial and commissioning of workers

9:30 am Planting of the memorial tree, plants and flowers, general clean-up

(Come when you can...leave when you want)

845 South Sappington Road 63126

Bring trimmers, lawn mowers, hand trowels, bulb planters, compost or worm castings. Wear appropriate gardening attire.

A group will be gathering for breakfast at The Barn restaurant (next to the cemetery) at 7:30 am and again for lunch around 12:30 pm, if you would like to join us! (The Barn welcomes gardening attire.)

Sunday October 13, 2013

10:00 am - 4:00 pm

Sappington Historic House Complex

845 South Sappington Road

Parking available for Grant's Trail or the House Complex

We are doing this:

1) to pay tribute and celebrate the spirit and determination of our

fellow African Americans

How? Developed walking tour featuring biographies of black Americans from every generation.

2) To expose youth (especially at-risk black youth) to the contribution

of African Americans

How? Invited students of Webster high school Peabody teacher of the year, Julie Burchett, to help with the tour.

Invited north city youth from Angel Baked cookies to hand out

their cookies at end of tour (please engage them, this is part of

the Angel Baked mission)

3) To partner with a black organization, win their trust, learn from

their experience and hopefully, build from there.

How? By helping Ernest Jordan and the board of Friends of

Fr. Dickson, all black Americans.

4) to learn from history and try to connect with present issues

How? By gently introducing the mass incarceration issue into

our tour, citing Michelle Alexander's book, The New Jim Crow,

raising awareness in the community.

To the whole SCF community: Thank you for all the contributions of time, money and prayers that have made this communal work happen and have made it so much fun!

Homilies

Frank's homily from the 24th Week of the Year,
Finding Our Way Back Home,

and all homilies from Sts. Clare & Francis,

can be found at

http://scfhomilies.wordpress.com/.

Sponsored by Friends of SCF

Woman's Place

Growing Up With Family Violence

5 Tuesdays of October

Woman's Place will offer a free, 5-session series for adult women who grew up with family violence. We will address the present impact of that experience and look at alternatives for coping and changing in a safe, confidential, supportive group setting of women with similar experience. Facilitated by the caring, experienced professionals of Woman's Place. Pre-registration is required. Space is limited. Call by September 27.

314.645.4848.

For a flyer for this workshop, click here.

~~~~~

Week/Month of Guided Prayer Ministry

One God, Many Paths

Saturday, October 5

1:00 - 4:00 pm

Mercy Center, 2039 North Geyer Road

The format will be a presentation from panelists representing Buddhism, Kabbalah and Native American Spirituality, followed by questions and open discussion. The focus will be on images of God, relationship with God, meditation and prayer techniques, and other spiritual practices.

Sharon Corcoran teaches regular meditation classes in Washington, Missouri and became a lay Dharma teacher under the direction of Master Jiru, MABA's abbot, in 2009.

Rabbi James Stone Goodman serves Congregation Neve Shalom is a writer and musician who integrates story, poetry, and music in an incantational performance art form, producing seven CDs to date, the most recent Book of Healing.

Sr. Jacqueline Schroeder, OSF served on Standing Rock reservation in western South Dakota for 8 years from 1996-2004.

If you plan to attend, please contact Clarence Heller at marclar123@aol.com or 636.256.6515.

Free will donations will be accepted.

All are welcome even if only able to attend part of the day.

~~~~~

Transformation Counseling

Introduction to Visual Journaling: Using Images to go Deeper Than Words With Clients

Saturday, November 2, 2013

9:30 am - 12:30 pm

8730 Big Bend Boulevard, Suite B 63119

Kate Schroeder

Learn to move beyond thought and words into feelings and intuitive knowledge in your work with clients.

For a flyer for this workshop, click here.

On Becoming a Parent

Thursday, November 7, 2013

7:00 - 9:00 pm

8730 Big Bend Boulevard, Suite B 63119

Attend this workshop to learn more about:

Your core parenting personality and innate preference patterns as a parent
Your defense system and how you cope will parenting stress in your life
How these two parts affect your parenting and what you can do about it

For a flyer for this workshop, click here.

random sightings

wisdom...reflection...insight...amusement

At our best, we become Sabbath for one another. We are the emptiness, the day of rest. We become space, that our loved ones, the lost and sorrowful, may find rest in us.

Sabbath

Wayne Muller

quoted in How Shall We Live by Joan Chittister, OSB

Sts. Clare & Francis offers information about other organizations and activities as a way of providing information that we feel is useful or relevant to our members and to the public. As an Internal Revenue Code Section 501(c)(3) organization, Sts. Clare & Francis is required to abide by certain rules. Sts. Clare & Francis is absolutely prohibited from directly or indirectly participating in, or intervening in, any political campaign on behalf of (or in opposition to) any candidate for elective public office. Sts. Clare & Francis is also prohibited from devoting a substantial part of its activities to attempting to influence legislation. As a result of these rules, we do not specifically endorse these organizations or activities nor do they specifically represent the views of Sts. Clare & Francis, to the extent that doing so would jeopardize Sts. Clare & Francis' standing as a Section 501(c)(3) organization.

If you have an item that you wish to submit for publication in the Weekly News, please send it to

Steve Campbell no later than noon on Wednesday of the week you would like it to appear. If you cannot send an

e-mail, you may contact Steve at 314.603.9991.