Janet was looking for a church home when she first came to St. Louis, and one parishioner's simple greeting at Mass permanently changed both Janet and the St. Louis community for the better.

Listen to her story on this #parishionerspotlight episode of the #beingchurchpodcast

Whenever we do anything at St. Louis, we ask ourselves, "What's the goal of this and how will this bring the gospel to light at St. Louis?" We've gotten away from the goal of this podcast and we're going to use the beginning of 2019 to get back to our mission.

Beginning this year, we'll start featuring parishioner stories of God's grace. When we share our stories, we reveal God's hand at work in our lives. And when we share how God influences our lives, we encourage others to examine their own lives for God's grace.

So what's your story? What has God done for you? Maybe He's done more than you know...

Motherhood is no joke, and the demands put on moms today make the job even more difficult than normal. But what is it like to be a mom at St. Louis and how can our parish create a more welcoming environment for young families? Alissa chats with Elizabeth Polito and Christa Villarreal--St. Louis employees--about the joys and struggles of being a Catholic mom at Mass on Sunday and every other day of the week.

We're always anticipating the next moment. Looking forward to Christmas, to the New Year, to the day our in-laws leave town. In this episode, Seminarian Will encourages Tom and Alissa to find ways to be holy right now. In this very moment.

Fr. Doug's Homily - https://homilies.fireside.fm/96

December 12th is a big day at St. Louis parish not just because it marks the end of theater season for Alissa's kids, but because it's the feast of Our Lady of Guadalupe! This is a feast day in the Church, but it leads us to ask a lot of questions about Mary and this specific apparition. Tom and Alissa discuss. Turn it up!

It's almost Christmas, are you ready? Tom and Alissa aren't. Thankfully the Church gives us four weeks of Advent to help us prepare our hearts. How do we keep this sacred time sacred? By the way, we kinda lose it at the end so listen all the way through.

We've all had moments of deep restlessness. Thoughts that keep us up at night, worries that prevent us from living full lives, deep concerns about big questions like who we are and where we're going with our lives. What's the deal with all this and why are we so restless? Alissa, Will, and Tom spend some time discussing why we can't be satisfied with what we've got and why that should give us a glimpse of hope.

Happy Thanksgiving! This week, Alissa and Tom talk about gratitude and its relation to humility. When we try to see all things as a gift, we are overwhelmed by the truth that we are not self-sufficient beings. And that's a good thing.

We talk about holiness a lot. But it's so often an esoteric discussion; we don't give concrete approaches to being holy people. We try to give a bit more substance to the holiness discussion in this episode. How do we actually become holy? What does it mean to be a priest by our baptism? And what does one have to do with the other? God has called us first, but how do we respond?

Catholics LOVE the word "vocation" and this week the Church worldwide is asking all the faithful to consider their vocations--what they're called to do to serve God in the world. How do we begin to hear what God wants from us? Alissa, Will, and Tom say it starts in the family, and break that down a bit in this episode.