It's Been Awhile

It's been awhile since I last posted here ... I'll call it a summer hiatus!

Come the weekend of September 11/12 we will "roll out" the work we have been doing on the strategic plan for the parish. We began this work over a year ago (June 2009) with a parish survey and a parish assembly (October 2009) aimed at getting behind some of the numbers produced by the survey.

Our plan is meant to close the "gap" between the "good" parish we are (as registered in the survey) and the "better" parish we can be.

As we begin this work, it's important to remember that "good" and "better" are relative terms. They are benchmarks along the way to a vision. If my vision of the parish is a that of a quiet, no-waves, community, the "good" and "better" will have one meaning. If my vision of the parish is that of a community looking to be constantly transformed into better disciples who make a difference living the love of God, then "good" and "better" mean something else.

My vision is the latter. One of the four "marks" of the church is apostolic which means that ours is the faith of the apostles and our living of that faith is missionary. The gospel challenges us to be leaven, light and salt for our world. We draw direction and nourishment to fulfill this vocation from the Sunday Eucharist, the "source and summit" of our life in Christ.We go out from Sunday Mass with the zeal of apostles for making Jesus known and loved by word and example, living the love of God in order to make a difference in our world.

St. Francis regularly admonished his friars to "begin again." And so come September, we will.