With Labor Day marking the unofficial end of summer three short weeks ago, our parish has exploded into action! Our school opened on 7 September, our Parish Pastoral Council met on 8 September, a training was held for the new members of school’s Board of Limited Jurisdiction on 9 September, a study of the Book of Genesis started on 11 September, our Youth Group held its first fall gatherings on 12 September, our Finance Council met on 13 September, we had our first Walking with Purpose meeting and Men’s Evening of Reflection on 14 September, our Mothers of Young Children celebrated its Opening Mass and our Evangelization Team met for the first session of its final module on 15 September, our Bible Study/Faith Sharing resumed on 16 September and our Home & School Board hosted our first parish coffee last Sunday. Fall CYO sports (cross country, football and volleyball) are in full swing and so many other parish activities are beginning, once again, to draw our faith community together. After being apart for so long due to the ongoing coronavirus pandemic, we are cautiously but with great excitement and enthusiasm resuming our mission of growing as God’s family here in our parish.
As we continue our mission, it’s important to keep focused on what’s most important. So, once again, for the third time since I have been with you, we have begun to develop a Parish Pastoral Plan. Those of you in the business world know the importance of developing a five- or ten-year plan to help you to grow your business. Although we are not a business but a faith community, I think you can see the wisdom of developing a similar plan for our parish, especially now as we strive to navigate this turbulent time of a worldwide pandemic. As you have read over the past several months, ours is one of 15 parishes in the Archdiocese of Philadelphia that have been invited to partner with Catholic Leadership Institute in introducing to our archdiocese its new initiative called the Next Generation Parish. One of the first things we need to do is develop a Parish Priority Plan, very similar to the Parish Pastoral Plans that our Parish Pastoral Council have developed and introduced in past years. We will be working on this Parish Priority Plan over the next several months so I ask that you keep the Envisioning Team, comprised of our Parish Pastoral Council and a few other key parishioners, in your prayers.
Tomorrow, I will meet with the Parish Worship Committee. There, I will remind the members that we are first and foremost a worshiping community. The primary purpose of any parish is to introduce its parishioners to Jesus who draws us together to worship our heavenly Father as we prepare ourselves to be with God forever in heaven. And, our liturgies must lead people closer to God and each other. Liturgies are not forms of entertainment where the priest and other ministers perform and everyone else just watches but rather celebrations in which everyone is invited to participate by joining in prayer and song, listening attentively to the readings and responding when called to do so. So, through the Worship Committee, we discover how we can best make people feel welcome and encouraged to take an active part in the various liturgical and paraliturgical celebrations that are offered throughout the year: Sunday and weekly Mass, weekly adoration and Benediction as well as weekly Charismatic Prayer Services, the annual Holy Week Services and Forty Hours Eucharistic Devotions, seasonal Stations of the Cross, etc. It is from our encounter with God as his community of faith that we go forth to make his presence known and felt in the larger community. “Go, and announce the Gospel of the Lord,” is my favorite farewell as Mass comes to an end.
In fact, as we heard proclaimed so clearly in the second reading from the Letter of James two Sundays ago, “faith of itself, if it does not have works, is dead” (Ja, 2:18). Our worship leads us to follow Christ’s example of reaching out into the community to demonstrate God’s love for all. So many of you demonstrate your awareness of this essential aspect of our faith in many ways, both through parish organizations and activities and on your own. And, you have surely learned that you can’t get involved in everything at once; you just don’t have the time and energy to do so! The same is true for us as a parish. We need to use our resources wisely so that the most important work is tended to first. That’s why we need a plan and the Parish Envisioning Team will be developing such a plan.
Naturally, all of this is possible only if we have the resources to accomplish it. You are the greatest resource that the parish has and I thank those of you who have offered your time, talent and treasure to the various parish organizations, programs and activities over the years for contributing to make this a vibrant and healthy parish. I invite those of you who have not yet gotten involved or would like to get even more involved to do so!
And, like in any home or business, we need to manage our financial resources well. I want to take this opportunity to thank those of you who have continued to offer such strong financial support to your parish. Our parish Sunday collections, annual Stewardship Collection and the school’s Annual Fund Drive continued to be strong through the pandemic and I ask that you continue your generous support.
Yes, we are a people of strong faith and great resiliency and we will continue to grow as God’s community, drawing ever closer to Jesus and leading others to him, gathering to worship God, experiencing his love and care for us, welcoming all others who share our faith and reaching out to help those in need. Let us keep up our excitement and enthusiasm with which we have begun this extraordinary year and continue to work together as we build up God’s kingdom right here in St. Katharine of Siena parish!