Vino Welcome

Francis welcomed us to our new church last night at a Wine and Cheese Party. That's Francis of Assisi and no he wasn't really there.

I love his prayer - my fave prayer of all time.

Lord, make me an instrument of your peace.
Where there is hatred, let me sow love;
where there is injury,pardon;
where there is doubt, faith;
where there is despair, hope;
where there is darkness, light;
and where there is sadness, joy.


O Divine Master, grant that I may not so much seek
to be consoled as to console;
to be understood as to understand;
to be loved as to love.
For it is in giving that we receive;
it is in pardoning that we are pardoned;
and it is in dying that we are born to eternal life. Amen

Now that's a prayer we can all live by.

Twice a year, the largest parish in the state holds this welcome party for newcomers. We are new, and when we attend church, we don't know anyone. So after attending Iowa State's Men's Basketball game that afternoon, we went to 4:30 Mass, and we stuck around for the event that started at 6 p.m. in a room attached to the church via a hallway.

Joan Anderson, newcomer coordinator greeted us. Several parish members were there to help "break the ice". Besides Paul and me, there were about 25 other people. We chatted with several, and then sat down for a short program. Father Bob Hoefler likes roots - he had us all go around to say where we were born. He made 3 columns on the chalkboard. Iowa, Not and Not/Not.

I found it quite interesting to hear where each person in the group was born. There were 3 Not/Nots. One gentleman was from Syria, Father George Koro is from Kenya (not Nigeria) and another young woman attending is from there too. The rest of us were from regular 'ol Iowa and there were a few born in places like Texas, North Carolina and California.

Father Bob has been around. He grew up in NW Iowa and taught school in Indianola for a while. He's battling prostate cancer that is now in his bones. Damn stuff. He made the point that no matter where you are from, the Catholic Mass is universal - it's the same. You can attend it anywhere and pretty much know what you're gonna get.

Joan gave the history of the parish - it's been around just since 1991, started when this area started to grow. The buildings started to go up later that decade on 15 acres on Ashworth Road, a bit east of the Lutheran Church of Hope you see on Jordan Creek Parkway. The parish claims just under 3,000 families - some 9,000 people. Yikes, that's more than Creston's population! There is a school - pre-K through 8th grade.

Next we all had a chance to talk about where we moved from, our background, jobs etc. Many people spoke about why they were joining the parish. They had tried attending some other churches around Des Moines. But they chose St. Francis. Some travel quite a ways each week to this church. They spoke of the sense of community here. For Paul and me - we didn't shop around. For us it's a matter of location - this church is by where we live. We must have lucked out!

We like both priests and the location. It sounds like St. Francis has a nice sense of community and a good school. Now....if the Catholic Church could only solve that Pope issue...I'm with Washington Post columnist E.J. Dionne.
EJ Dionne column
How about a nun? (Yeah, I didn't mention that last night...)