St. Anne Parish, Wichita

St. Michael, pray for us!St. Gabriel, pray for us!St. Raphael, pray for us!⁣
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Learn more about St. Michael: https://bit.ly/4ehsNty

“Pray, hope, and don’t worry. Worry is useless. God is merciful and will hear your prayer.” -Padre Pio

🌧️ Weather Update for Sunday’s Events:

Due to the rain, all events will be moved indoors at the Pastoral Center!

🎶 Music in the St. Anne Family Room
🎲 Bingo & Games in Setter Hall
🍽️ Food in the Family Room & Setter Hall

🚨 Reminder: The Pastoral Center parking lot will be closed starting at 11 AM. For 12:30 & 6:00 Mass and event parking, use spaces around the church, on Regal, or at Southwest Presbyterian/St. Bartholomew's. Plan for extra time!

Send a message to learn more

Concession Stand for the movie will be opening at 6pm for the Movie Night- and the surprise guest will be arriving also at 6pm!

In the Gym

St. Matthew, pray for us!

🎉 Join us for a fun-filled weekend at St. Anne's Festival! 🎉

🗓️ Friday, September 20 - Banquet Under the Stars 🌟 (Registration Required)
🗓️ Saturday, September 21 - Family Movie Night 🎬
🗓️ Sunday, September 22 - Carnival 🎡

Bring your friends and family for auctions, live music, games, food, and more! For the full schedule and details, visit: https://www.stannewichita.org/festival-items/9975-schedule-events

August 24 — home

After 40 days in Europe, staying in 20 different rooms, in 10 countries, experiencing countless moments of grace from the 1 good God I am profoundly grateful for the experience and also ready to go home. As wonderful as these places are, there is no place I would rather live than Wichita, and no place I would rather pray each day than our own adoration chapel.

I don’t start back at St. Anne until next weekend, so I’ll have some more time to reflect on my experience and let the grace settle in. For now, I’m grateful to Bishop Kemme, Fr. Ty and our staff, our parishioners, my family and friends, and everyone who helped make this sabbatical possible for me. My relationship with God is forever different, and I am confident it will bring added fruitfulness to my ministry as well. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you.

August 20 — Lyon

On Tuesday we started the day with Mass at the chapel of St. Gabriel in the basilica in Lourdes. Then we left for Lyon. Lyon is an ancient city with a great Catholic heritage. Lyon was an influential city in the Roman Empire, and the faith was spread there at least by the 2nd century. St. Irenaeus was the second bishop of Lyon and a father and doctor of the Church, and is honored in numerous ways in the city today. His relics were housed in the church that caries his name until they were destroyed in the Wars of Religion of the 16th century.

The oldest part of the city sits between the Saone and Rhône rivers. For centuries, the latter river was the border between the Frankish kingdom and the Holy Roman Empire. The bridge over the river was the entry point to France, and there still exists today a large building that once housed the hospital built to welcome pilgrims and other travelers.

We had a tour of the city including the Basilica of Notre Dame de Fourviere. Fourviere is a hill overlooking the oldest part. The hill is know as the praying hill because it is home to numerous convents, churches, and the seminary. The first chapel was built on the hill at the end of the 12th century but was destroyed in the Wars of Religion. In 1870, the Prussian Army was on its way to invade Lyon. The people of Lyon made a promise to our Lady to build a church in her honor if the town was spared from war, which it was. They began construction of the basilica in 1872 and finished in 1896. The building is stunning. The outside is traditional Romanesque style, but the inside in Byzantine style. That is all I know about it. They had adoration going on, so once I got inside I dropped out of the tour and spent the time in adoration.

After the tour, we had some down time to settle in our rooms and walk around the city before dinner.

Thank you to those who sent me prayer intentions. I am in Lourdes right now and have been praying for you. Feel free to continue sending them. Interceding for others is an essential part of the priesthood, so I am happy to receive them.

August 12 — Lisieux, France
We drove from Bordeaux to Lisieux, about 6 hours on a turnpike, so it didn’t take us through any small towns. Our hotel in Lisieux was across the street from the cathedral. The diocese of Lisieux was suppressed during the French Revolution and never restored. It is now part of the Diocese of Bayeux so the cathedral in Lisieux is now just a parish church. It is where St. Therese’s family attended Mass on Sundays and where she received First Reconciliation.

