It’s an honor to write to you as your new pastor for the very first time. The word “pastor” is Latin for “shepherd”, and I am humbled that the Archbishop has placed his trust in me to be the shepherd and spiritual father of All Saints. Throughout this past year, I’ve been praying about what the Lord has in store for us as a parish, how he wants us to grow, and how we can better follow him. Listening to all of you during this time has given me a sense of who we are as a community, where we’ve been, and what our hopes and dreams are for the future.
I was privileged to arrive at All Saints 15 months ago, just after we celebrated our 200th Anniversary. I’m reminded every day that we stand on the shoulders of those who have built this place and made it what it is today. Yet this moment represents a unique inflection point for us as a community. We are still at the dawn of our 3rd Century as a parish (not many in our Archdiocese can say that), and because of this, much of my prayer this year has centered around answering this fundamental question: what does All Saints Parish need to thrive for our 3rd Century?
Our History
In many ways, All Saints mirrors the trajectory of Catholicism in the United States as a whole. Our first century (much like the 1st Century or so of American Catholicism) was characterized by what I call “Immigrant Catholicism.” Immigrants, mostly from Europe, came to America and founded towns centered around their parish churches. Many of these parishes were comprised of a single ethnicity, a common diaspora from the “old Country” with the parish as a hub for community life. As many Catholic immigrants experienced discrimination in various circles, parishes served as a refuge and comfort for a community looking to be accepted in their new country. In many ways, All Saints fits this paradigm quite well. Our parish was founded by new immigrants who sought to give other immigrants a place to pray and be with God.
Fast-forward to the 2nd Century of Catholicism in America, and the emergence of “Cultural Catholicism”, where Catholicism became accepted by the wider culture. Catholics no longer had to worry about fitting in with the world around them, because the Church had “made it”, so to speak. Catholics began to take up positions of leadership, including the Presidency in 1961; the Catholic/Christian ethos was universally accepted across our culture as a common way of seeing the world around us; and Catholic themes were seen throughout movies and given prominent positions on TV (Bishop Fulton Sheen comes to mind). No longer having to worry about “fitting in”, Catholics began to move to the suburbs, seeking stability and a comfortable way of life. Once again, this 2nd Century of American Catholicism played out in much the same way in our parish as St. Peters transitioned from rural farmland to bustling suburbia. Thousands and thousands of Catholics moved to our area to build homes, raise families, and experience the American Dream.
As we enter this 3rd Century of Catholicism in America and All Saints, we now see that the world has vastly changed, even in just the last few decades. Cultural Catholicism is no longer a cultural needle-mover; in fact, the number of people who claim no religious affiliation in the US is now larger than the number of Catholics. Entire generations of people who have grown up with the faith have abandoned it; God no longer plays a meaningful part in their lives. The primary consequence of this is that we can no longer rely on the wider culture around us to help transmit the Catholic faith; in many ways, we are on our own, with no assistance from the world around us. The world is now actively working against us, rather than with us. If anything, our world resembles the pagan, Roman territory encountered by the Apostles more than it resembles Christendom. As such, we need to move from “Cultural Catholicism” to “Missionary Catholicism.” Missionary Catholicism represents a fundamental shift in our thinking, our mindset, and our strategy for handing on our faith. Simply put: to be Catholic today means being different from everyone else around us. How we see the world, how we spend our Sundays, what priorities are prominent in family life, what we watch on TV, how we raise our families—all the answers to these questions must be vastly different for the Catholic versus everyone else, or else the faith will not be handed on. I know that many families have experienced this firsthand. Many parents and grandparents tell me “Father, I did all the right things. I sent my kids to Catholic schools, we went to Mass on Sundays, but none of my kids practice the faith anymore. What did I do wrong?”—to which I say this: you did nothing wrong. The problem is, the world around us got crazier and crazier; and the things that could sustain life-long discipleship in prior decades are now insufficient for passing on the faith today. We’ve unfortunately seen this at All Saints in recent decades too; while our parish population has remained constant, we have less students in our school and our Mass attendance is down 31% in the last 15 years. All of this has occurred despite our parish doing some truly wonderful things on a day-in, day-out basis—the problem is, we haven’t adjusted and changed our approach to win this battle we face with the world around us. This is the challenge before us today—to adjust what we do to meet this moment as Catholics in the 21st Century.
