Beyond 52nd and Troost – January 11, 2019

We at SFX thank God often for helping us build the Kingdom of God at 52nd and Troost, but the reality is we are part of “making God’s good world, better” all over the KC metro and beyond.  This is particularly obvious this week. 

On Wednesday a small delegation of parishioners and Pastoral Associate Sue Robb travelled to El Paso and Ciudad Juarez to take part in the Encuentro Project – visiting the border and meeting with and learning from immigrants.  On Sunday Jim and Nancy Bell of our Sister Parish Committee will travel to Belize City and then on to Punta Gorda to talk to and plan with the pastors and people of St. Martin de Porres and St. Peter Claver. And on Wednesday, Father Steve and a group of priests and lay people will leave for a Martyrs Pilgrimage to El Salvador. 

Father Steve and the other pilgrims will visit the places where Rutilio Grande, SJ, Oscar Romero, the Four Church Women, the UCA Martyrs (six Jesuit priests, their housekeeper and her daughter), and 75,000 Salvadorans died during a brutal twenty year civil war. If you don’t know much about this part of recent church history (Grande was killed in 1977, Romero and the Church Women in 1980, and the UCA Martyrs in 1989) I encourage you to spend some time on the Ignatian Solidarity Network website

Being part of a Jesuit parish means we are connected with more than just the folks we see at Sunday Mass. And it’s more than just the students and alums of Rockhurt High and Rockhurst University.  Our Jesuit family is our United Central and Southern Province . We are connected to the Jesuits and their lay colleagues in Belize and Puerto Rico, Miami and Tampa, New Orleans and Baton Rouge, El Paso, Dallas and Houston, Mobile, Denver and St. Louis.  Our Jesuit family includes folks doing all sorts of work to build up the Kingdom of God – high school and colleges and universities, retreat houses and parishes, and social service work.

Let us pray for one another.  And be inspired by one another.  And then do “the next right thing” in our corner of the world, at 52nd and Troost.

Our Jesuit Family