Greetings in Christ! We are now officially in what the Church calls “Ordinary Time.” This is a short stretch between the end of the Christmas Season and the beginning of Lent. It’s crazy how quickly Lent is sneaking up on us!
You may not remember, but every year I serve on a Catholic Marriage cruise and that is coming up as well. I give talks, pray Mass, emcee the events and all sorts of other things. It’s not a vacation, as I’m working pretty hard during the days, but it really is nice to be in the sun so I’m happy to do it! This year I’ll be leaving on Friday the 26th of January and returning on the 4th of February.
I have finally finished writing all my thank you notes from Christmas. I hope to get them all addressed and in the mail soon. Thank you for your many cards, letters and gifts…I was lovingly overwhelmed.
I would like to continue our update, as I probably will for the next couple weeks.
This last year I began my term serving as Dean for our region of the Lansing Diocese. Almost every week I am driving to one of the 12 parishes in my Deanery and meeting with the priest there and working with him. I’m learning a lot and hoping to move our region toward a more cooperative-based model. All parishes have needs that they cannot meet on their own, but together I feel like we could accomplish a lot. Beyond that, I’m praying with and for priests, offering advice, passing on ideas to the diocese, etc. It’s a lot, but I think it’s necessary.
One of the things confronting priests and parishes right now is the resources get thinner and the obligations get heavier. As your pastor, I have been working hard, reading a lot of books and going to some seminars on how to get us all functioning in a way that is healthy and holy. The fruit of all the reading, prayers and conferences has been an effort to focus us on why we exist and what we do. To that end, I would like to share with you what we, as your parish, are committed to.
We’ll start with the whole “Why We Exist,”
Holy Family Catholic Church exists to worship God, to grow in love and knowledge of the faith, to help those who are in need and to share this faith with others.
I’d love for us all to keep this in mind. It is our guiding star as the people who serve you. So much is asked of us that people want us to do, but it’s important for us to keep our eyes on why we exist. In staying faithful to these principles, I believe we are staying faithful to the call of Jesus.
For those of us who are serving you in the parish, we are committed to striving to be: Prayerful, Humble, Joyful and Team Oriented.
These are principles that are core to our identity. We cannot simply say “Holy Family is where I work,” we are, by working here, embracing an identity as people working within the Church. These four traits are vital and utterly necessary to keep us from being just a business or a baptized clique.
These ideas pertain to how we relate to you, our parishioners, and each other. In terms of our goals as workers in relation to our duties, we are committed to the following:
Being good stewards of what we have been given.
Being prudent with our resources.
Respecting ourselves, others and our mission.
Acting as part of a whole.
So, please keep these ideas in your heart. As the people who serve you at Holy Family, we will work hard to keep us accountable to those ideas. We will not be perfect, but we will strive. You’ll see these three sets of principles on signs around our campus. These are reminders for all of us so that we have standards that we see, remember, and fight for.
Thank you for taking the time to read all of this. I will continue our updates over the next few weeks! Jesus bless you all. Thank you for letting me be your priest.
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