To accomplish this conversion of heart and mind, I strongly believe that the very mission and vision of our parish need to stand at the heart of what we do. Institutions that have strong mission and vision thrive around those common pillars. For instance, if you were to walk into NASA Headquarters in the 1950’s and ask an employee “what do you do here”, each and every one would answer “I’m here to put a man on the moon.” From the engineers to janitorial staff, every single employee of NASA was focused on the singular mission of getting a man on the moon. Every endeavor, every proposal made within the organization was put up against the single question: “will this help us put a man on the moon, or not.” We need that same focus and purpose behind everything we do as a parish.
Our Mission
With that in mind, I would like to propose a new mission for All Saints Parish, one that can stand at the very heart of our parish and school as the single rallying point for everything we’re about, and that mission is simple: Following Jesus, Forming Saints. That’s why we’re here; that’s our one and only goal here at All Saints, nothing more, nothing less.
Following Jesus
We cannot lead our parish into its 3rd Century if we don’t know whom we follow—namely, Jesus Christ, and Him alone. Following Jesus means that we first know him as our Savior. This stands in stark contrast to how many in our world look at Jesus—as merely a nice guy, an historical figure, a charismatic leader, or a moral guide. Sadly, many baptized Catholics see Jesus in these terms; when this happens, we end up (in the words of Pope Leo XIV) “living in a state of practical atheism.” We must unambiguously confess, with St. Peter, “You are the Christ, the Son of the living God”—and follow Jesus with everything we have.
Following Jesus also means taking our lead from the Gospel, not popular opinion, and being boldly, proudly, and unapologetically Catholic. Each of us, by virtue of our baptism, must make the conscious decision to follow Jesus every day and resist the temptation to be hesitant or halfhearted in our adherence to Christ, His Church, and His teachings. As the 21st Century goes on, I am firmly convinced that believers will have to pay an ever-greater price to be Catholic—so we should present the whole Catholic faith in our parishes, (yes, even the difficult teachings) with no apologies or ambiguities, so that we can follow Christ more fully.
Following Jesus begins with each of us hearing the Gospel, but it doesn’t end there. After hearing and accepting the Gospel, it is our vocation as baptized Catholics to help others follow Jesus too! While parts of the Gospel seem antiquated or even controversial to some people nowadays, we know by faith that Catholicism contains within it the fullness of truth, the fullness of joy, and the fullness of life. We have in our faith the very thing our world needs the most. If that is our mindset, then our proclamation of the Gospel will be joyful, free of any confusion, and help others follow Christ too. Any evangelization that dances around difficult truths or doesn’t teach the Gospel in its fullness is not truly following Christ, and won’t bear fruit.
Forming Saints
Forming Saints starts by living a vibrant sacramental life animated by the Eucharist and daily prayer. The Eucharist and daily prayer help to form the human heart after the Sacred Heart of Jesus, and we need to center our parish around these sources of grace, especially as our world moves further away from God. One of the most troubling aspects of modern society is that increasing numbers of people believe that the visible world is all there is—that there is nothing beyond what they can see with their own eyes. As Catholics, we know this to be false! There is an infinitely greater world that we cannot see—and the Eucharist, in particular, helps us discover and enter into this unseen world. In the Eucharist, our eyes observe what is, by all appearances, mere bread and wine; but the eyes of the heart behold something deeper and more profound: the Body, Blood, Soul, and Divinity of Jesus Christ. In the same way, our worship should direct our hearts and minds to that unseen world. The Mass transports us from suburban St. Louis to the foot of the cross, from our everyday experience to Calvary itself; it takes us out of our ordinary lives for an hour on Sundays and lifts the heart and mind to things beyond our everyday experience. This encapsulates everything from our liturgical music, to how we go about following the rubrics and instructions of the Roman Missal. Beautiful worship moves the heart in ways we can scarcely imagine, and the Church is at her best when her worship is a source of beauty, piety, and prayer. So, the more Eucharist-centered our worship is, the more it will form us to be holy, because worship should not just be an encounter with one another, it should be an encounter with the living God.
