Beloved Parishioners:
Come, please do come to the Mission! A pastor is continually compelled to call the people to action. It may be in response to an emergency appeal for material aid in the wider community. It may involve making us aware of a need for greater involvement in ministries that have lost participants due to natural attrition. That one is, more or less, a constant.
On this occasion, I am issuing a broad call for our participation in the 2025 Saint Mary Lenten Mission, which will begin Monday evening and continue through Wednesday evening. I could say, “A lot of preparation has gone into this event,” and that would be true. I could say, “I have personally experienced the presenters, Paco and Inez Gavrilides, as magnetic speakers,” and that would be true as well. However, as disciples of Christ we do well to exercise restraint in putting the emphasis on us and our efforts. Everything we engage in, here at Saint Mary, ought to be focused on what God is doing and what God WANTS to do in our lives, if we are willing to allow Him entrance.
Docility is a word that, I suspect, the majority of us use infrequently or hesitate to use at all, depending on how we understand its meaning. Yet, docility is a very important virtue in the life of a disciple. We offer the following. In a Christian context, docility (from the Latin, docere, “to teach”), refers to a willingness and readiness to be taught, or guided. More specifically, it is the desire to learn from God and to be formed and molded by His hands. It entails making a prompt response to the call of the Holy Spirit, once we have discerned His movement in a certain direction.
Both Bishop Woost and Deacon James have presented us with GOOD teaching on the person of the Holy Spirit and His desire for relationship with us. While we cannot promise what the exact fruits will be, for each of us who avails ourselves to the coming three evenings, but God promises that when we present ourselves, in docility, He will accomplish powerful things in our lives, not only for our personal benefit but for the good of many.
All this said, we recognize that there will be some parishioners who simply cannot physically come to the mission. In order to build a bridge of connection for them, we publish here the prayer we have been offering, over the course of recent weekends:
Blessed Mother Mary, Lady of the
Immaculate Conception,we ask for your
intercession over our upcoming Lenten
Mission. Prepare our hearts to receive
what you Son desires to impart to us.
Grant us the graces of spiritual growth,
joy, and unity as we encounter the gifts
of the Holy Spirit within us.
O blessed Trinity, “with all humility and
gentleness, with patience,
bearing with one another in love”
(Ephesians 4:2), help us to keep our gaze
fixed on you as you equip us for the work
of ministry.
Amen.
I want to thank the following four people, for their willingness to step forward in trust to serve on the St. Mary Parish Pastoral Council. They are: Jackie Dossi, Jamie Jackson, Dan Lorentz, and Michael Viator. We look forward to their contributions, on behalf of fellow parishioners, over the next three years of their term of service. We will publish brief bios. for each of them, in a future edition of the bulletin.
Let His Peace be with you,
Fr. Stephen