St. Louis Martin (Therese’s father) donated a high altar to the cathedral, which is a beautiful altar containing an image of Christ in the tomb. He donated it in thanksgiving to God calling his daughters to religious life. Louis and his wife, Marie Zelie had nine children, five of whose survived childhood and all became nuns: four Carmelites and one Visitandine. Lous and Marie Zelie are both canonized also.

The cathedral parish is staffed by an order of priests who seem to have great pastoral sense. There are numerous side altars int eh cathedral dedicated to various French saints. For each of them, they have a placard in English and French explaining something about the saint, a quote from Therese related to that saint, and an invitation to prayer. For example, for St. John Vianney, the patron saint of parish priests, it mentions the priests she prayed for and invited people to pray for vocations to the priesthood.

📅 Congreso Eucarístico - Una mirada tuya bastará para sanarme 🙏

📍 Iglesia Católica Santa Ana
📅 Sábado 31 de agosto:
- Misa a las 8:00 AM y 7:00 PM

📅 Domingo 1 de septiembre:
- Misa a las 8:00 AM y 12:30 PM
📍 2801 S. Seneca, Wichita, KS

🎤 Predicadores:
Padre Pedro Repollet de Jersey City
Padre David Marsall
Edi Palacios de Arkansas
Joel Rosario
🎶 Música por el Grupo San José

🔹 Donación: $30

Para más información, llama al 316-618-4217.

"Yo soy el pan vivo que ha bajado del cielo. El que coma de este pan vivirá para siempre. El pan que yo daré es mi carne, y lo daré para la vida del mundo." (Juan 6, 51)

From Bordeaux we drove to Lisieux where we stayed for 4 nights. I’ll hopefully get those notes typed up tomorrow as we head for Lourdes.

For now, if anyone has prayer intentions you would like me to present to our Lady in Lourdes, send them now here or message me privately. You can email me at [email protected].

August 11 — Azpetia, Spain (Ignatius Loyola)

St. Teresa first taught me to pray, but another Spaniard thought me to better discern the work of the Holy Spirit. St. Ignatius Loyola is best known for founding the Jesuits and for his spiritual exercises, which guided the 30-day retreat I did in June. I concelebrated the parish Mass at the Basilica of St. Ignatius, which was in Castilian Spanish. Next to the basilica is the Loyola house where St. Ignatius grew up and where he had his conversion.

St. Ignatius lived 1491-1556–the end of the medieval period. He grew up with a romantic idea of chivalry and knighthood and saw himself spending his life in that way until his leg was crushed by a canon ball. He returned home to rehab his leg, and it was there that he read about the life of Christ and the stories of the saints. God worked through those storied to help him recognize how the Holy Spirit guides a person’s soul. As you tour the house, the guide leads you through his life and the story of his conversion. You can actually experience the guide at https://Loyola.global/en/birthplace-saint-ignatius -heart-of-the-sanctuary It is worth it.

Front here we drove to Bordeaux, France.

I’ll get my posts up to date soon. As I write this I’m in Fatima, then on to Avila.

July 28 – Innsbruck
We drove west through the Austrian Alps and stopped in Innsbruck, Austria. Innsbruck hosted the Winter Olympics back in 1976 and still has the Austrian training facility.

I went to the church of St. Joseph in Innsbruck which was a beautiful chance to pray. St. Peregrin’s relics (his entire skeleton still vested in priestly garb) are in one of the altars there. He is the patron of cancer patients, so I took the time to pray for those suffering from cancer, especially those I know.

My sister Kimberly has a friend who is from Wichita but now lives in Grub Switzerland. We stayed with her and her husband for the night.

July 24
We celebrated Mass at St. Johanis in Rothenberg. It is a small, simple church, but Jesus was there. I enjoyed Mass at some quiet time with the Lord. The larger, more historic church there is St. James, which was built as a Catholic church but was confiscated during the reformation. Prior to that, it was a major starting point for people making the pilgrimage to Santiago de Compostela in Spain—that would make for a long walk! St. James contains a Eucharistic miracle that occurred before the reformation and is preserved today by the Lutheran community (even though they don’t believe in it). As I read in the story, a priest was celebrating Mass and spilled the chalice. He soaked up the Precious Blood with a purificator (the white cloth we use for purifying the chalice) but didn’t wash the purificator right away after Mass. Instead, he put it in the tabernacle. Later, numerous miracles were worked when people venerated the purificator. It is kept in a reliquary behind an altar.

