40th Anniversary Thanks
This past summer we began planning our 40th Parish Anniversary. As we discussed and surfaced ideas, we as a staff thought that this milestone celebration should be our gift to YOU as parishioners and supporters of our mission here at Holy Family. Mentioning specific names for thanks would certainly result in overlooking anyone of our staff members and volunteers. So, I would simply like to thank our ENTIRE staff for planning and hosting our 40th Anniversary last weekend and all of the ways that led up to the celebration.
Advent – Growth Begins
We begin Advent 2024 this weekend, but we begin the Advent of our future as well. Advent ushers in a new liturgical year every year and our Be More Movement of Growth will usher in an initiative to sustain our future.
This Advent we will be guided by the Gospel of Luke, the most inclusive of the four. Luke acknowledges and celebrates the role of women more than the other four evangelists. The entire Gospel is written as a journey to Jerusalem and one of the capstones at the end is the story of the two disciples walking away from Jerusalem to a town called after Jesus has died. At the end of the story, they return to Jerusalem with burning hearts. What happened in between?
What occurred was they recognized Jesus in the breaking and sharing of the bread. A strong Eucharistic story. But the way Jesus broke open the scriptures for them began to make their hearts burn. This story has already laid a groundwork for our Be More Movement of Growth. This movement is a link between our past and our future here at Holy Family.
This is not a plan; it is a movement. My hope is that it will include ALL of you in two key pillars; the Synodal Conversations in the Spirit and Eucharistic Renewal.
Please take some time to familiarize yourself with the Synodal Process. I know it sounds like a fancy church term, but please take the time to learn about it and how our Pope Francis is using it to proceed with important issues and plans for our universal church.
The Synodal Process is for small groups of 6-8 people to discuss, but more importantly to LISTEN to each other. It gives all members authority and input and surfaces a common voice, which we really believe is the voice of the Holy Spirit. A voice we trust will help us grow.
Our parish Leadership Team has already surfaced certain objectives for these conversations to focus on and some groups have begun already. My hope is to engage small groups of all parish constituencies as well as groups that are not part of the parish, those alienated from the church, as well for feedback and concerns for us so that we may LISTEN and form strategies to accomplish one goal – to grow both spiritually and numerically.
The second pillar is Eucharistic Renewal. We are so blessed as Catholics to be grounded in sacred Sacramental moments and the most sacred is our belief in Christ’s REAL presence in the Eucharist. As we begin to address renewal of this Sacrament, let us be reminded that the documents of the Second Vatican Council proclaim that Christ is present in the Eucharist in four ways:
• The People Gathered –
We seek to grow as we gather more people
• The Proclamation of God’s Word in Scripture –
We seek to grow in appreciation for our story of faith
• The Elements of Bread and Wine –
We seek to grow as the Body of Christ and in
Christ’s eternal covenant
and
• The Person of the Priest – We seek to grow as God’s priestly people rooted in our Baptism
Investigating how we might renew our experience of the Eucharist, mostly at Mass, and genuinely LISTENING to each other for common strategies to help us grow – spiritually and numerically – we hope to build a new reality of church here at Holy Family and beyond. We have been uniquely vibrant and relevant for 40 years. TOGETHER let us grow even more vibrant and relevant as a community for 40 more years and beyond.
Our GROWTH BEGINS now.