Forming Saints doesn’t just take place at Mass for an hour on Sunday; it must fundamentally be at the heart of every parish and school event. For all the effort we put into so many good things (whether it’s works of mercy for the poor, giving people a tasty fish dinner on Fridays in Lent, or providing a good education), our Church building is not as full as it should be on Sunday mornings. We need to dramatically rethink what we devote our energy towards as a parish community and focus more of it on going and making disciples. Let me be clear, this does not mean that we should get rid of all our longstanding events and traditions—it just means that we need to do them with a mindset of “how does this event or ministry help others follow Jesus and become saints here at our parish.” If it does, fantastic! If not, then we need to figure out how it can, or potentially do something different that does. For example, a priest friend once struck up a conversation with a man at his parish fish fry. The man wasn’t Catholic, but his wife was. He told my friend, “Father, I’ve been to fish fry’s for over 30 years, but I’ve never been asked at any of them whether I wanted to become Catholic, whether I needed prayers, or even been invited to Mass.” For whatever the occasion, many people set foot on our parish grounds for a variety of events each week, and we need to impart to them the mission of our parish in everything we do—even if it’s within something as simple as a fish fry.
In short, I think these 2 pillars give us a wonderful blueprint for ministry here at All Saints. Yes, it might involve changing how we do some things, but I firmly believe a renewed mission and vision will bear tremendous fruit for our parish. Our new mission will allow us to refocus our efforts on what truly matters, explore new opportunities to nurture our parish, and help one another grow in union with God.
We are blessed with what I firmly believe is the most beautiful Church building in St. Charles County. Our steeple stands tall along I-70, serving as a beacon to those passing by that God is present here; our stained-glass windows illuminate our church with light and color each morning; our high altar lifts our hearts and minds to God in Holy Mass.
Yet, there are a number of important items that need addressing inside our Church building, especially if we are to maintain a place of beauty that draws others into relationship with God. I believe this represents a unique opportunity to not so much renovate, but truly restore our Church building to the fullness of its beauty and luster. As far as what needs to be addressed in the immediate future, I would boil them down to what I call, “The Big 5”.
Our carpet is showing its age and needs to be replaced. In addition, the tile underneath our pews is very old and needs replacing but has asbestos underneath it. These two situations present a unique opportunity to completely replace our church flooring, with either hardwood, vinyl, or tile. A Church as old and beautiful as ours deserves nicer flooring than what we currently have.
If there’s one suggestion/criticism that I hear most often from parishioners and guests about our church building, it concerns the state of our pews. They’re many decades old and in desperate need of replacement. Our kneelers are made entirely of wood, many are not in good shape, and overall, our pews are very close together, requiring most folks over 5’7 to put the kneeler down behind them. I’d like to replace the pews in our church building in the next few years, and I would be willing to sacrifice a row in the back of church to give us some more space in-between each row of pews. I’m also interested in using the original pews in the choir loft as templates for what our new pews could look like.
Our Church interior needs to be re-painted. As many of you have noticed, we have a growing amount of paint that is chipping around the Church (some of it is probably cracked plaster too). As part of this effort, I’ve been examining our archives to find out what our previous paint-designs were. Many people don’t realize that our Church building didn’t always have the beige color scheme it currently has; it used to be much more ornate and colorful. So, I’d like to see what can be done to restore the paint to an older color scheme, one previously in use here at All Saints.
Our confessionals need to be replaced. They’re not the most practical confessionals in the world, cramped with very little air-flow, not very sound proof and (most importantly) not very handicap accessible. There are all kinds of ways to effectively lay out confessionals, and I’m interested in seeing how they can be improved to make them quieter, more beautiful, more comfortable, and more accessible too.
I’d like to see what can be done about bringing back our sanctuary rail. It’s an important part of our parish’s history and was present in our Church for generations. We have roughly half of it down in the rectory basement, but the rest has been repurposed into other liturgical furnishings. While I don’t think it’s physically possible to put all those specific pieces back together, I would like to bring the sanctuary rail back as a way of emphasizing the beautiful sanctuary of our Church. Ours is a Church building where people walk in and expect to see a sanctuary rail.
These projects will require substantial investment by the parish and perhaps, a small capital campaign. However, I firmly believe that this investment is worth it if our Church is to maintain its beauty and grandeur as it should. My hope is that in the next 4-6 years, we can commence these projects (hopefully getting them done in one fell swoop) and give our church building a strong foundation for the next 50-100 years.
Two “Pipe Dream” Ideas
Beyond “The Big 5”, there are 2 other projects that I’ve thought a lot about in recent months. I would specifically classify these as “pipe dreams” rather than “urgent needs”, but I feel they’re worth mentioning as part of my wider vision for our parish and our mission going forward.
