Moving Forward

Dear sisters and brothers in Christ,

I pray that you are blessed. I want to once again congratulate all of our graduates. Whether you graduated from kindergarten or graduate school, it is a milestone in your life and a transition to the next phase of your growth and development. No matter if you begin another grade in the Fall, or you have finished with your formal schooling, I hope you realize that your education never stops. For once we stop learning, we stop growing, we cease becoming the person we are called to be, for our Lord commanded us to strive always for perfection. I am sorry for all of those who did not get to do all the things that go with graduation, especially those who were in their senior year of high school, but I do hope you realize that we are still very proud of you and I hope your family was able to celebrate it in some creative way. This weekend at all the masses, whether you are physically present or watching from home, we will have a special blessing for all who graduated.

Speaking of transitions, as we welcome the rest of our staff back and begin to open the office and search for activities that we can start offering (like pickle ball and a new Young Adult Ministry), I want to thanks those who worked so hard to keep the parish going through the last several months. I have to begin with Sandy, Scott and Michelle, who went above and beyond. They each worked very long hours, not only doing their own jobs, but picked up the duties of those we had to ask to stay home. I have to thank Carol, Maggie, Maureen, Michelle Storey, Katie, Fr. Chung, Fr. Tom and the other participants, who worked so hard at putting content online, so parishioners could continue to nourish their souls. I want to thank our three students. Even though their ministry plans had to be canceled along with so many other things, they energetically did whatever we asked them to do, especially helping with our liturgies and cleaning. I have to thank all of those parishioners who kept up with their financial contributions even through these difficult times. There are many others I need to thank as well. Those who helped whenever we needed something, like Dr. Kokx who so quickly built our new contribution box, and those who helped with the food trucks. One bad thing about thanking people is that there are always those you forget. If I forgot to thank you by name, know that it was due to my terrible memory and not because we did not appreciate what you did.

A parish relies on the talents of many people. In my experience, the more people who are involved, the more people who are willing to share their gifts and talents, the better the parish. Being able to offer more and varying ministries means a more vibrant parish that can meet the needs of a more diverse community. The more the parish is committed to the work of The Gospel, the more it is likely to attract new parishioners. The more its parishioners are committed to tithing and ministry, the less it has to worry about fundraising and the more time it can commit to proclaiming The Good News and building The Kingdom of God. At least for the foreseeable future, Covid-19 has changed the traditional look of The Church. We need to be creative in how we move forward and in how we continue to minister to one another and to the community around us. If you have any ideas please do not hesitate to share them. We cannot promise that we will do them all, but we do promise to discuss them and try the ones that we can. Stay safe and stay healthy, and please keep us in your prayers as we continue to pray for each of you.

In the Redeemer, Fr. Rick