Looking For a New Way to Pray?

The handsome man you see here is St. Ignatius of Loyola. WHO!?! St. Ignatius (the original namesake of St. Peter Church by the way) led an amazing life and founded the Jesuit Religious Order. You can read more about him by clicking here.

The Jesuit order has a unique prayer style called Ignatian, after the founder of the order. By clicking here, you will find directions on how to do this particular style. It's different than the usual "talking to God" or "memorized" prayers. It involves a lot more time and commitment. If you are serious about prayer, it's worth a try. If you need help with it, let me know.

-Shannon

Good Things on MySpace.com

A lot has been made about the phenomenon of MySpace.com. Many people see it as a great way to connect with friends and family. Others see it as an open door to internet predators. Since it doesn't look like MySpace is going away anytime soon, here are a few links for people who do really dynamic Catholic ministry with teenagers:

Joia Farmer, Catholic Singer/Songwriter:
http://myspace.com/joiafarmer

Gene Monterastelli of Apex Ministries:
http://myspace.com/genedavid

Matt Maher, Catholic Singer/Songwriter:
http://www.myspace.com/mattmahermusic

Danielle Rose, Catholic Singer/Songwriter:
http://www.myspace.com/daniellerosemusic

Chris Padgett, Catholic Singer/Songwriter:
http://www.myspace.com/chrispadgett

Righteous B, Catholic Rapper:
http://www.myspace.com/righteousb

Enjoy!
Shannon

International World Youth Day in Australia

Last year, four youth and three adults from this parish traveled to Cologne, Germany for the International World Youth Day (IWYD) celebration, highlighted by a vigil and closing Mass by Pope Benedict XVI. It was an incredible experience. You can read all about it here.

The next IWYD is being held in Sydney, Australia over the dates of July 15-20 in 2008. There will be travel days on either end of those dates, so it will probably be something like July 12-22. While that probably seems like a long way off, it is actually right around the corner. The trip will probably cost over $3,000 per person. That is a lot of money. A good chunk of it will be raised through fund-raising, but there will be some out of pocket expenses. We have to start planning now.

If you're interested in attending, let me know. I'm not asking for a commitment right now, but I would like to start getting an idea of who might want to go. The pilgrimage will be open to any youth who is at least 16. The international committee considers youth as being anyone from 16-32. If you're older than 32, you can be a chaperone. Basically, anyone who is older that 16 is welcome to attend.

There is a five-minute promotional video you can watch, that talks about what World Youth Day is and shows some amazing footage from past events. You can find that video by clicking here.

Think about it. This can be a life-changning experience.

-Shannon

Six Flags Cancelled

The High School trip to Six Flags on Wednesday, July 26th has been cancelled. The event is tentatively re-scheduled for Saturday, September 30th. I'm sorry for the inconvenience.

-Shannon

Movie Reviews

If you click on the title link above, you'll be taken to the national Lifeteen website review of "Superman Returns". This is a great place to see current movie reviews. All of the articles are written by Catholic young adults. It might seem a little corny to check with the Church to see what movies you should watch. As always, the Church serves as a guide, a way to deepen your faith in Jesus. Why not let the Church guide you in what you watch and listen to? Just a thought.

-Shannon

For All You Music Lovers

"It's nine-o-clock on a Saturday, the regular crowd shuffles in":

Lazy on the Beach

Sorry about the lack of blog posts lately. I'm currently on vacation with my family in Gulf Shores, Alabama. This is a picture of the house we're staying in. It's called "West Palm Peach". The deck you're looking at overlooks the ocean. The water is just a short walk from our deck. It's very relaxing.

I get back on Sunday, and return to work on Monday. I'm sure I have a ton of Confirmation work to do. WOO HOO!

-Shannon

Update on Samantha Wilson

I received this today from Lucy LePage, Samantha Wilson's mom:

Hello everyone! First of all, thank you so much for your notes of thoughts and prayers. That helps get both of us through this.

Samantha had the ERCP done on Monday. The valve and bile ducts looked good and they did not have to cut any scar tissue out. However, they did put a stent in and the pancreas is contracting 2 times faster than the bile ducts (they can't keep up). So he put some dye in the gall bladder and said that it looked distented (full and she had nothing in it from Saturday on). They took an x-ray of the gall bladder this morning (Thursday) and said that since the dye is still showing up (4 days later) in the gall bladder that means it is definitely not working. So, she was released from MO Baptist this morning and she has an appointment with the gall bladder surgeon on Monday.

It has been a terrible week for Sammy. She had severe pain that they couldn't get under control and then of course nausea and vomiting every time she tried to eat. They finally got her on some medicine that helps control the nausea and she can take those medications orally now. So they released her. She is in a lot of pain, more than usual as the stent is still in there. It will come out on it's own in a week or so. She is very frustrated and at times discouraged but her friends keep her spirits up.

Thank you again for your prayers. We definitely need them!

Shower for Patrick Pollock

I received this e-mail today from Glenda Blattel:

Shower for Patrick Pollock

Due to the disastrous home fire the Pollock Family encountered Patrick has lost all his personal items. To help Patrick recover from the loss a shower will be held for him.

Tuesday, July 25th, 6:00-8:00 pm
Father Ahrens Room, St. Peter’s Parish Life Center

Patrick lost all of his music, including his cherished show tunes and his stereo. To help Patrick recover we are suggesting a donation to a money tree or gift cards to Target or Wal-Mart.

Also, all his pictures from grade school were lost. If you have pictures of school events, school plays, boy scouts outing, etc., we know Patrick would appreciate receiving a copy.

