|
|
|
St. Louis Mission Kids |
|
|
Good Shepherd Catholic School Wears Red for Kenya!
 Good Shepherd Catholic School held a dress down day on Opening Day for the St. Louis Cardinals (March 31st) to benefit the missions in Kenya! Students paid $1 to wear jeans and a Cardinal or red shirt to school. For fifty cents more, they could wear a Cardinal hat or a hoodie. The students ended up raising $75 for the missions in Kenya!
The school had welcomed our director, Msgr. Francis Blood, for a Kenya presentation on March 11th. Msgr. Blood traveled to Kenya in February as part of a delegation representing the Pontifical Mission Societies in the United States. The students were excited to help the missions in Kenya after hearing Msgr. Blood’s presentation.
A big “thank you” to Julie Connors (principal) and the faculty, staff, and students at Good Shepherd Catholic School for their support of our brothers and sisters in Kenya!
Immaculate Conception PSR in Park Hills Makes Rosaries for La Paz, Bolivia
 The PSR classes at Immaculate Conception Parish in Park Hills recently made 53 handmade rosaries for parishioners at Maria Reina Parish in La Paz, Bolivia! Mrs. Karen Snead provided the materials for the students and demonstrated how to make the rosaries. The students created the rosaries as a Lenten project and gave them to Fr. Patrick Hayden, pastor of Maria Reina Parish, who was on a home visit to St. Louis during the month of March. The students viewed photos of Bolivia and received prayer cards as a “thank you” from Fr. Hayden, and will receive word from him when the rosaries reach their brothers and sisters in Bolivia in the coming weeks. Thank you to all of the PSR students at Immaculate Conception Parish for sharing their time and talents with the people of Bolivia!
View a photo gallery of the students making rosaries!
St. Alban Roe School’s Fifth Grade Class Holds Advent Coin Collection
 The Fifth Grade Class at St. Alban Roe School held an Advent Coin Collection in December to benefit the HCA. The students raised nearly $400! “We are so proud of our students and their dedication to the Holy Childhood Association service project,” wrote Sr. M. Catherine Welter, mission moderator for St. Alban Roe School. “We know that this service project truly touched the hearts of our students.” Thank you to all of the students in the Fifth Grade Class for their generous support!
St. Ferdinand School Celebrates Advent
Mrs. Joan Reddy, teacher at St. Ferdinand School, shares what her students did to celebrate Advent. The students focused on a different "Advent Being" each week: Elizabeth, Mary, John the Baptist, and the Angels who helped us to prepare for the birth of Jesus.
“To begin our Advent season, we looked to Elizabeth, who waited on the Lord's will as we focused on how important it is for us to wait patiently on God's will for our lives. Elizabeth's connection with Mary, her cousin, was celebrated. Students gathered photos of special relatives and wrote about why the person was special to them. These small posters were displayed in the school and children gave them away as Christmas gifts as a thank you to these family members for their support on their faith journeys.
“During the second week, we celebrated Mary's yes to God! Mary reminds us of the trust we must place in God when asking ourselves what the Lord wants from us. To get to know Mary a little better, each class at school researched one of the many faces of Mary, and at an all-school Mass, these images were displayed. We also celebrated the feast of the Immaculate Conception and Our Lady of Guadalupe during this week.
“As we moved into the third week of Advent, we focused on John the Baptist. At an all-school Mass, one of our deacons dressed as John. Our John the Baptist inspired us by entering our church singing "Prepare Ye the Way" and "A Voice Cries Out in the Wilderness." John preached the homily and spoke in the same manner as the real John the Baptist, inspiring us to prepare "the way of love –Jesus Christ."
“Finally, as we neared the end of the Advent season, the angels became our focus. As they are God's messengers, we reflected on how we can be better messengers and proclaim the goodness of God! Students randomly selected one another's names and became "Prayer Advent Angels" where they offered prayers rather than presents for one another. Greeters and choir members dressed as angels as a reminder of our theme.”
"Crazy Sock Day" at St. Simon the Apostle School
 After attending the annual Holy Childhood Association Mass at Holy Infant Parish on October 1st, St. Simon the Apostle School held a "Crazy Sock Day" on October 19th to benefit children in the missions. Over $300 was sent to Msgr. Blood for the Holy Childhood Association!
