Monday Message, May 23, 2022
KNOW
Mark your calendars for two great events you will not want to miss.
First, all parish faith formation leaders (DRE/CRE/YM) are invited to join us for a face-to-face gathering to finally check off a few things from our to do list.
- Final document on record retention
- Discuss bishop’s corrections/additions to sacramental norms
- LEAD orientation for new features
- Onboarding new parish faith formation leaders (Announcement of new program)
- Discuss Catechist-onboarding
- Conversation about parish family handbooks
- Discuss potential BRED-Institute collaboration
All of that will happen at Holy Spirit Church (Holy Family Hall) on June 9th from 10 am to 3 pm. Email Carmela if you can attend all or part of the day.
Then, to celebrate the end of the year, all are welcome on June 23rd for our second annual Wine Down, beginning at 5:30 pm at the Donovan home. Email Carmela for directions and to RSVP.
Finally, don’t forget that People of Hope is wrapping up this week. Have you tuned in yet?
REFLECT
I had the great honor of attending a meeting the other day with some of those faithful men and woman who have been serving our diocese for more than 30, 40, and even 50 years. Though some are retired, there is no shortage of energy in moving the Church – and its efforts to form others in the faith – forward. Sure, it’s nice to reminisce, but this group kept bringing the conversation back to today, eager to build on their collective past to create a future others will envy.
“What do we do today to help those who struggle in their faith?”
“How so we spread the faith today?”
“How can we help others who are called to lead others in faith formation?”
I had to laugh at their comments about the past: the songs they had learned in an effort to inspire young children, the activities they have repeated through the years to encourage others to think differently about reconciliation, sin, and salvation, and the speakers they have welcomed so they, as leaders, could always be challenged to do more, give more, share more.
When I was driving back to the office, I kept thinking of the hundreds of thousands of young people these great men and woman have brought to faith. They are the ones who sought the lost, managed the parents, and collaborated with pastors – to bring us to where we are today.
May God bless them for their perseverance and may we work together to welcome the next generation of leaders into the fold.
LAUGH
