Dear Parish Family,

Good intentions require follow through. Out of respect for our freedom, desiring to do God's will is a necessary precondition to actually carrying out His will. But desire alone is not enough. We need to act on our good intentions to bring the presence and peace of Christ to our world. The son who did the Father's will in today's Gospel is the one who initially said no (he didn't desire to work for the Father), but who later changed his mind and did his Father's will.

In your time of prayer this week, take note of the good, holy, and noble desires of your heart ("I want to be pure, I want to be a saint, I want to be close to God and the Church, I want to be at peace with my situation"), and also any resistances you experience towards these desires ("…But it will be hard, I'm not up for the task, My friends would make fun of me, My family wouldn't understand, I'm not willing to give that up now"). Think of St. Augustine who for a long time prayed, "Lord, make me chaste…but not yet!" Bring the holy desires and the resistances to the Lord openly and honestly and ask for His grace to transform areas of your heart that are shrouded in fear to be open fully to His love, that you both may share the same desire and will, and you may carry His will out in your life.

We are pleased to offer our July 1, 2022 - June 30, 2023 financial report in this weekend's bulletin and linked below. We ended the year in a strong financial position, thanks largely to a successful "Faithfully United" parish stewardship campaign last Fall. Increasing our offertory each week translates directly into carrying out our mission to proclaim, celebrate and live our faith in Jesus Christ, and to draw others into a relationship with Christ and His Church. Moreover, we raised over $137,000 with the Angel Scholarship Fund tax credit to provide tuition assistance to make a Christ-centered Catholic education affordable for our families.

2023 Parish Financial Report

A few notable events happened at our parish this past fiscal year year for which we can be grateful to our Lord. First of all, we heartfully remember Fr. Tom Gilles, our pastor emeritus, who passed away last year on September 29, 2022. I was installed as the 15th pastor at St. Mary's on Sunday, December 11. We said farewell in May to Fr. Steve Spisak who faithfully served us the past four years, and welcomed Fr. Fabian Han as a newly ordained priest in June. We created and filled five staff positions at the school and parish to help us carry out our parish mission (Communications Director, Facilities Manager, Office Manager, Advancement Director, and Enrollment Assistant).

Regarding events, we celebrated our first Parish Oktoberfest last Fall (and had another very successful Oktoberfest this year!). We restarted our vestibule TVs and weekend office to bring life to our gathering space after these went away during the pandemic.

On the facilities end, we upgraded our camera system, installed new emergency lights, installed uplighting for our stained glass windows, purchased an additional copier so both parish and school could have their own, power washed the building, and installed a new playground which was funded largely by PTU.

I'm grateful for all of you who make this wonderful work possible. Let's continue to work together so that the life of Christ in our community may be proclaimed, lived, and celebrated by all.

Thank you to Mike Rohr for stepping up to be our new Arts & Environment Coordinator! Mike will step in to take on the A&E roles assumed for many years by Judi Parker. If you have a heart for the liturgy and an eye for environment, please consider offering your time and talent on the A&E committee to help Mike and fellow committee members plan and prepare the church worship space for the great liturgies we celebrate throughout the year.
 

Church HVAC Replacement
Our Church HVAC replacement is scheduled to start soon. We anticipate the heating and AC being down for a few weeks while we replace the HVAC units that have served us for over almost 25 years. We chose mid-October to do this as it is a more temperate time of year. Please plan ahead with the clothing you need to bring to Mass to be comfortable for the next few weekends.

I am yours in Christ,
Fr. Scott Goodfellow