Monday Message, June 12, 2023

KNOW

This will be the last Monday Message until either mid-August or early September, unless something comes up that we think you should know.

Tomorrow is our final parish leader check in until we take a break (from checking in). The link for the meeting is here. 

This week, our hope is to post an updated Act of Contrition for high school students and older middle school students. The ones we have set are great, but may not be in keeping with all that the 8th graders and high school students are facing. H/T to Fr. JG for his assistance here.

We are updating the calendar online and have refreshed the home page. We will continue to build out events.

We are hoping to have you a draft of the Standard Operating Procedures for faith formation before WYD (we depart on July 26, 2023).

If you missed the Confirmation memo from the Bishop, please find it here.

Carmela is out for the next two weeks. If you need anything, you can still email her and either PJD or DJD will respond. Please be patient. Though Carmela deserves a vacation, this isn’t it. She is at the Southeaster Pastoral Institute in Miami at an intensive Spanish school. Please pray for her (and us).

REFLECT

One more thought before we break.

Good ministry requires all of us: Parents who remember that they are the primary educators in the ways of faith – and church communities who give them the tools to accomplish this; coaches who see athletics as ministry, principals who are eager to work with youth ministry and faith formation leaders, ministry leaders who are anxious to work with each other, and pastors who see young people as a blessing to be cherished, not a problem to be solved.

Actually, that last one has to be true for all of us.

And we need to know our limits. We need to ask for help when we need it, and, as someone reminded me recently, we need to smile more often. Why in the world would someone want to be a Catholic if my faith in Jesus makes me so unhappy?

I’ve got “joy, joy, joy down in my heart…”

So far down, you can’t hear it, see it, and you wonder if it’s there at all.

And yet, I believe that we sit on the precipice of a new day in ministry in our diocese.

Together, we can do more.

Our families are counting on it.

Young people are counting on it.

The future of our Church depends on it.

When we gather again in September, you’ll know what I mean.

LAUGH