For us, Rotherberg really wasn’t a pilgrimage stop. It was an opportunity to relax and experience and old walled German city. My nephews enjoyed some sword fighting in the medieval environment.

July 22
Our goal for the day was to drive to the area of Ottersweier, where my mother’s grandfather came from. On the way there we visited Hohenzollern castle then drove through the mountains of the Black Forrest. The castle was interesting. It was built with a chapel that originally was Catholic. However, the main branch of the Hohenzollern royal family abandoned the faith and adapted the chapel for protestant services. They then built a second chapel for the branch of the family that remains Catholic. While the Hohenzollern no longer rule anything, they continue to own and use the castle for family gatherings. Most of the time, it is available for tours and as an event venue.

The drive through the Black Forrest was BEAUTIFUL. It is very unique landscape. I didn’t get any pictures because I was driving, but

July 20
In the morning we went to Mass at St. Andrew’s Church, which is part of a Dominican monastery. We hadn’t scheduled Mass, but I found a priest and he let me say Mass there for my family. We were in the crypt chapel. St. Albert the Great is buried there. Among other things, St. Albert had the distinction of being the teacher of St. Thomas Aquinas. I took the occasion to pray especially for St. Anne Catholic School and St. Thomas Aquinas Catholic School (our family parish).

After Mass at St. Andrew, we walked to St. Peter Cathedral. The Cathedral, with its two huge spires, has the largest façade of any church in the world and is the third tallest church of any kind in the world (We climbed the 533 steps to the top of one of the spires). Honestly, I didn’t really know very much about the cathedral before this trip, except that it is the largest church in Germany, and one of the favorites of our 8th graders when they built models of gothic cathedrals. From the outside, the building is marvelous.

Construction of the cathedral began in 1248. It is amazing to me to think about what they were able to do at the time. We think of people as being simple or uneducated. There may not be an architect in the world today capable of designing something so splendid—and certainly not without the examples from the medieval period. The museum gave information about the history and construction, including drawings of the construction crane (powered by something like a human hamster wheel) to build it. Construction was stopped around the year 1560 and it sat unfinished for 300 years. It was useable for that time, but the upper portion and permanent, beautiful roof weren’t there. Finally in the 1840s, the completion was funded by funding from the Protestant Prussian state. (The Prussian state had taken over the region in 1815 and wanted to gain standing with the Catholic Germans.) It was finally finished in 1880.

I presume it is in part because the cathedral was only completed relatively recently, but I found it surprisingly empty of beautiful art or relics of saints, except for the relics of the 3 magi. Unfortunately, the part of the cathedral that houses the relics was closed off after the morning, so we weren’t able to approach them. The cathedral had also been damaged some during WWII, but fared pretty well considering it was hit by 7 allied bombs and the rest of the city was mostly leveled.

The rejection of the faith in Cologne was evident. The Bank of Germany is across an alley from St. Andrew’s and flew pride flags on that side of the building. Similarly, the building across the plaza front eh cathedral had the flags on the roof. There were a lot of people visiting the cathedral (it is the most visited place in Germany), but few seemed to be praying.

I did get some beautiful time of prayer there. God is very good.

July 19

We spent the morning driving around Bokel, and looking at the farms. We noticed in particular, one with a windmill to generate electricity. It was big and had a variety of crops. Most of the area, though, was planted with wheat and corn. It was a nice relaxing drive after the hectic day before.

The Marstalls had lived and worked on a farm near Bokel. Bokel doesn’t have its own church, and at the time it was part of the parish in Ankum, so that is where they attended and received the sacraments. After driving about Bokel, we went to Ankum where we had arranged to celebrate Mass and visit with the pastor and some ladies who did historical research on families from the area.

The Church of St Nicholas in Ankum is splendid. It sits on top of a hill with a giant steeple. In fact, Fr. Michael told us it is the tallest tower of any village in Germany (not he cities). The parish was started in 977. Of course, they have had several buildings in that time. The one my great-grandfather was baptized in burned down in 1890, the year after they left, but the tower survived as did the stone baptismal font that has been in use for 800 years.

One of the things the Lord invited me to think about on retreat was all the things He has done to reveal Himself to me and keep me close to Him. This experience really added to that. We don’t know how long the Marstalls lived in that area before leaving for the U.S., but to think about the long chain of grace: 1,000 years before I was born, the Holy Spirit founded a parish that would one day nourish the faith of my family! God is good.