First, I would love to have a Eucharistic Adoration Chapel here at All Saints. As I said in Part 1 of my letter, the Eucharist is the source and summit of our Catholic faith, and we need more opportunities to adore Jesus in the Blessed Sacrament than just an hour per week. I also believe that a Eucharistic Adoration Chapel will foster vocations to the priesthood and religious life, as well as promote Eucharistic devotion among our school students. I see Eucharistic devotion as an area where we have room to grow as a parish, and an adoration chapel will do a lot to make that happen. Ideally, an Adoration Chapel would be accessible to both parishioners and our school students, because I want our students to have more opportunities for Adoration than what they currently have. As I see it, the ideal location for such a chapel would be the current music room (which would require us to move the music room to another location). With enough support from our parish, though, it’s something I’d love to pursue, if the stars aligned.
Second, if the opportunity presented itself, I would love to add a lobby along the length of our Church that faces the main parking lot, from the sacristy door all the way to the back of the Church. The reasons for this are numerous. I know that our church building is beloved by our entire parish family, as it should be! We need only look at the discussions in prior decades about building a new church, and how every time, our parishioners soundly rejected the idea in favor of staying where we are—which is not a bad thing! However, I believe our parish could benefit from a lobby in a number of ways. We could have substantially more space for funeral visitations; add a bridal room for weddings; have an area where parents could bring their children who are having trouble sitting still, all while having the Mass piped in via the sound system; we would be able to congregate after Mass regardless of the weather; and we could add more bathroom facilities than what we currently have. I say all this from personal experience: my home parish, St. Ferdinand, added a lobby about 12 years ago, and it was an absolute game changer for the parish. A lobby would preserve our Church’s current layout, while adding much needed space to meet our modern needs—quite literally, the best of both worlds.
Our Parish School
Part of our proud history as a parish concerns our parish school. Our school building dates back to the early 1900’s and has served thousands of students for over a century. This past school year, however, we were down to 123 students in our K-8 program, a 40% decline in just the last 8 years, and a culmination of a significant decrease in enrollment over the past few decades. In spite of all these headwinds of prior years, I’m thrilled to share that our school’s enrollment for the 2025-2026 school year currently stands at 137 students in our K-8 program, an increase of over 13%!!! Pre-school is full as well! While this only represents one year of data, there are several reasons why I’m optimistic that our school has turned a corner, and is on the road to a more sustainable future.
So, in brief, here is where things stand with our parish school:
We still have work to do to achieve long-term sustainability, challenges that must be addressed by our entire parish community, and I don’t want this year’s enrollment increase to lull us into a false sense of security. Our biggest challenge in recent years has been retaining our students year over year. Retention improved dramatically this year, but we need to keep that momentum going in the years ahead.
A Catholic school exists to serve the greater mission of the parish, not the other way around. If a school becomes financially unsustainable and threatens the financial health and mission of the parish, then a pastor has a duty to preserve the parish first, no question about it. More on our school’s finances can be found later in this letter (spoiler alert, it’s good news!). That being said…
I sincerely and firmly believe we are moving in the right direction with our school, guided by the leadership of our principal, Dr. Melvin Bishop, and our wonderful faculty. Their steady hands have hopefully helped us turn a corner towards long-term viability. Right now, our 6th and 7th grades are by far our smallest grades, and we have high confidence that our future Kindergarten classes will remain robust, creating opportunities for significant growth in the next few years, provided we retain our current students through 8th grade. All Saints’ ideal school size is 225 students, K-8, and I believe that we can get our enrollment to 160 or more in just the next 4-5 years if Kindergarten remains strong and our retention continues to improve. This will take time, effort, and work on the part of all of us, but I firmly believe it’s possible.
Following Jesus, Forming Saints stands at the heart of my vision for our parish school. Catholic schools should not just teach our students but truly form them. We embrace the concept that the moral and spiritual formation of our children is far more important than any academic instruction they will ever receive; because, at the end of the day, the most important subjects aren’t reading, writing, and arithmetic, but the lessons taught concerning our Catholic faith. Every facet of a Catholic school should proclaim the Gospel and instill a Catholic vision for the world into the hearts and minds of our students. This means we must distinguish ourselves more and more from the public schools around us, because at the core of Catholic education is a way of looking at the world that stands in stark contrast to secular society. So, for instance, a truly Catholic school must embrace truth, not relativism; must see individuals as the creation of God and not merely members of identity groups; and must uphold the dignity of all human life from conception to natural death, regardless of the values of popular culture. These are just a few ways that Catholic schools stand out, and how All Saints should stand out in the future.
