Altar & Rosary Society

Our mission/object is to unite all women of the parish in religious, educational, and social activities; to assist the pastor in spiritual and material undertakings for the welfare of the parish; to serve as the agency through which women of the parish shall participate in the diocesan program of Catholic Women, and the National Council of Catholic Women; and to further spiritual and material undertaking of the members. 
Our membership includes all women of the parish, 18 years of age or older, married or single, or the wife of a Catholic man of the parish.  We have no dues. Regular meetings are held at 7:00 p.m. on the second Thursday of the month from September to May.

Yearly functions:

August Dinner for Officer Installation
September Rummage Sale
December Cookie Walk and Poinsettia Sale
March Native Plant Garden Sale and St. Joseph Day Celebration
May Mother's Day Pie Sale and Spring Flower Sale

Other activities include:

A&R provides funeral luncheons to bereaved family of parishioners.

Baby quilts are made to give to 1st Way Life Center.

Mary's Mantle:  Spiritual support for new brides.

Religious goods are sold by volunteers.

Ink cartridges are collected for recycling to raise money.  Please turn any cartridges into the Parish Office or in the box in Fr. Blake Hall.

*If interested in volunteering or if you would like more information about the Altar & Rosary Society please contact the parish office at 815-678-7421 or saintjosephchurch@gmail.com..

Special events:

The Altar & Rosary Society, CCW (Council of Catholic Women) of St. Joseph Catholic Church, of which every woman parishioner is a member, is supported by volunteers, good will, and fundraising events which normally are the Pie and Plant sale in May, the Rummage Sale in September, and the Poinsettia Sale/Cookie Walk in December.  This year, however, the pandemic restrictions interfered with “normalcy” and we were unable to hold any of our normal fund raising events at church. However, your help and commitment in the past still allowed us to provide financial support to St. Joseph’s and the community in the following ways...                                        

Richmond Community Food Pantry $ 1,450.00

St. Vincent DePaul Society $ 1,350.00

Bingo game for Parish Picnic $ 100.00

NIU Newman Center $ 50.00

Re-Usable grocery tote bags  $ 300.00

Donation to St. Joseph Church $ 955.00

Total Contributions $ 4,205.00

 

Congratulations to Teresa Weber—St. Joseph’s 2019 Woman of Inspiration!

 

Teresa has been a member of St. Joseph’s parish for 28 years.  She is another of those reliable church ladies, hiding in the shadows of others, that can always be counted on for help, assistance or advice.  She helps with funeral luncheons whether providing food, serving or set-up, clean-up or table cloth laundry afterwards. While St. Joe’s was a hosting PADS site, Teresa was once asked to sub for a morning shift volunteer.  The irony is that Teresa is not known as a “morning person”, but she is not a “No-sayer” either.  Admirably, for over 3 years, Teresa committed herself to working that 5:30 AM shift to help with rousting up the overnight guests for breakfast and taking down the over-night accommodations.

Teresa taught 3rd grade Religious Ed for a number of years as well. She has served on various Family Life committees, most notably the Marriage Enrichment program.  She is currently very active in our Altar & Rosary Society with its fund raising efforts, especially the Spring plant sale. A few years ago Teresa volunteered to take on the responsibility of our parish’s Mary’s Mantle Program which focuses on young brides.  Teresa oversees the making of a spiritual “tool kit” for the bride and groom.   Msgr. then presents this Mary’s Mantle basket to the bride the week before her wedding.

 Not that long ago, there were many public programs supporting education and child health care.  While anyone could clip and save Campbell soup labels, box tops for education, or ring tabs to support Ronald McDonald House charities, it was the cause-dedicated people like Teresa who would pick up those saved accumulations from others and deliver them to its own proper collection center.  Currently, it’s Teresa who collects and submits the Richter’s “Funds for Friends” grocery receipts (that parishioners drop off in the little white box under the food pantry collections in the vestibule) which are used to purchase books, videos and holy land maps for our Wednesday morning Bible Study, and RE classes.

St. Joseph’s is very proud of this year’s nomination as a woman of inspiration to others.  Thank you, Teresa, for all those unnoticed little ordinary things you do, that so many others only wish they had thought of.

 

Photos of Activities

 

To see additional photos go to our website home page and click on the Photos tab at the top of the screen.