Questions call:

Prayers for the Tichelkamps

Kristen Tichelkamp e-mailed me today and asked me for prayers because her father, Paul, has been notified that he will be deployed to Iraq in September. The assignment is scheduled through January, which means he will miss Thanksgiving, Christmas, and New Years. Let's keep the Tichelkamps in our prayers, as well as all families whose lives have been disrupted due to the ongoing conflict in Iraq.

-Shannon

Power Outage at St. Peters

All this week the power will be out in the St. Peter Parish buildings. That means that unless you call me on my cell phone (573-220-8424), I will be nearly impossible to reach. Christpower begins this week, and I will be working with that program through Saturday.

Have a good week!
Shannon

Prayers for Samantha Wilson

Hello,

Below you'll find a copy of an e-mail I received from Lucy LePage. Apparently her daughter Samantha Wilson (a parisioner and Freshman at Helias) has been in a lot of pain for quite some time now. As you can read in the message, she'll be receiving treatment for that very soon. I would ask that you pray for her that this procedure takes care of the pain.

If you would like, you can click here and go to the website for the National Shrine of Our Lady of the Snows, run by the Missionary Oblates of Mary Immaculate. By going to that website, you can have priests from around the world praying for Samantha in their daily Masses. She will certainly be in our prayers.

Here is the message from her mother:

Hi all...just wanted to give you an update on Samantha.

She will be admitted into MO Baptist Hospital on Monday and they will be doing an ERCP. I'm not sure what this stands for and if I told you, you wouldn't understand it either, but here's the scoop:

In our search for curing her continued pain we found ourselves sitting in a waiting room full of people from all over the world yesterday (Indiana, Hawaii, South Carolina). Everyone of them with very similar situations...often being told that it might be their gall bladder, might be in their head, might be stress etc. etc. Only to find themselves at Dr. Aliperti's office in St. Louis, MO. Dr. Aliperti specializes in the ERCP, a procedure for a condition called "sphincter of Oddi." The tract to the gall bladder has a tract to the pancreas. At the opening of this tract (the sphincter), scar tissue forms. The ERCP is the procedure he will do that cuts out the scar tissue and then he will put stints in to hold it open. After a few days he will go back in and take the stints out. They have no idea why scar tissue forms but 75% of the time this is the cure for the pain. The procedure has risks and the bad news for Samantha is that because she is so young, the odds of recurrence (2 to 20 years) are very high but at least she will know where to go for help.

Dr. Aliperti got called for an emergency surgery while we waited with 15 others. So for about 3 hours a small support group formed right before our eyes. As always, Samantha's admirer's grew. Every person in that room was over 50 except for her. They all took a liking to her and I watched God's magic go to work. You could see her give hope and encouragement to some very sick people as she shared her history and offered prayers to all. (Her e-mail buddy list grew!)

We decided to stay the weekend and because I have the best boss in the whole world...we have a place to rest in Chesterfield. We are going to swim today and probably tomorrow. She will have to start a special diet at noon tomorrow and then to the hospital bright and early on Monday.

She will be in the hospital at least 3 days but no longer than a week (hopefully). She has a 5-6 week recovery time. Hopefully we won't have to drive up to St. Louis again until she turns 15 and has her permit (August 8th)...lordy lordy...

Samantha was encouraged yesterday to learn that there was a solution. She had resorted to living with pain and thought the docs were all nuts. She was ready to go yesterday. She said, "I wish we were going to the hospital now." She is a brave little soul - it's taking it's toll on me but if she can handle it...I can too!

Thank you for your continued prayers of healing and strength.

-Lucy LePage

Joia Farmer

WIth Oddwalk Ministries (my other job), I get a chance to meet some fascinating people. A lot of them are parish and diocesan youth ministers and many of them are incredible teens. Some of them, however, are what we call Itinerant Ministers. These are people whose full-time job is to travel the country sharing their faith and their talent with young people. One of those itinerant ministers is a wonderful woman named Joia Farmer.

In the six years I've known Joia, I have found her to be an outstanding Christian witness, and a great singer. My wife and I are big fans of hers, and often listen to her first CD (released in 2003). Joia is coming out with a new CD this fall, and the songs I've heard sound great. You can listen to a few tracks by going to her My Space account.

Joia and her husband Brad (of Apex Ministries), have recently seen a significant growth in their family. They have a four year-old by named Jack, a four month-old named Caedmon, and they have recently adopted a little girl from China named Ava Therese FuBin Farmer.

While I know that you don't know Joia and her family, I would offer them to you as an excellent model of a Christian family. In addition to their tremendous talent, they are wonderful people and good friends to my wife and I.

Enjoy!

A New Priest for the Jefferson City Diocese

Tomorrow, Joseph Shetler will be ordained into the priesthood at St. Joseph Cathedral in Jefferson City. Joe, who was ordained a transitional deacon in October of last year, is originally from Houston, Texas. He came to Jefferson City as a seminarian in 1999 at the request of Fr. Bill Peckman.

He will be ordained tomorrow at 11am with a reception to follow in the undercroft. Everyone is welcome and encouraged to attend. This would be a great way to witness an amazing sacrament in our church, while also supporting Joe as he begins his new life in the priesthood.

To read more about ordination, click here.

Our Teens in the Outdoors

Yesterday morning, seventeen youth and five adults left for the 2006 Float Trip on the Current River. While I haven't had a chance to check in yet, the plan was for them to drop their stuff at Timber Lodge, and get right on the river. They canoed about ten miles yesterday and they plan to canoe ten miles today. I'll have more on this when they return.

-Shannon

A Fun Science Experiment

Check out the Oddblog to find an exciting activity to try with soda and Mentos candies!

More About the Waveland Trip

When the youth group traveled to Waveland, the ended up working with young people from St. Bartholomew Parish from Columbus, Indiana. This parish has posted a number of pictures from their trip including some of our group. You can find those pictures by clicking here.

-Shannon