On a practical level, I believe our school can grow by a more frequent participation in the life of our parish, and the sacraments as a whole. For instance, I’ve already added more times for confession for our students, because, let’s be honest, they need to go more often than just twice a year (frankly, we ALL need to go more than twice a year, but that’s a conversation for a different time). I’m also working on a comprehensive list of prayers that I’d like our students to have memorized at various grade-levels. In addition, I also believe our students should be attending Eucharistic Adoration and praying the Rosary or Divine Mercy Chaplet in class on a more regular basis.
On the financial side of things, our school is what I would describe as “significantly better than average.” There is not a single Catholic grade school in America that breaks even on the year, so money from the weekly offertory must go over to the school to make up for what tuition doesn’t cover—we call this the “parish subsidy.” In St. Louis, a healthy range of parish subsidy is between 20-30% of the Sunday offertory (what I call the “green zone”); however, there are a number of parishes whose subsidies are over 50% (what I call the “red zone”). When a parish subsidy is this high, it handcuffs the parish’s ability to perform essential parish functions, with significantly less money available for things like evangelization and basic upkeep of facilities. All this being said, our parish subsidy at All Saints was 29% this past year, equating to $387,000. This is the first time in a while that our school subsidy has ended up in the “green zone”, and I’m so grateful for the work of our parish and school staff to keep costs low while maintaining a high quality education for our students. If our enrollment continues to increase as we hope it will, then our subsidy will decrease even more. A lower parish subsidy means that our school will (hopefully) be in an even healthier position in years to come.
In this final part of my Pastoral Letter, I want to share some reflections on the future of our parish—specifically, what we as parishioners can do today to plant seeds for our parish’s growth in the years to come. I’ve always believed that a good pastor is called to pour himself out for the people entrusted to him, while also keeping an eye on what will come down the road. This is a balancing act, to be sure, but it would be foolish for us to not think about the future. The greatest hockey player of all time, Wayne Gretzky, is famous for saying “I skate to where the puck is going to be, not where it has been.” We need this same future-focused approach as a parish, particularly in how we plan for new parishioners in the next few years. Every parish needs young families to repopulate its pews and keep the flame of faith alive. To plant those seeds, we need the soil and environment of our parish to be as conducive as possible to the growth that new families can bring. Now, let me be clear: this does NOT mean that we neglect our longstanding, existing parishioners for ministry or care! It just means we must always be thinking ahead, so that All Saints can be well positioned for growth down the road. Every parishioner can contribute to this enrichment!
So what can we do as a parish today to plant the seeds for future growth in the years to come? How can we make our parish a place that is fertile ground for young Catholics who want to raise their families in the faith? To start, I think one of the biggest mistakes we can make is thinking that the future parishioners of All Saints will be exactly like the ones we have right now; that 20 years from now, our parishioners will want the exact same things and have the same concerns as parishioners today. I believe this is a mistake because, while we all share a common profession of faith and have the same collective goals, each and every generation brings their unique experiences, struggles, joys, and concerns to Christ and the Church—and every parish needs to meet that cultural moment to bring the Gospel to a new generation in a clear and compelling way. This is a very humbling thing to admit, to be sure: that what worked in the past might not be what the Church needs today. It’s not easy to put ourselves in the shoes of a different generation, whose worldview and concerns could vary quite differently from our own. Yet, if our parish is to attract new families in the future, I believe we must read the signs of the times, understand where young Catholics are coming from, ponder what they’re looking for in our faith, and discern what it means for our parish.
As far as what Millennial and Gen Z Catholics are looking for, I can only speak from my experience as a 33-year-old and through my work with young adults over the years, but in my experience, today’s young adults have grown up in what I would call a “liquid society” characterized by constant change and instability. Catholics in their 30’s came of age with the dawn of the internet, 9/11, undeclared war, clerical sex-abuse, the smartphone, the financial crisis, recession, social change and COVID–just to name a few. This “liquid society” also professes that we can only be happy when we’re able to do what we want, when we want it, and sees morality and limits as oppressive to our individual autonomy. Young adults have also had to navigate anxiety, depression, and other mental health struggles brought upon by addictions to drugs, social media, and pornography, all while experiencing higher rates of broken homes and family breakdown. It is a generation that is seemingly more connected than ever yet experiences an epidemic of loneliness; a generation of people searching for meaning but not knowing where to find it. While every generation experiences the world changing around them, the reaction to change by this generation of young people has been significantly different than the reactions of generations past: today’s young adults are increasingly dissatisfied with the promises of the world around them. They have tasted and tried everything the world has said will make them happy, and they have been found wanting.
