Happy Christ the King Sunday!
In my math brain, I’ve been diligently counting, and it was a year ago last week that I began writing weekly bulletin articles. Amusingly, when I was a kid growing up, I did not enjoy writing homework. I always thought to myself, “One day, I can’t wait until I’m out of school. Then I’ll never have writing assignments ever again!” Jokes are on us sometimes, ha. But here we are, just trying to do the faithful work of God in a small way each week.
There was a very significant decision to be made at the beginning of all this, which was what I would call this column. And out of the clear blue sky, I stretched back to my middle school years to the memory of a friend who would often begin conversations with an elongated, “Yo, what’s the good woorrrrd?” Strange what we sometimes pull out of those file cabinets of the past. But it made me think about the nature and purpose of a bulletin. And if such a thing can assist people in truly encountering Christ, then the words found within it ought to always reveal the good things of God. Otherwise, it would be better left unread—and honestly, unwritten. So, to those of you who are among the perusers of these pages, I hope you’ve found a weekly word worth reading.
This weekend, we are taking a big step in our diocesan campaign with the parish in-pew appeal. As I mentioned last week, I’ll be preaching all the Masses to lead us through it during the homily. We are joining Catholic families across all 72 of our parishes in support of current and future generations of school families and educators, continuing the essential mission of Catholic education in this corner of God’s kingdom entrusted to us. More than 10,000 households across our ten counties have already pledged a gift, which as of last week has surpassed $53 million—over 75% of the total goal of $70 million. My own personal pledge of $25,000, which will go half toward Good Shepherd and half toward St. Robert, is a sacrifice I’m ready, willing, and joyfully committed to make at an annual pace of $5,000 for the next five years of my life.
As I’ve written in previous articles, our parish goal includes a 20% portion (plus 100% of everything above goal) that will be retained for use in our community, which at both parishes is being allocated for necessary and large near-term infrastructure expenses. This campaign will be the only opportunity we have in the next five years to fund raise for these types of pressing needs to avoid siphoning from our long-term savings. These projects, naturally, do not wait for our convenience. So our personal support and sacrifice will advance not only the collective cause around us and beyond us, but also the critical local needs of our own people and parish. In my heart, I know we can do this and achieve our campaign goals together. I trust the Lord, and I trust us, and I am inviting us to see this vision together—to continue building something beautiful out of our lives, in generosity of heart, for the glory of the Lord.
Fr. Brian