Notes from the Pastor’s Pen – September 25, 2022

Thanks to all of you who have participated in the All Things New surveys and provided data and feedback over the past few months. The information has been enlightening, educational and fruitful as we continue to ask ourselves what our parishes, ministries and institutions need to look like in order to effectively share our Catholic faith in a way that is suitable and sustainable for our children and generations to come.

The next step in this multi-year process is to hear more robustly from you, our parishioners, about our parish. The Archdiocese of St. Louis will host over 350 listening sessions throughout our 178 parishes between October 8 – November 19, 2022. Our Parish Listening Sessions will be October 25 and 27 from 6:00– 8:00pm. You are invited to register for our listening sessions at https:// allthingsnew.archstl.org/.

Parishioners must register in order to attend a Listening Session. Registration will close once the designated room’s seating capacity is reached. There will not be additional opportunities for Listening Sessions other than the ones scheduled for each parish.

Each listening session, including ours, will be facilitated by volunteer parishioners from a different parish. These trained facilitators will share pre-recorded messages from Archbishop Rozanski and Fr. Chris Martin, Vicar for Strategic Planning, with an overview of All Things New, a planning area overview and multiple DRAFT model options to consider for our respective planning area. A brief time will be allowed for small group discussion and facilitated large group feedback.

The goals of the listening sessions are to engage as many of you as possible in understanding the current state of our parish and diocese and to solicit feedback from as many of you as possible about the DRAFT models options for their planning area. After the final listening session in each planning area, the Archdiocese of St. Louis will make public the content presented at all the parish’s Listening Sessions in that planning area and will offer an additional opportunity for parishioners to provide open-ended feedback through an online survey. The survey will remain open until December 31, 2022. Parishioner feedback to the models is critical, as it will be used to help shape the future of the Archdiocese of St. Louis.

In order for you to be fully prepared with accurate information before our parish listening sessions, you will receive access to our Parish Workbook.

The Archdiocese of St. Louis has created Parish Workbooks as a supplementary resource to help us prepare for the listening sessions. The workbooks are meant to equip us with data about the Archdiocese of St. Louis, our local planning area, and our specific parish. Our Parish Workbook is posted on allthingsnew.archstl.org for anyone to view.

Please continue to pray for the gift of true discernment so that we may continue to do the Will of God in all things.

Notes from the Pastor’s Pen – September 18, 2022

Priorities

Make a choice. God or money, material things, earthly pleasure. This is what Jesus asks us to do in today’s Gospel. The Pharisees and scribes, and many people, want it both ways. God and wealth. But Jesus knows that “no servant can serve two masters.” It is not that wealth is inherently bad, but the pursuit of it to the exclusion of what is good and righteous is. Our faith is meant to guide and shape the way we live. If we are followers of Jesus Christ, we will treat others, especially the poor and vulnerable, fairly and justly. We will live with devotion to God and let our lives speak the truth of God’s love for all. We will put first things first, or more precisely, put God and God’s ways first, assured that when we do, everything else will fall into place.

© J. S. Paluch Co.

Notes from the Pastor’s Pen – September 11, 2022

Relying of God’s Love

Imagine being among those who heard Jesus address the Pharisees and scribes in the encounter we hear in today’s Gospel: “What man among you having a hundred sheep and losing one of them would not leave the ninety-nine in the desert and go after the lost one until he finds it?” Would you leave ninety-nine in the desert in order to find one lost sheep? In the parable, Jesus is showing us the depths of God’s love, the illogical, incredible love God has for each of us. Moses counted on this loving mercy as he spoke for the wandering people; Saint Paul acknowledges his reliance on it in his letter to Timothy. God desires to draw you close, seeking you when you are lost. Are you ready to be drawn into God’s loving embrace?

© J. S. Paluch Co.