Our Shepherds, Our Future

Dear sisters & brothers in Christ,

I pray that you are blessed, as mother nature tries to decide what season it is. I have a few things to share with you. I would like to begin with thanking Sherri for her service to our parish as our receptionist/secretary. Sherri, if you have not heard, has decided to return to retirement. Personally, I can’t blame her. I pray that she has the time to do all the things she loves doing, especially those things she gave up in order to work here at the parish. One consistent compliment I received about her was her compassionate presence for anyone and everyone who called or came by the office. We will miss her, but luckily she isn’t going far. Please join me in wishing her well on her renewed retirement.

Sherri’s departure, of course, means a new receptionist/secretary. I want to welcome Samantha Jewett to our team. She has most recently been working with the Dominicans at Marywood, so she has some experience with religious orders, which is actually one of the reasons she applied for the job. Please join me in welcoming Samantha and praying that she gets settled in and finds a home amongst our staff and a place in our parish. Maggie is returning for a couple weeks so Samantha can focus on learning the position, and so, I want to thank her as well.

Another piece of news is that the diocesan capital campaign, “Our Shepherds, Our Future,” will very shortly be entering its third and final phase, which includes our parish. If you have not already received it, you will soon receive your letter from the bishop inviting you to participate in the campaign. We have about 15 people in the parish who have agreed to be ambassadors for the campaign. These people will be calling some of you on behalf of the parish and the bishop. In this age of screening calls with caller ID, I would ask that if you receive a call from a parishioner or the parish itself that you hear them out, after all, they are only doing what the bishop and I asked them to do.

I realize that we are in a bit of a unique situation with this particular campaign, which is focused on helping to increase the number of diocesan priest, as well as, take care of the retired clergy. Even if we do not benefit directly, we do benefit indirectly. The more priests there are in the diocese, the fewer help-out request we will receive, which means we can focus more of our time here at St. Al’s. Of course, it also benefits the mission of The Church at large, and offers the Sacraments to more people on a more regular schedule. While you here at St. Al’s are used to having several priests, and even a brother or two, most parishes these days have only one priest, who must serve the needs of the entire parish. Not to mention, the growing number of parishes in this diocese and throughout the country that do not have a priest assigned to them. So I would ask that you don’t look at the campaign in terms of how it will benefit St. Al’s, but how it will help The Church administer the Sacraments, preach the Gospel, and build the kingdom of God.

One new way for you to stay in contact is our increased presence on YouTube. We are hoping this will be less prone to issues than Facebook. It also has the benefit that you do not have to have an account to view YouTube. Another great benefit is that the video can be embedded into our Web Page, and so, in the future all you will need to do to watch our live-streamed liturgies and other events is go to our Web Page. We will be testing this over the next couple weeks, particularly during our weekday masses. If you would like to be amongst the first to watch them on YouTube and then give us some feedback on how it compares to our current streams, just send an email to the office with YouTube in the subject line and we will reach out to you. Thanks, and God bless!

In the Redeemer, Fr. Rick