Fall is upon us and the leaves are falling. I am grateful to everyone who made FallFest a great success! Despite the poor weather, we made the most of the weekend with fantastic events all weekend long. Thank you to the FallFest Committee and the volunteers who truly exemplified St. John’s generous spirit.
We are now in a routine with the school year and there is a lot of life and energy around our campus. I am excited that we filled the full-time positions in the school and we are better able to serve our school families. Family Formation is off to a great start, and we have the largest numbers we have seen in several years. Our adult formation opportunities also have a strong participation rate and it is wonderful to see our parishioners’ willingness to grow. Mass attendance has been strong, and we are gearing up for the trainings for our liturgical ministers who lead us as we rely on prayer. It is truly beautiful to see our parishioners actively living out our core values.
With our parishioners living as disciples of Jesus Christ, as they live out the core values in all these ways, is it important to recommit to them in our upcoming Core Commitment Campaign 2023? Absolutely! As human beings, it is important for us to recommit and remind ourselves of what is important as we can be pulled in different directions during different seasons of our lives. In fact, our scripture readings this weekend remind us of a vital Catholic virtue, perseverance. Perseverance is the ability to stay the course despite various obstacles or distractions. We see the community is an important part of perseverance as Aaron and Hur support Moses as he perseveres in doing God’s will. We see St. Paul encourage St. Timothy to persevere in the faith he has learned and believed. Despite various doubts or challenges that come up in St. Timothy’s ministry, he perseveres in doing God the Father’s will. In our Gospel, we see that the perseverance of the widow is rewarded. Hence, perseverance in living our core values as disciples of Jesus Christ is critical to our salvation.
As we look ahead to 2023, we persevere in the beautiful Catholic faith that leads us to Heaven by recommitting to living out our core values. Our commitment weekend is the Feast of Christ the King, November 19 and 20. Leading up to that we will focus on the core values and necessity of them in the life of a disciple. We will focus on reliance on prayer on October 29 and 30. We will focus on why and how to live out of a generous spirit on November 5 and 6. We will focus on willingness to grow the weekend of November 12 and 13. My hope is that as we reflect on these core values our foundation in the faith and relationship with Jesus Christ will grow ever stronger. The Lord is calling us forth to commit to these core values. For those who have already committed he is calling us to persevere in living them out as we will up Christ’s kingdom in New Brighton and beyond!
As the Father loves me, so I also love you!
