Message from Our President
Greeting Metro Serrans,
I would like to introduce myself as the new President of our club. I am Doug Poe; my wife Sandy and I have been members since 2021. During that time I have gotten to know a number of you but I am really looking forward to getting to know each of you on a much closer level.
I sincerely want to thank Phil Weller for the excellent leadership he has provided over the past two years. I especially want to thank him for his assistance and mentorship as I transition into the Presidents role.
The last year has been a very successful one for our club and for the whole of the Serran movement in our Diocese. Our membership has grown and the activities that our club support have continued to be highly successful. The Sisters’ dinner in November draws more attendees from the different religious communities in Wichita, which is one of the few opportunities for our professed religious to meet and socialize with others from the various orders. The 6th grade Vocations rally draws more participants each year. This rally is only this successful because of the tremendous efforts of our club members. The sheer volume of pizza that must be plated and the efficiency of the process is something impressive.
Next, a shout-out to Kim Kimbro for overseeing the golf tournament in June. Again, this is another effort that requires a lot of volunteer assistance but one that is also growing so that we can put our “money where our mouth and purpose is”.
An ongoing event for our club is to sponsor the Seminarian Day at the Lake at the beginning of the school year. I want to thank you for stepping up on short notice to help put on the Seminarian Day at the Lake. As some of you know, this event had been cancelled due to the unavailability of the location at a suitable time. However, when Fr. Chad was able to arrange a suitable time, he then requested that we help make it happen and we did. And here is a big thank you to Barb Pinaire, our new VP for Vocations, and to all who stepped up and donated time and effort to insure that the seminarians had a great time. The role of Serra is to promote vocations and there is no better example of this than being able to provide that type of support when it is requested.
Finally, I want to thank each of the board members, Kent and Nora Reilly, Steve and Leann Cless, Jim Marks, Sharon Hagan, Barb Pinaire, Rick Yeilding and especially Phil Weller for helping to ease me into this position.
Again, I want to thank each of you for your support and I am looking forward to working together over the next two years.
Prayers and Blessings
Doug Poe
Chaplain's Reflections
“For to me living is Christ and dying is gain.” Philippians 1:21
St. Ambrose said, “We should have a daily familiarity with death, a daily desire for death. By this kind of detachment our soul must learn to free itself from the desires of the body…. Let us then be exiles from our body, so as not to be exiles from Christ.”
We are in the month of November. We just celebrated the twin feasts; All Saints’ Day and All Souls’ Day. In the month of November we dedicate ourselves to pray for the faithful departed. These above-mentioned feasts remind us of our own destination.
As St. Ambrose taught, we should have a daily familiarity with death. Death is the only way to step into our eternal destination. As we cannot avoid it, we need to get familiarity with it. How do we get familiarity with death? St. Ignatius have given us a concrete way to do it; Daily examen and St. John Bosco called it Exercise for Happy Death. All these saints saying the same thing, Daily Familiarity with death, Daily Examen or Exercise for Happy Death.
This is how we should do in our daily prayer life:
Every night before we go to bed, in our night prayer, we spent time in silence to meditate and think of the day we have spent with the following steps:
- Become aware of God’s presence throughout the day.
- As you review the day what you have done from morning till evening, be grateful to God and give thanks to the Lord.
- Observe how you have passed the day and recall your emotions; were you sad, happy, angry, etc.…
- Focus on one of those emotions and pray about it.
- Look toward tomorrow and be convinced that you can be better with the help of God. With that make a simple, achievable resolution for tomorrow and end the examen with the Our Father.
With this exercise we will always be ready for the next day and death will not surprise us. Every night through the examination of conscience we ask God to forgive our sins and to help us at the moment of our death.
As we pray for the faithful departed let get familiarity with death daily.
May the souls of the faithful departed, through the mercy of God rest in Peace. Amen
Fr. David Michael
A Message from Our President
Fellow Serran’s,
We are coming off a busy few months. First was the annual golf tournament. We had the most Priests and Seminarians participating than ever before. Then the Serra International convention in Kansas City, It was interesting and informative to talk with Serrans from other parts of the United States and around the world. We realized once again how blessed we are here in the Wichita Diocese. This month, we had the Evening at the Lake with the Seminarians. It is great to see them have the chance to relax and have fun swimming, boating, fishing and playing volleyball before they return to school. I have received many thank you cards from them. On August 8, there were two Seminarians called up at the Rite of Candidacy which was held at St. Joseph Parish in Andale. We will have 51 Seminarians this fall, 41 in the House of formation and the others in Major Seminaries.
Bishop Kemme thanked us for all we do for the Seminarians and reminding us that prayer is the most important way that we can help them.
I appreciate all new ideas on how we can update or improve our club and how we help our Seminarians and Priests.
Next year, along with the other Serra clubs in our Diocese, we will be hosting the Central Region Convention here in Wichita. This will be a great opportunity to show case Serra and what do. Rob Knapp will be Chairman, and he needs lots of help with the various committees. There will be a Sign-Up Genius sent out online. Please help where you can
Tom Eckberg resigned last meeting as VP of Program. He has done a great job. Sharon Hagan has volunteered to take over that position. Thank you Sharon.
Good Bless .
Phil Weller - President Serra Metro Wichita
A Message from Our Chaplain
Dear brothers and sisters,
It has been a while since I have written to you. In spite of the sad news about the death of Pope Francis a few hours ago, may I wish you Happy and Blessed Easter. God has chosen the best time for the Pope to meet him. Like the two disciples going to Emmaus on Easter morning and having the breaking of the Bread for the first time, Pope Francis will be with the Risen Christ at the heavenly banquet to be waited on by the Lord himself.
The Pope had spoken the language of mercy with his personal example across the nations and the religions of the world. And his zeal for evangelization will always be remembered in the history of the Church.
May this Easter Season continue to shine the light of hope in our personal spiritual experiences and for the future of the Church as we all will pray for the new representative of Christ for His Kingdom on earth.
And this has been my reflection for the past few weeks: Temptation, Sin and Suffering Vs Faithfulness, Virtues and Praising the Lord. In moments of temptation the best weapon is to meditate upon our daily faithfulness to God and the Church. When we struggle with sin, follow what St. Ignatius taught, “Agere contra”, to act against. That is to say, work on the virtue against the sin we want to fight. We all suffer in one way or another. Praise the Lord for he has given us an opportunity to unite with his salvific suffering.
Blessed be the name of the Lord! Alleluia
Fr. Michael Htun
Chaplain - Serre Club Metro
