Alliance for Vocations
I will share more about my time with the Norbertine sisters in Spain, but first, I would like to raise everyone’s attention to our under-performance in parishioner financial support in relation to our parish budget expectations.
Our budget is relatively simple. Parishioners are expected to support the personnel and the activities for which the parishioners have asked. For example, we need to pay our utility bills, our employees, and the priests who celebrate Mass. We want to provide ministry to the sick, the homebound, and those in nursing homes. We need to be available to console and respond to family needs when a loved one dies. We need to maintain the buildings and grounds. We want to be available to do these ministries for many years to come at St. Willebrord.
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Please review your plan to support the parish. God has given us so much in our lives. Do we have the courage and generosity to share what we have been given so that all may experience God’s blessings in their lives, both in good times and in bad? |
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Spain: The sisters of Santa Sofia Convent made an informal proposal to me before I left. They asked about forming a spiritual and prayerful alliance between our parish and their convent. The sisters need vocations and they are preparing for a vocation discernment retreat. At such retreats women at various stages of discernment come to see the life the sisters live. Last year 5 women spent a weekend with them. Some of our parishioners communicated to the sisters that they were praying for a successful retreat. The sisters were greatly encouraged by that connection. They would like to continue the communication and formalize it.
This weekend, October 28-30, the sisters are having a vocation encounter called “Come and You Will See!” They will welcome women from 18-35 years of age. They hope to have several participants this year. So, let us pray for a successful retreat so that one day soon some of these women make a commitment to live Norbertine life with the Sofias. We will pray, also, for the health and happiness of the sisters of Santa Sofia Convent. This will be a helpful next step in our covenant with them. I will ask them to pray for us with regard to our needs as a parish: for unity among us; for reconciliation in our families and communities; for healing for those who are suffering in body, mind or soul; and for the general needs of our parish family and those who minister among us.
Peace, Fr. Andy