On Friday, June 18, the steel framework for our new bell tower and adoration chapel was delivered and installed.  Workmen of The LAW Company coordinated the work with those of the Macke & Sons, Inc. steel fabricators in Newton and the Belger Cartage Service in Wichita to place the structure on the site for the chapel.  It was delivered on a flatbed trailer and lifted off by a crane starting at 10:00 a.m.  Once unloaded, the church bell, from the original church that had been located on Chestnut Avenue, was fastened to the structure.  It was then lifted upright and moved into place and fastened to four sets of bolts set in the concrete foundation.  Four video segments capture the work that was accomplished.  See the first one below and then click the "Read More" to go to the other video clips.

On Friday, June 11, workmen of the LAW Company finished the roof of the new gymnasium by placing rebar and concrete on the double tee roof panels.  The following videos offer a look at the latest work being accomplished on our parish expansion project! Click the "Read More" button below to go to the video clips.

On Saturday, June 5, 2010, Jeff Chambers of Smoky Valley Nursery, and a member of St. Bridget's Church in Lindsborg, transplanted six trees to new locations on St. Joseph parish grounds.  The trees, formerly located in the ground north of the church, had to be moved due to a water run-off retention area that is required to be excavated.  The shallow area of ground will hold rain water that runs off the surfaces of the new structures added in our expansion project.  It will allow the water to drain more slowly and avoid overwhelming the capacity of the city storm water drainage system.  The trees, three oaks and three locusts, were relocated in the triangular area of parish property just east of the main parking lot.

Many thanks to Jeff for assisting us in this effort.  Four video clips follow, showing the fascinating--and large--hydraulic tree spade that he used to transplant the trees.

Video number two:

Video number three:

Video number four:

The daunting task of moving the many items in the parish hall storage room, the parish offices, the music room and garage began on Tuesday, April 20.  Fr. David, Peggy Bahr, St. Joseph School Principal and teachers, Tammy Gipson and Tammy Lackey put their heads together and began to sort through the items in the parish hall storage room.  Filled with props and costumes for class plays and projects, multiple storage containers of Oktoberfest and Mexican Fiesta materials, as well as craft guild and Altar Society items, the largest of the areas for storage proved to be a formidable task.  Yet, in five hours' time, significant progress was made.

After examining the contents that sat on the shelves lining the walls, the intrepid group of cleaners managed to create a discard pile of old, unusable items, a save pile for items that will be made available to parishioners, and transferred items that made their way into the 48 foot storage container in the south parking lot.  Work on that room will continue through the week, with the goal of having it emptied by the end of the school year.

The garage of the former rectory will be the next area to sort, clean and store.  Items will be moved so that those that are not needed will be placed to the back of the storage container, and those that are needed will be placed toward the front so they can be accessed as the need arises.  More items that are in good use, but not needed at the parish will be offered to parishioners in a rummage sale type of set up, either to be given away or offered for a free will donation.  All proceeds will go toward the building fund.

The work of cleaning out and storing the contents of these areas will need to be accomplished by June 1st in order that the work of renovation on the parish hall and offices can commence.  Pray to St. Anthony for the brave cleaners that they can find space to store everything!

What drove the Second Grade students and their parents to celebrate their First Holy Communion?  Click here to find out!

Parishioners are invited to join Bishop Michael Jackels, Father David, Project Architect Bob Faires and representatives of the LAW Company for a ground breaking ceremony following the conclusion of the 9:00 a.m. Mass on Sunday, March 7th.  The ground breaking will take place on the site of the new bell tower and adoration chapel located at the northeast corner of the church.

Following the ground breaking, a parish breakfast will be hosted by the Altar Society and Knights of Columbus.

A second pre-construction meeting was held at St. Joseph’s on Tuesday, January 12.  In attendance, once again were representatives of the LAW Company, Dan Alcala, Project Manager, and Terry Winn, Project Superintendent, Bob Faires, architect and Derek Basinger, architectural assistant from Howard & Helmer Architects, Fr. David, Peggy Bahr, School Principal and Farrell Pedreauville, parish liason for the construction project.  At this meeting a tentative schedule of construction was discussed.

