Gifts and Talents

Dear sisters & brothers in Christ,

I pray that you are blessed. Please join me in congratulating David Sacha on being ordained a transitional deacon for the diocese of Grand Rapids. He will be preaching at our Saturday 4:15pm and Sunday 9:00am masses next weekend, May 15th & 16th. If you are not able to make one of those masses, you can of course, view the streamed mass online whenever you have time. Please keep David and all of our Redemptorist seminarians in your prayers as they continue to discern God’s calling.

A week ago it seemed like the entire country was anxiously awaiting to see if Dr. Fauci would see his shadow and we would have 6 more months of pandemic or not. Then all of a sudden it seemed like most states were just throwing caution to the wind and throwing social distancing to the curb. While I am certainly not in the latter group, I do look forward to carefully increasing our level of activity here at St. Al’s. A number of activities and ministries have already begun. So keep an eye on the bulletin. One area in which we do need help is with our liturgical ministries, especially as our numbers continue to increase, everything from ushers to lectors to sacristans. If you’d like to help please contact the office.

Our Parish Council has begun a series of meetings to discuss and make plans for our return to full and active participation, and how to best plan for the future. I realize that many of you have probably gotten used to inactivity and it might require some effort to get back to a more active lifestyle, but our parish really needs everyone to do their part and share their gifts and talents if we want to return to the vibrant parish that we all know St. Al’s to be. If you’re not sure where your talents can best be of use, just call Fr. Chung, myself or one of the staff members and we will help you discern where God is calling you. God bless!

In the Redeemer, Fr. Rick