Fr. Michael gave us a tour of the church, including inside the roof and up the tower. They preserve a baptismal font from the 1100s. (The 800 year old font is the “new” one.) He told us a showed pictures of a beautiful custom. Every year on December 23, the men of the parish climb to the top of the tower to where the bells are and sing Christmas carols. The rest of the town gathers below to listen.

The people were very friendly. Fr. Michael was great with my nephews. The ladies who had done historical research gave us a book they had written on emigration from the area. I look forward to reading it when I get home. They also had some things specifically on the Marstalls, including some old photos and the name and photo of the boat they sailed on.

One of the things they talked about as a major driver for people leaving the area was that farmers we not able to obtain more land. Our family did not own land but worked on the farm of another family. Even for landed families, the land would normally pass to the oldest son and the others needed to find another livelihood. So to continue farming, they needed to go somewhere else, and America offered open land.

My dad also remembers his grandfather saying they had left to avoid fighting in the army. That was the time of German unification, and that area—Hanover—was essentially taken over by a foreign government.

After visiting with them we celebrated Mass. They had advertised to the parish that I was coming. Some people from he local historical society came and some others. One couple in particular introduced themselves after Mass. They said the Marstalls had worked on their family farm. I was blown away that they knew the names of their family’s employees from 100 years before. They showed me their farm on google maps—it was the one with the windmill. In addition to the wheat and corn, they grow potatoes that they sell to Frito-Lay. He said at the time my great-grandfather was there, it would have been mostly animals—pigs, cows, and chickens.

The local paper sent a reporter to do a story on my visit. Here is a link to the article.

While I was being interviewed by the reporter and my parents were visiting with some of the others who came (enough people knew a little English), my sister and her boys went outside. An older lady saw them leaving the church and offered to buy them ice cream at the café next door. She just said “Hitler bad but Germany good.” She went on to explain that she had moved there from Russia. She loves Germany and doesn’t want people to just associate it with the N***s. When the adults got out of the church, we joined the boys for ice cream—it was awesome!

We drove that night to Cologne.

We left July 17 from Wichita and arrived in Amsterdam on the 18th. Myself, my parents, my sister Kimberly and her family. It wasn’t really on the list of places we had wanted to go to, but it is close to the towns we wanted to go to in norther Germany and a lot cheaper than flying into Frankfurt or Cologne. We spent a little time in the center-city/canal district. It was maybe the craziest place I’ve ever been. The narrow cross-crossing streets carry thousands of bicycles, cars, and pedestrians around canals. We read they pull 12,000-15,000 bikes out of the canal each year. We walked past the Anne Frank house but didn’t go in.

The lack of faith was evident. Pride flags abounded and churches were hard to find. There was an Orthodox Church we walked past, but we didn’t’ find a Catholic Church. An American lady stopped me on the street, presuming I was a local priest, and asked me how I felt about the empty churches. We had a nice conversation about faith and the chaos of life without it.

The architecture is beautiful and the canals are neat. They are laid out in concentric circles, so you are always turning at strange angles, making it easy to get lost. In fact, it took us almost an hour to find our car again. After a couple of hours we had had enough and got in the car for Germany.

The first stop was the part of Germany where the Marstall family had come from. My grandfather was a farmer near St. Mary’s, KS (west of Topeka). His father had been born in Bokel, Germany and came to the U.S. with his parents as a small child. The countryside around Bokel is very similar to northeast Kansas. It was easy to imagine that they would have felt at home when they got here.

We met my brother Michael and his family there. They had traveled separately. The small town phone book had listings for some of the other towns around. We found a few Marstall’s listed, but not in Bokel or Ankum.

I said Mass at the hotel that night at the end of a long, exciting day.

St. Anne Catholic Church is currently accepting registrations for PSR Classes. If your child needs their First Communion or Confirmation, please click the link below to fill out the form. Bilingual 1st communion classes are Wednesdays 7pm-8:30pm & Spanish 1st communion classes are Sundays 10:30am-noon. Confirmation classes also start in September and they will be on Sundays. Time for confirmation classes will be announce at a later date. Registration ends Aug. 25th!

St. Anne Catholic Church-Wichita KS

Tomorrow, July 26th, is the Feast Day of Saints Anne and Joachim! Join us for a bilingual Mass at 7pm and a reception to follow in the gathering space!

Mañana, 26 de Julio, es la Fiesta de Santos Ana y Joaquin! Únase a nosotros para una misa bilingüe a las 7pm y una recepción en seguida en la entrada de la iglesia!