Dear Parishioners:
This time last year, we didn’t quite know what the coming year had in store for Saint Patrick Catholic Church & School. A new model of leadership with a lay Pastoral Coordinator, a team of three Jesuit priests to celebrate the liturgy and sacraments and the departure of a beloved pastor gave some cause for concern.
Following the Holy Spirit
But we kept our faith, realizing and trusting that God the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit remained present in this space, right here along with all of us. By keeping our faith in God and one another alive, we discovered that life goes on. We are making this new pastoral model work. We now know that we can “be church,” as Deacon Bill likes to say, and that we can do it quite well.
Grateful for Our Jesuit Priests & Our Deacon
We are grateful for our Jesuit priests and deacon who share with us reflections we haven’t necessarily heard before or in quite the same manner. Sometimes they ask us to look at the routine events of day-to-day living from new and different perspectives and encourage us to experience and understand a “heightened awareness” of God’s presence in everything around us.
Staff Rise to the Challenge
Our parish staff has also risen to the challenge of additional responsibility to provide the programs and guide the ministry groups that offer all of us the means and opportunities to become more deeply involved in our faith and relationship with Jesus.
Parishioners Respond to the Call
And you, our parishioners, have responded to the call for greater lay leadership of our parish. As Pastoral Coordinator, I coordinate people and resources. But it is you in the pews who do the heavy lifting of “being church,” just as Archbishop Sartain believed and trusted you would continue to do when he made this Pastoral switch. It is incredibly encouraging and uplifting to see all of us, clergy, staff and parishioners, accepting the responsibility to be the kind of parish that Jesus is calling us to be.
What Kind of Parish is Jesus Calling Us to Be?
Exactly what kind of parish is it that Jesus is calling us to be? After a year of gathering data and listening to parishioners, staff, ministry groups and councils our Parish Long Range Planning Team thinks Christ is calling us to be a parish that reflects the following:
We are a church who strives to live and act as Jesus lived and acted. We are a church who invites ALL to the table; to “come and see”; to encounter a caring God and caring community; full of love, mercy, compassion and hope. We are a church who encourages ALL, when they are ready, to row into the “deep waters” of our faith and personal relationship with Jesus and with each other. We are a church who ultimately forms disciples and journeys with them as we answer Christ’s call to proclaim the Gospel message that we ourselves are so blessed to have received at Saint Patrick Catholic Church.
Three Priorities
To become this kind of church, the Parish Long Range Planning team has identified three priorities, which our community will focus on over the next 2-3 years:
To Be Invitational
We should invite all to the table – to come and see, opening our doors to the lost, lapsed, down-trodden, or simply those curious about their faith. This is whom Christ invited to the banquet. This is whom we want to invite to our banquet.
To Be Encouraging
We should encourage those of us already at the banquet to row into deeper waters to continue to learn more about our and to discover how to live that faith beyond the hour we spend at Mass each weekend.
To Come Together and Grow
We should come together and grow as a community that shares the Good News of the Gospel with others, to be a community that evangelizes. This is a scary word for Catholics. I understand that. It scares me too. But if we feel truly blessed and grateful for the faith we have in our hearts here today, we must recognize it as an undeserved grace from God. He gave His love and mercy and forgiveness to us and now calls us to share it in our homes and with the world.
Responding to the Call of Christ
That’s why I love the theme that Chris Gavin and the school have adopted for this year. “Responding to the Call of Christ.” Exactly how we choose to respond to the Call of Christ is up to each of us. But together we can and will respond; empowered by the faith that Jesus is by our side.
Evangelize
Let me close by emphasizing that being the parish Christ calls us to be, means taking that first step to be invitational. That can happen on many levels. At its very basic level I would ask you to consider inviting someone to the table who might benefit from such an invitation. At a slightly higher level, consider inviting someone you already know at the table to venture into deeper water with you, whatever that may look like. And if you take this first step, you’ll soon realize that you are evangelizing and helping us grow our community into the parish Christ is calling us to be.
These are blessed times for Saint Patrick Parish. Let us show our gratitude through our actions – through our Response to Christ’s call.
Saint Patrick – Pray For Us!
Kevin Lovejoy
Pastoral Coordinator
This letter is an excerpt from Kevin Lovejoy’s presentation to the parish at all Masses the weekend of September 10 – 11, 2016.
Click below to listen to the full presentation he shared with the parish faith community in his annual presentation on the state of the parish and where the Holy Spirt is leading us.
By the Numbers
More details to follow in the coming weeks including a full 2015 – 2016 Annual Report.
