St. Joseph Church with members from parishes around the state gathered Saturday evening to celebrate the life and work of our pastor Fr. John Marconi.  Twenty-five years ago, Fr. John was ordained to the priesthood.  Together with Bishop Anthony Taylor, twenty of his brother priests, and his family we gave thanks to God for calling Fr. John, for his courage to answer yes, and for the lives he has touched by his work and his example of Christian devotion, faith, and humility.

The celebration began with a Remembrance Rosary led by Fr. James Melnick, Associate Pastor at St. Joseph, a Mass of Thanksgiving followed, the night ended with dinner and dancing.

Thank you Fr. John for your life of service!

It’s time! The Come into His Presence Mission began this evening, and will continue with a meetings January 7-8. If you have not yet registered, no you wishing to attend will be turned away. Please join us!

Saturday sessions will be for women only and will include lunch. Sessions start at 8:30 a.m.till 3:00 p.m . There is a 4:00 p.m. anticipated Sunday Mass

The Sunday morning session will be for Hispanics and will begin at 8:30 and end at 12:00 noon with mass following at 12:30

The Celebration of Our  Lady of Guadalupe took place Monday, December 12, 2011. The festivities conmensed with the traditional “Mañanitas” at 5am. A shrine was erected in the church where well over 150 fellow parishioners came to sing and pay tribute to, Mary.

The procession from downtown Simon Park to the church started at 4:30 pm. It was Followed by mass at 5:00pm where a Mariachi Band played. There was a reception following in the Parish Hall which about 500 persons attended. People where treated to a meal hosted by “The Guadalupanos”, a performance of the Danza Matachines composed of  30 dancers, and enjoy the music of Mariachi America music.

Many parishioners from St. Joseph Church took part in an hour long prayer vigil at the intersection of Harkrider and Oak Streets on October 2^nd . It was done as part of Respect for Life Sunday, which began the annual nationwide campaign to witness to what the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops calls “the inherent equality and transcendent value of every human being.”

     Monsignor Richard Oswald, a former associate pastor at St. Joseph Church in Conway who now serves as Assistant Director of Vocations for Diocese of Little Rock, returned to St. Joseph September 25^th to make a presentation on the subject of the revision of the Holy Roman Missal. A new English translation of the missal will go into effect at the start of the Advent season.

      Monsignor Oswald explained that the Church has been using the present translation since 1975. He said English was first used in 1964 and was implemented because the Church wanted  “ a fully conscious and active participation in the celebration of the Eucharist.” Prior to that, parishioners tended to passively watch the priest pray the mass in Latin.

       “We’re not getting a new missal,” Monsignor Oswald said. “We’re getting a new translation. In the past, the prevailing philosophy regarding missal translation from Latin to English was known as dynamic equivalence.”  That meant the Church hierarchy felt it needn’t be translated word for word, but in a way that would be easier to understand. However, in doing so certain imagery, rhythm and even direct scripture references were sometimes lost. Pope John Paul II later re-evaluated this and asked countries of the world to adopt a “formal equivalence”  in its translations. That would get the missal much closer to what the original Latin had intended.

        “What we do at mass won’t change,” Monsignor Oswald said. “Only the sound of it will.”

St. Joseph welcomed members for the surrounding parishes to listen to Justin Fatica co-founder of The  Hard As Nails Ministry.

St. Joseph Parish has been blessed to have Deacon Mauricio Carrasco as part of our family for the past summer. This Friday Deacon Mauricio returns to his final year at seminary. Additionally our own William Burmester will be entering his first year of seminary this fall. The Parish hosted a reception in their honor August 17. We wish Deacon Mauricio and William the best as they follow the call to priesthood.

St. Joseph school year began Monday, August 15. Students and teachers attended the first school Mass of the academic year with Fr. John Marconi and Deacons Papini and Carrasco.