PLEASE NOTE: The following time frames for the project are very tentative given unforeseen building conditions such as weather.  At this time, the LAW Company is planning to begin locating construction trailers and storage containers at St. Joseph’s by mid February.  These structures will be located in the west section of the parking lot, directly south of the school.  Approximately 44 parking stalls will be taken up during the period of construction.  Parking strategies will be further discussed and publicized to the parish.  Most likely, people will need to begin parking on Sonora street once the parking lot fills up for Sunday Mass.

Work on the bell tower and adoration chapel is tentatively being planned to start in March and to be completed by mid-July.  Work on the new gymnasium/activity center is set to begin in late February and to be completed by the end of September or early October.  The remodel and renovation of the current parish hall and parish and school offices are set to begin May 31st and to be completed by mid August. Again, these are very rough estimates, but offered here to give parishioners a sense of when to expect construction activity to begin.  Continue to pray for favorable conditions for our project!

Donate via phone: 1-877-HELP-CRS or text RELIEF to 30644

Donate online: www.crs.org

Write a check: Catholic Relief Services, P.O. Box 17090, Baltimore MD

21203-7090; memo: Haiti Earthquake

Write a check locally: Catholic Diocese of Wichita, c /o Mission Office, 424 N.

Broadway, Wichita KS 67202; memo: Haiti Earthquake

WASHINGTON—The Church mourns the terrible suffering of the people of Haiti, and parishes across the country are urged to take up a special collection the weekend of January 16-17 for the humanitarian efforts of the U.S. bishops and Catholic Relief Service (CRS) in Haiti, according to a January 13 letter to Catholic bishops of the United States from Cardinal Francis George of Chicago and Archbishop Timothy Dolan of New York.

St. Joseph's will support the bishop's relief effort by taking up a second collection as requested.  Any later donations to the relief effort may be sent to the parish office, so that it can be included and forwarded to the diocese.

It all started when Fr. David found himself admiring the noble and ornate monstrance at St. Paul parish in Lyons during an Advent prayer penance service.  "That is exactly what I would like to see for our new adoration chapel," he thought.  It wasn't because the current monstrance--the decorative metal stand that displays the consecrated host for Eucharistic Adoration--at St. Joseph's was insufficient.  It was a suitable vessel to display the Eucharist.  However, it was somewhat diminutive in size, and Fr. David wondered if it would look too small in the chapel that was being designed to be added to the parish church.  The problem was that a new monstrance, of greater size and of more decorative style, would easily run into thousands if not tens of thousands of dollars.  And that was just too much given all the other expenses of construction.

And so, for those reasons, Fr. David let the idea of a new monstrance slip away.

Until a few weeks later, after a conversation with a priest and friend, Fr. Frank Coady, of the Salina diocese, the McPherson pastor learned that there was an antique monstrance available.  This monstrance, while tarnished with years of sacred use, possessed the more prominent size and ornate quality that had caught his attention earlier.  It's possible that the monstrance came from a Catholic church in Jamestown, Kansas, that had closed approximately ten years before.  After examining it, Fr. David was intrigued and asked to take the monstrance back to St. Joseph's to compare it with the current one.  Fr. Coady was happy to let him do so and generously offered the monstrance to St. Joseph parish only for the asking.

As soon as Fr. David returned to the parish with the esteemed liturgical vessel, he immediately took it to compare, side by side, with the other one.  He was impressed with the older monstrance's size and quality in comparison.  It was then that he began to plan to learn what it might cost to refinish the monstrance and put it into use at St. Joseph's.  He took several pictures of it, took a number of measurements, and, with this information, contacted two liturgical goods companies to request estimates from them on the cost of the work.

While engaging in e-mail correspondence with the representatives of those companies, Fr. David learned that such pieces had not been made for 25 years.  This one appeared to have excellent potential to be repaired and re-plated, restoring it to the work of art that it is.

As this was transpiring, Father also presented the monstrance to the parish Liturgy Committee to get their input about it.  When they, too, saw a comparison of the two vessels, they were equally supportive and enthusiastic about refinishing the older piece to serve a new purpose in the parish.  With a portion of a special monetary gift that was given to the parish, and with some assistance from the Altar Society, the estimated cost of $1600 to repair and restore the monstrance seemed like a reasonable cost.