So, it might be surprising to hear that in recent years, despite these struggles, young adults have been converting to Catholicism in increasing numbers. For instance, this past spring, France registered over 10,000 adult baptisms at their Easter Vigils across the country—their largest number in recorded history—in one of the most secular, post-Christian nations in the Western World. Closer to home, All Saints now has 26 adults and 11 children in OCIA to be brought into the Church next Easter, our largest number in decades, and over 75% of the adults are between the ages of 18-35! These are fantastic developments that should make us hopeful for the future of the Church!
Something is happening in the hearts and minds of young people in the Western world—and it would be foolish for us to not try and catch this wave that is moving in the world today. However, if we were to stop and ask “why” so many young adults are drawn to Catholicism today, we’ll find that the reasons for it might not be what we expect.
For instance, today’s young Catholics are far more likely than other age groups to embrace the Church’s ancient traditions and time-tested practices because of their longevity, symbolism, reverence, and stability. They see the Church’s traditions as a heritage to rediscover, and a treasure chest with long-lost riches inside, waiting to be opened. Traditions that some might consider to be “old fashioned” (such as choosing to receive Communion on the tongue, reciting the St. Michael Prayer, singing the Salve Regina, etc…) are now immensely popular and mainstream for younger Catholics—most especially at Newman Centers on college campuses, believe it or not! Whether it be in Sacred Music, liturgy, Church design, or other personal pieties, there is a sense that, for young Catholics, “what’s old is new again.” They want a Church that doesn’t just see itself as one path among others, but one that is compelling and countercultural. They prefer a Catholicism that is challenging and strange, rather than easy and accessible. They want a faith that doesn’t just pander to the world but speaks the truth with boldness and conviction. Young parents are also looking to the Church for objective, concrete, clear answers to the questions which dominate modern life: What is a person? What is the meaning of my life? Why do I suffer? Is there such a thing as truth? Young people are drawn to the Church, and specifically her traditions and history, because they stand as a 2,000-year bulwark against the chaos of the world that we’ve become accustomed to. As one priest in New York City recently said in a news article, “the most common impetus of young adults becoming Catholic is that they realize the world cannot provide them with any moral order, or reasons for living in any particular way. A culture of license has left them unmoored.”
This is what young adults are now searching for in Catholicism. It’s why young Catholic families look for timelessness in our faith, rather than innovation; stable footing to raise families, rather than shifting customs; and an unshakable moral foundation that can withstand the constant changes of the world around us, rather than “getting with the times.”
I say all this because we often think that young people only want the freshest and most modern approaches to religion–but I’ve found this to be definitively false when it comes to our Catholic faith. The parishes that are growing the most in our Archdiocese and around the country are the parishes that embrace the priorities mentioned above. If we want to attract new families to our parish and school, then we can’t be afraid to think along these lines. If we’re looking for “where the puck is going to be”, to quote Wayne Gretzky, then I think this is a good place to start. I also believe All Saints is uniquely positioned for future growth in both our parish and school. We have an over-200-year history, a tremendous location, and a beautiful Church building—all things working in our favor—provided we’re willing to till the soil and plant the seeds for what will grow in the future.
To conclude, I firmly believe that our parish has a wonderful opportunity to Follow Jesus, and Form Saints. I’m excited to have shared these ideas with all of you in this Pastoral Letter, and can’t wait to see what we accomplish together as we enter our 3rd Century as a parish. While this will not be easy, we know that the saints themselves are watching over us. In every age, when the Church and the world faced great challenges that threatened our faith, it was the saints who provided inspiration and intercession for the work of salvation. God gave the saints to Holy Mother Church as the answer to the problems she faced in prior centuries–and he is still inspiring and raising up saints in our own time. I pray that we can see sanctity and sainthood as the purpose of our lives both individually and collectively as a parish. This is why we’re here on this earth, after all: so that we can eventually spend eternity in union with God, our loving Father.
In this endeavor, though, I know I can’t do this alone. I need your counsel, advice, encouragement, trust, and (most importantly) your prayers. Know that I pray for you daily, and especially at my weekly Mass that I offer for all of you. Please do not be afraid to come to me if you have an idea, a thought, or even a question or concern; my door is always open. I’m here as your pastor to love you with a shepherd’s heart, and that begins by listening and being attentive to your needs as parishioners.
May God bless you and your families as we strive to Follow Jesus and Form Saints together!