Adventures in Grace: A Pilgrimage
I believe that we are in a unique moment in history and in the history of Holy Family. As we recover from a pandemic and look to our future strategically, our staff, leadership and parishioner councils have urged us to move forward with several initiatives. Perhaps the most important is to re-engage existing parishioners and to engage new members to join our community, meaning to become more invested in our mission. We have such a strong history of vitality that has led us this far. We must continue to build on that strength and look to the future with renewed vigor and creativity evolving into an even more vibrant community.
Please familiarize yourself regularly with our revised mission statement available on our website and in our bulletins and soon to be displayed (as our current one is), above the entrance to our church and in our Multitorium.
Our mission is to empower all to experience new life in Christ through
sacramental living, transformative worship,
lifelong spiritual growth
and community in service to others.
One initiative to fulfill our mission is a yearlong program of spiritual renewal entitled, Adventures in Grace: A Pilgrimage. This initiative is being supported by your generosity in our recent Providing for our Family’s Future Capital Campaign. It is a collaboration with Soul Play, a unique ministry led by Terry Nelson-Johnson and Laura Field. Terry and Laura are the driving forces behind the Beloved Retreats that we have held in partnership with them for the past several years and they are leaders at Old St. Patrick’s parish in the city.
I am asking ALL of you to be attentive to the details of this Pilgrimage that will be introduced this summer and begin in earnest on the weekend of September 25 and 26. I am asking ALL of you to invest in this parish-wide initiative of renewal. I am asking ALL of you to participate. I am asking that you make this a priority to the extent that you replace some of your exciting ministry activities or programs with the ones offered by this Pilgrimage or meld them with your programs.
This is a time of starting over, opening up and reshaping much of our lives post-pandemic. We are ready to re-engage and I believe the time is now for Holy Family to re engage our faithful contingent and to reach out to engage newcomers.
Fr. Med Laz Update
Med had hip replacement surgery this past week and is recovering well. He will have a second hip replaced later in July. Please keep him in your prayers for a speedy and complete recovery.
Independence Day
I hope that you all enjoy a national holiday this weekend extending through Monday with your family and friends. I hope that you all celebrate safely.
During the American Revolution, the legal separation of the thirteen colonies from Great Britain actually occurred on July 2, 1776 when the Second Continental Congress voted to approve a resolution of independence that had been proposed by Richard Henry Lee of Virginia declaring the United States independent from Great Britain’s rule. A Declaration of Independence crafted primarily by Thomas Jefferson was approved 2 days later on July 4.
No Honor for a Prophet at Home
This weekend’s Gospel from Mark tells us that Jesus amazed people from his own town with his great wisdom. The people begin to question where he received all of this wisdom. They begin to ask simple identity questions perhaps summed up by, “Isn’t this guy one of us?”
It goes on to say that they took offense at him and perhaps this moves Jesus to proclaim, “A prophet is not without honor except in his native place and among his own kin and in his own house.” What is it in us that sometimes can’t celebrate honor, glory or success for those among us who receive high praise. It seems this is often born of jealousy and of a lack of recognition of the goodness that is within us.
In our belief in the full humanity of Christ, let us celebrate that he is one of us. He has risen from us and let that lead us to be raised up with him.