FM's Message | Sunday, September 18th, 2022

We have many programs starting up in our parish this fall. I am pleased to say that—after a lot of advertising—the Alpha program began with a good group of people. We hope our guests who are participating are moved to continue, then become part of the Alpha team, and eventually be involved in other ministries. We have several people who are just discovering Jesus, the Father, and the Holy Spirit. One of the participants was baptized in a hospital, miraculously lived, and now is preparing for a life of faith through Alpha and the RCIA program. We can see how this program is having a constant growth effect on the parish. I thank God we are continuing to see the action of the Holy Spirit in our leadership, the team, and our guests.
Shortly, we will start other programs for those who are already on our path of discipleship. We hope that the Marriage Course and the Prayer Course, hosted by parishioners and staff, will have a positive effect on the lives of our parishioners. Jesus gave us a vision statement: Go out to the whole world and baptize, teach, and make disciples. This is our vision and purpose too.
Lately, I have been working with a small team of parishioners to expand the vision of the parish. On the front page of the bulletin, we invite people to “be welcomed, to be healed, and to belong.” A small expansion of that is to: Proclaim the Gospel message and healing love of Jesus Christ inside and outside of the Church.
It is imperative that we remember we are outward facing all the time. Why? In the Acts of the Apostles, this was their constant practice in the early Church, and shown also in stories throughout the New Testament. The apostles were always looking to add new members. This was during the most anti-Christian environment we can imagine, and yet the efforts of the members were to pray together, preach together, and add new members. And they did it with extraordinary success and with the power of the same Holy Spirit that we have received. During Alpha, we call down the Holy Spirit to come and change the hearts and lives of our guests. This is a parallel experience to that of the earliest Christians.
We hope our mission helps us to fulfill our vision. We want to be the parish that people come to meet and experience the love of Jesus, be in relationship with Him in prayer and the sacraments, and as His disciples, go out to the world and share that experience and relationship with others. It is a lot like the mission statements of Jesus. From time-to-time in the Gospels, Jesus laid out a plan, and we will use his example to help us stay on the path that we have set for ourselves and that is in line with the will of God.
One of the primary visual moments for Jesus was when He called to the apostles to follow Him as His disciples. He did this with small groups and that too is part of our ongoing plan for the parish. Lately, we have been preparing to expand our small groups, including what and how they study. This is to prepare us to be a parish that can receive new people, accept them, and then help them to grow with us as disciples. We are looking for leaders of small groups and we hope our present groups will continue to feel supported and thrive.
One of the untapped charisms of our faith that we receive in baptism is leadership. (The royalty of Christ, alongside being priestly and prophetic, we are anointed kings/queens. We will look at this next week.)

Peace,
Father Murray
 
Building news:  We continue to make small efforts to prepare our church for the future. This week, we continue to work on the sound system and to upgrade the microphones so they can be heard around the entire church. We are also getting an estimate to restore the woodwork in the foyer in the side entrance. The work will be to lightly scrape and then polyurethane the wood to return its shine. We will then buy pieces of measured glass to put down to protect the wood in the future. This will allow us to have live plants that need watering year-round.