Our Commitment is an Invitation for our Fellow Christians to Fulfill their Vocation

This week's bulletin column provided an introduction to the Constitutions of the Congregation of Holy Cross.

Staff changes in a parish occasion a long process of getting to know each other.  You’re getting to know your new priests and me, your soon-to-be-deacon, and we’re getting to know you.  You have an advantage, though: you know our family.  These parishes have been served by generations of religious of the Congregation of Holy Cross.  If our bonds of religious profession are serving as they should, meeting us should be like meeting the extended family of old friends.

The Light that Faith is

This week's bulletin column was my presentation of Pope Francis' first encylical, Lumen Fidei, to the parish.

You have been called by name.  That’s the conviction of Pope Francis, who recently released his first letter to the Church as Pope, called Lumen Fidei – “The light of faith.”  You have been called by name: the God who made heaven and earth beckons you, counts every hair on your head, offers a hand to pull you up when you’re wounded, offers His only Son so that He might be more perfectly in relationship with you.  “Faith,” the Pope tells us, “is our response to this.”

First Bulletin Column at the new parish

Here's a bulletin column I wrote for Holy Cross -- St. Stan's parish, introducing myself and thanking them for their welcome.

Dear parishioners,

Firstly, thank you for the wonderful welcome I’ve received!  For those I haven’t had the pleasure of meeting yet, I’m part of the new clergy team serving these two parishes.  I just finished my seminary studies back in May and over the coming year you will see me go from seminarian to deacon (in September) and then priest (in April).  I’m very excited to be beginning my ordained life in these parishes, becoming part of life here and gradually helping more and more to animate that life.  Some churches have signs up during construction saying “Please pardon our mess while we refurbish” – I think such a sign should probably be hung around my neck for at least a year!  As grateful as I am for my seminary formation, it is with, for and from you – the People of God in this place – that I will learn to be a priest.