Pastor's Pen - April 3, 2016

One Sunday morning at a small southern church, the new pastor called one of the older deacons to lead in the opening prayer. The deacon stood up, bowed his head and said, “Lord, I hate buttermilk.”

The pastor opened one eye and wondered where this was going. The deacon continued, “Lord, I hate lard.” Now the pastor was totally perplexed. The deacon continued, “Lord, I ain’t to crazy about plain flour. But after you mix ‘em all together and bake ‘em in a hot oven, I just love biscuits.”

“Lord help us to realize when life gets hard, when things come up that we don’t like, whenever we don’t understand what You are doing, that we need to wait and see what You are making. After you get through mixing and baking, it’ll probably be something even better than biscuits. AMEN”

I am on my annual retreat as you read this bulletin. I have such extreme faith that on the other side of all this change there is such potential for these two communities to shine forth the Kingdom of God and to grow spiritually. This is going to take some faith, perseverance, tolerance, prayer, Prayer and PRAYER. That is exactly what I am doing for you (and myself) during my time away.

Every time we have met to discuss a strategic plan for the parishes in anticipation for moving from two priests for both parishes to one priest for both parishes we have invited the Holy Spirit to be mingled throughout the conversation. Our ultimate goal is to bring the Kingdom of God to all people the best we can while keeping in mind the limitations placed on us by the structure of one priest for both parishes. We have looked at and condensed meeting nights, we have looked at faith formation and done cross-parish opportunities for high school and adult faith formation, we have looked at other administration opportunities and have tweaked some and left others. We have looked to make some things the same (reports, policies, some liturgical procedures, etc.…) while respectfully leaving other things as they are so as to keep the flavor/identity of the parish. Many of these things you might not have noticed because they don’t necessarily affect you as a church going parishioner.

Now we have come to the one decision that affects everyone – the Mass Schedule. We have not taken this lightly; we have had very long and sometimes heated discussions. We have listened to people, researched other parishes, examined the results of the survey, and we have prayed A LOT.

Unfortunately, we cannot please everyone and that physically pains me. I try to project what people might think or feel about what they will hear. Everything from “Oh well, I love my parish and the community that I have here. I guess we will be adjusting our schedule to spend time with God and go to another Mass time here at our parish” all the way to “What were they thinking, they must be stupid, we’re leaving!”

I thank God for the former thinking and for the latter I ask, “Why did you come to your particular parish? Why did you become a member here? Was it for the welcoming atmosphere/the community? Was it for the Music? Was it for the school or faith formation opportunities? Was it for the beautiful Church and its environment? Was it for the priest?” My guess is that it could have been for many of these reasons and/ or for many others. My guess is that it was not for a particular Mass time?

So, my greatest prayer right now is that you will allow the Holy Spirit to move in you. That if you are of the latter mindset you will take some time to breath in the Spirit, try the new platform (for at least 6 months to a year). In the many discussions we had regarding the Mass times someone brought up the fact that we are able to get up and get ready for work and many have to have children ready for school before 8:00 Monday through Friday; can’t we do the same thing for God on Saturday or Sunday?

Please give this a chance and/or encourage other to do the same. We will continue to evaluate (just as we are with everything we are doing)

I just know that there can be great, amazing, glorious things on the other side of all of this if we work together, pray together, struggle together, pray together (yes, I know I already put that in there), laugh and cry together, pray together, and build a community that is bound by the Kingdom of God. And that is what will continue to bring people to join these amazing parishes, which will only make them even greater than they already are.

I’ve never prayed for people as much as I am praying right now. Please join me.

God Bless you ALLways!!!
St Paul and St Bruno…Pray for Us!!!

Fr. Chuck