To My Spiritual Family of Holy Redeemer and St. Anthony, Essential Fatherhood: A happy Father’s Day goes out to all of our dads! Men, your fatherhood is so necessary and essential in the life of the Church. If a child’s father attends Mass and participates in the life of the Church, there is a strong chance that the child will continue as a practicing Catholic. If dad falls away, it’s very likely that the child will fall away too. Dads – please – lead your children to heaven. They need you! So too does our parish! Amazing Parish & the PLT: Many Catholic parishes from across our nation are active participants in the Amazing Parish movement (www.amazingparish.org). We at Holy Redeemer are blessed to be one of those parishes. This week, the Parish Leadership Team and I will be at the Amazing Parish Summit in Phoenix, Arizona. From time to time, I’ve updated you on our participation, and I want to do so again. There are some really good things going on!
1. Essentially, Amazing Parish exists to form heroic Catholic pastors. Heroic pastoral leadership, they believe, then leads to faithful, authentic, and dynamic life within the entire parish community. Such leadership requires the grace of God for sure, but also a supportive team. My Parish Leadership Team – or PLT – is comprised of Jennifer Wortman, Mary Beth Zdarko, and John Zdarko. We meet weekly. We pray with and for each other. We share with one another the joys and struggles of life. We strive to build each other up as disciples of Christ. These three push me to be the best possible pastor for you!
2. In a very real way, Jenn, Mary Beth, and John help me to carry the weight of leading our parish. That is the purpose that Amazing Parish intends for the PLT. They keep me attuned to what is occurring in the daily life of our community, they share observations and insights, and they make recommendations. Each PLT member has permission to disagree with me and to push back on ideas that they see as wrongheaded. If necessary, they have permission to call me out. We laugh together and sometimes cry together, we debate, plan, dream, and work diligently to make our parish a truly amazing place of encounter with Christ.
3. Over the past half-year or so, our focus has been to build the culture of prayer at Holy Redeemer. The after-Mass “Prayer Teams” and the encouragement to ask others, “How can I pray for you?” are fruits of this focus. We strive to be authentic witnesses of Christ’s love. We want to pour ourselves out for this parish. We are determined to never surrender to the forces of the evil one. The desired goal is to have Holy Redeemer Parish be a place where lives are literally turned upside down by an encounter with the redeeming love of Jesus Christ!
4. Amazing Parish coaches work with us on a regular basis. These are women and men who love our Catholic faith and believe that the parish is the most important place in the world. Amazing Parish itself was founded by Pat Lencioni, a top shelf management expert and a committed Catholic. The coaches are trained to help pastors and the PLT in developing parish-focused management and leadership skills. Our time at the Summit this week will include beautiful Masses, Adoration, Confession, and times of prayer. We will also participate in intense training sessions on topics designed to enhance our leadership skills.
5. Do you believe that our parish is the most important place in the world? I hope you do. Our parish is the place where we pray and worship, where we become formed in the faith, and Holy Redeemer is the place from which we go out to love and to serve. Our parish is the place where we encounter Jesus Christ. Please pray for Jenn, Mary Beth, John, and me as we travel to Arizona this week. And when you see us next weekend at church, ask us what we experienced and what we learned. We will be glad to share. God bless you all!
Mary, Mother of the Redeemer – Pray for us! Our Lady of Guadalupe – Pray for us! St. Anthony – Pray for us! St. Joseph – Pray for us!