With hope that the "new" monstrance will serve a holy and sacred purpose in the parish, Fr. David is now making preparations to send the vessel to F.C. Zieglers, in Tulsa, Oklahoma.  There, in the hands of professional craftsmen, the monstrance will be renewed and restored to its original splendor to serve as a display for the Body of Christ in Eucharistic adoration.

Any donations offered toward the refinishing of the monstrance would be gratefully accepted.  Please contact the parish office.

Since awarding the contract for our parish renovation and expansion project to the LAW Company of Wichita, we have initiated several steps necessary to move forward. On Tuesday, December 22, representatives of the LAW Company—Rich Kerschen, President, Dan Alcala, Operations Supervisor and Terry Winn, the Job Superintendant—met with project architect Bob Faires, Fr. David and Peggy Bahr.

At this meeting, Mr. Faires outlined the various documents that needed to be applied for to start construction. Some of these documents come from the Diocese to set up a tax exempt status for the costs of materials. Also, discussed were arrangements for the location of construction equipment on site when construction eventually begins, as well as how to coordinate construction work during the school days, with every attention to the safety of the school children being considered.

At this time, the LAW Company is beginning their preliminary work to organize the procurement of materials and to prepare to mobilize their resources and head to McPherson. They will also develop a schedule of construction that will give the parish a clearer idea of when they will begin and on what parts of the job they will work. Much of that schedule will depend upon the winter weather—which we know has been more harsh than what we usually experience. Stay tuned to the bulletin and website for further updates.

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PARKING STRIPES AT ST. JOSEPH'S

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As Catholics, there's no doubt that we make an effort to believe in things "seen and unseen," as we profess every Sunday at Mass.  While that mainly applies to matters of faith, it has also applied, over the last several years, to the parking places in the church and school parking lot!  The stripes in the parking lot had faded since their last application by St. Joseph parishioners.  Fortunately that issue has now been remedied as the unseen stripes are now clearly visible once again.

Fr. David responded to a mailing he received several weeks ago from Stripes & More, a Moundridge based company that does parking lot striping among other paint contracting work.  After meeting with Stripes & More owners, David and Brenda Hammar, and walking over the parking lot to assess the much-needed reapplication of paint, Father found the estimate they offered to be very reasonable and had them commence with the work.

Schedules fell into place very quickly.  The same day Fr. David called to invite the Hammar's to do the striping work, Thursday, September 3, they were already planning to be in McPherson to do a small job for parking at McPherson high school, near the new tennis courts. By 3:45 that afternoon, after school had dismissed and the lot was mostly empty of cars, David and Brenda set to work. 

Besides re-painting the parking stall stripes, they also painted the concrete bases of the parking lot light poles. They updated the handicapped parking stalls with vivid blue and yellow paint, meeting the current handicap-accessibility standards. (Two of the stalls are in the front lot and three are located in the lot near the south entrance of the church.) The paint on the curbs near the entrances was refreshed and three four-square games were re-painted at no charge.  Directional arrows were painted near the entrances to traffic lanes to help with ease of navigation for drivers.  Lastly, a no parking zone was added at the end of the parking lot near the loading area and trash storage area for delivery and trash vehicles to have unimpeded access. The oil-based paint applied by Stripes & More is the same used in the past on county and state highways and has a long life span.

While faith in things unseen is particularly important as Christians, when it comes to parking lot stripes and safety and order coming and going to church and school: seeing is definitely believing!

The unexpected and tragic death of Andy Steffes, architect and owner of ADS Architects of McPherson, is a cause for grief for many.  We offer our prayers for the consolation of his wife Cheri, his father Don, a member of our parish, Andy’s siblings, as well as his numerous friends and acquaintances.  Andy’s death has a great impact on the McPherson community because of his architectural involvement with the McPherson Opera House, the YMCA and, of course, our own parish expansion project. 

Fr. David has already begun consulting with Diocesan leadership to take the next steps to interview and hire an architect who might pick up where Andy left off.  This new architect will assume the task of finishing the architectural designs and specifications needed to put the parish project out for bid with construction companies.  The latest date for completion of this information was the middle of this month of June.  As much as possible, every effort will be made to make sure that planning for the parish expansion continues.