The students also helped the needy here at home by celebrating their patron saint, St. Simon the Apostle, with their annual Kids Garage Sale.
"St. Simon is so very grateful for the generosity of their parents and families," said Mary Jo Ponder, mission moderator for St. Simon the Apostle School.
Good News Out of Our Schools!
 Several elementary schools celebrated World Mission Month by supporting the HCA!
• Holy Spirit School held a mission collection.
• St. Monica School held a Dress Down Day.
• Our Lady Queen of Peace Catholic School in House Springs held a "Basket of Halloween Fun" raffle in October. All of the prizes in the basket were donated by the students in the Fifth and Sixth Grades.
• Sacred Heart School in Troy also supported the missions with a mission carnival benefitting the SSND missions in Kenya, Sierra Leone, and Ghana, as well as Honduras and the CSJ missions in South America and Uganda.
Thanks to all of our schools for the wonderful support!
St. Joseph School in Cottleville Holds “World Mission Week”
 Mrs. Vickie Schaeffer, 4th Grade teacher at St. Joseph School in Cottleville, shares what her students did to celebrate the missions and the Holy Childhood Association during their “World Mission Week” in the month of October! The students ended up raising over $2,000 for the Holy Childhood Association!
“As a service project, our 4th grade collected money throughout the school for the missions. This was a great experience as the students got to learn about your organization (Holy Childhood Association), what the missions do for others, and share Jesus’ message with the students of our school. Through your website we were able to get a visual tour of everything we were discussing and the children got to see where their money they were collecting and counting daily was going. We dedicated a bulletin board in our classroom to the Holy Childhood Association, said daily prayers for the missions, made posters to hang around our school, and collected a different denomination of coin/bills each day as we dedicated our week ‘World Mission Week.’”
View photos from St. Joseph School's "World Mission Week"!
Mission Carnival at Queen of All Saints School
 On October 22, 2010 Queen of All Saints School in Oakville sponsored a mission carnival for all of their students. The Mission Club – Grades 5-8 – prepared the booths and games following the direction of Cindy Schulte, the school’s Mission Moderator.
The proceeds of the mission carnival will be given to St. Clair of Assisi Parish in the Diocese of Kole in East Kasai, Democratic Republic of the Congo. During the summer, a visiting missionary, Fr. Emmanuel Luhumbu, preached at all parish Masses at Queen of All Saints to make an appeal through the Missionary Plan of Cooperation (part of the work of the Society for the Propagation of the Faith in our Archdiocese). Fr. Emmanuel made an appeal for funds to build a new church at St. Clair of Assisi Parish. The old church was built when East Kasai belonged to the Belgian Congo and the people worked on the Belgian plantations. That church has a deep crack near the entrance and the roof has so badly deteriorated that it is unsafe and unusable in rainy weather – seven months of the year. The mission carnival funds will be sent to the Bishop of the Diocese of Kole as a designated gift for the repair of this parish church.
“I congratulate Queen of All Saints School for this mission carnival, and for their generosity in assisting Fr. Emmanuel and the people of St. Clair of Assisi Parish in the Diocese of Kole, East Kasai in the Democratic Republic of the Congo,” Msgr. Blood, director of the Mission Office, said.
View a photo gallery of the mission carnival!
Lights, Camera ... Missions!
 Check out the HCA Mission Multimedia video on the St. Louis Review website! Special thanks to Lisa A. Johnston for a beautiful job on the video!
Click here to watch the video!
Holy Childhood Association Mass Celebrated By Archbishop Robert Carlson!
 The fifth annual Holy Childhood Association Mass in the Archdiocese of Saint Louis was celebrated at Holy Infant Parish in Ballwin on October 1, 2010. The Mass was celebrated by Archbishop Robert Carlson. Nearly 1,000 students and adults from various elementary schools around the Archdiocese attended! Mrs. Judith Wilson, principal of St. John the Baptist School in Gildehaus, was awarded the Fulton J. Sheen Award - and Grace, a graduate of St. Patrick School in Wentzville, was recognized as a winner in the HCA Christmas Artwork Contest. Thanks to everyone who celebrated with us!
Click here to view more photos!
|
|
