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By Mary Stanek
Your correspondent in Archer Heights and West Elsdon
3808 W. 57th Place • (773) 284-7394
Happy St. Patrick’s Day on the 17th to all the Irish folks, and folks that want to be Irish for the day. I absolutely love the food, music and drink from these festivities.
Not to be outdone by the Irish celebrations, Happy St. Joseph’s Day on the 19th to all the Italian and Polish folks and the folks that want to celebrate as well. This time of year reminds me of the not-so-distant past when our local parishes would have St. Patrick/St. Joseph Day dining tables. St. Turibius used to have quite the feast, along with St. Bruno. We would always visit St. Bruno’s, meeting up with the Czuma family for some really good food.
Speaking of St. Turibius, the Feast of St. Turibius is March 23. The saint was born Nov. 16, 1528 in Spain and died March 23, 1606. He was a scholar and entered the priesthood in 1578. As an archbishop, he set off to Peru to begin his mission of baptizing and catechizing the natives.
St. Turibius Parish will be having a Lenten mission on the 21st and 22nd at 6 p.m. This mission will end with a Mass on the 23rd at 7 p.m. celebrating its patron saint.
We have some wise investors at Sts. Bruno & Richard Catholic School. The eighth grade class has currently placed fourth in the Big Shoulders Fund Stock Market program. This program consists of 63 Catholic Schools across Chicago. The students are taught from professionals, bankers and investment advisors on what it means to trade and invest in the stock market. Investing real money, the program provides an incentive to the school and the students. Good work and keep it up, it’s a valuable lesson to know how to save, invest and earn money.
We (the husband and I) missed quite a bit of activities these past few weeks around the neighborhood. With all intent and purposes, we wanted to attend Beat 822’s CAPS meeting on the 7th. I also wanted to attend the prayer vigils and ribbon placings around the neighborhood.
But “it” got us. We had a short visit to New Orleans at the end of February and along with the pralines we brought home, we also brought COVID-19. So, both my husband and I diligently spent 10 days in our home, the first few days not being very pleasant. But thankfully we got through it. We still have no clue from where we could have actually caught it (New Orleans, Chicago, airport, bar, restaurant, local grocery store). There were just too many variables.