At this time of unexpected loss, please offer your prayers for the repose of the soul of Andy Steffes, for the comfort that only God can offer to his wife, father and family and for the guidance of the Holy Spirit in the ongoing efforts to expand our parish facilites.

On Friday, May 22, five men will be ordained as transitional deacons, and St. Joseph and St. Bridget will be a summer home for one of them!  Maximilian Bilz—soon to be Deacon Maximilian—currently is a third year theologian at Kenrick-Glennon Seminary in St. Louis.  He is a native of St. Michael Parish in Mulvane, KS, and Bishop Jackels has assigned him to serve in McPherson county for ten weeks this summer.

Deacons are referred to as “Ministers of Charity” who assist the pastor in the duties of serving parishioners.  As a “transitional” Deacon, Maximilian will have one more year of seminary studies before being ordained a priest next May, 2010.  During his time here as a deacon, Maximilian will assist at the celebration of Mass by proclaiming the Gospel and preaching the Sunday and daily Mass homilies.  He will help prepare the altar during the offertory, and he will offer the dismissal at Mass (“The Mass is ended.  Go in peace.”)  As a deacon, he would also be able to celebrate baptisms, witness weddings and help with funerals.  He will assist with taking communion to the sick and homebound.  Besides these responsibilities, Maximilian will simply be learning more about life in a parish community, getting acquainted with parishioners and fostering an interest in vocations to the priesthood by his example of prayer and service.  Maximilian will reside at the parish rectory with Fr. David, and he will report to St. Joseph's on Wednesday, May 27th.  His first weekend of service will be Pentecost weekend, May 30th and 31st.

Until his arrival and ordination to the diaconate, please keep Maximilian Bilz in your prayers that he may be receptive to the grace of Holy Orders and the calling to the good work that God has begun in him.

On Sunday, March 8th, St. Joseph and St. Bridget of Sweden will welcome Fr. Michael Manning, SVD to present a Lenten parish mission through Tuesday evening, March 10.  Some information about Fr. Manning has already been published in the bulletin the last two weekends.  He is a member of the Society of the Divine Word (SVD) and also Founder and President of Wordnet Productions.  Fr. Manning has engaged in evangelization on television through his program The Word in the World on the Trinity Broadcasting Network.  The video in this article presents an excerpt from his show and provides an opportunity to get better acquainted with Fr. Manning as we prepare for his visit

How many St. Joseph's parishioners does it take to change a light bulb?  Sounds like the latest in a familiar genre of joke, doesn't it?  On Tuesday, December 23, it took a handful of fellas and a great big power lift to do the job.  While the soaring, vaulted ceiling of the church is one of it's more notable architectural features, it poses a challenge when it comes to changing a simple burned out bulb.  However, with parishioner and local electrical contractor Doug Unruh leading the project, the effort was accomplished just in time for the celebration of Christmas Masses! 

Generously giving of his time, expertise and contractor resources, Doug arranged for a power lift to be delivered via semi truck and trailer to St. Joseph's reach the vaulted heights and the recessed light fixtures that contained the spent bulbs.  Handling the dizzying task of operating the lift, Ed Bate, another parish member, ascended to the troubled lamps and took careful pains to remove and then replace the powerful and--we hope--long lasting light bulbs.  Coordinating the effort from the ground and making sure that the tiled floor of the worship space was protected, parishioner and maintenance supervisor Dave Andes helped lay out sheets of plywood on which the lift would sit as it moved into the church.

From start to finish, the task took about three hours.  Fortunately the decoration of the church for Christmas, which had begun that same morning, was mostly accomplished.  Several other parishioners from that effort were present to help move the front pew wall and chairs that had been set out for the larger Christmas congregation that was expected in order to make room for the lift to maneuver.  Once the light bulbs were changed, all else was put back into place for the celebration of Christmas Masses.  Now: pray that the light truly shines in the darkness in our church...for a long time!

To view the photos click here: "Changing of the Light Bulbs" then click on "St. Joseph" and finally click on "Changing of the Light Bulbs".