Happy Thanksgiving, all!
Today (and everyday!) I thank Jesus for you all. I simply love praying with you and for you. There are times as a priest where I might struggle with what the Church asks of me, but no matter how worried I get, I know I’ll find joy when we pray Mass together.
I thank God for your kindness, for putting up with my many limitations and for your generous response to our call to care for our parish and the vulnerable in our community. I’m so terribly blessed to be your priest. I also want to make you aware of what I believe the next step for our parish family is. It’s a call to focus on who we are, why we are and how we are.
For the last few years, I’ve spent a tremendous amount of time and prayer working on and praying about statements that will help us remember and focus on our mission. I’ve finished with these, prayed and discerned them with my team and want to share them with you.
Holy Family Exists to:
1. Worship God
2. Grow in Knowledge and Love of the faith
3. Care for those in need
4. Draw others to Christ
As employees and volunteers, we seek to:
1. Be good stewards of what we have been given
2. Be prudent with our resources
3. Respect ourselves, others and our mission
4. Act as part of a whole
As members of the Holy Family Team, we strive to be:
1. Prayerful
2. Humble
3. Joyful
4. Team oriented
So, I share this for a few reasons. One is to make you aware of our operating principles as a parish. We will put these on posters and signs throughout our Worship area, our school, our office…it’s a reminder and a challenge to all of us each time we come together to remember who we are and why we are. I’ll have more on this later. Thank you for taking the time to read this and pray about it.
I thank God for you all.
Fjk