My dear brothers and sisters in Christ:
It has been a month since I arrived at Holy Trinity Church. Time flies, doesn’t it? As I said previously, thank
you for the welcome you gave me during these weeks. I am very happy to work for the Lord in this wonderful community. It is still early (I guess) to introduce you to the pastoral plan. The theological method talks about three steps to interpretate the reality: To see, judge, and act. Pope Francis, who wrote the Encyclical Letter Laudato Si, reflects on this method, which the Church in Latin America uses. I encourage you to read this wonderful encyclical from Pope Francis, and the rest of them written by different Popes throughout history. I am in the first step of this method: To see. I am watching the reality of Holy Trinity, learning from each one of the parishioners their history, stories, and traditions. Therefore, little by little I am introducing my pastoral plan, which consists basically to evangelize people to become truly disciples of Our Lord Jesus Christ. Then, I will start to work on this wonderful family with the help of Pastoral and Finance Council, parish staff, all parishioners, and of course, the Holy Spirit.
The mission that Our Lord Jesus Christ gave to the Church is to Evangelize all people on Earth. This is the
mission of the Church, which is in the Gospel of Matthew 28:19, “Go, therefore, and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all that I have commanded you.” This is the mission of the Church… this is our mission. We need to work to bring more people to the Church. We need people who accept the Gospel and want to serve the Lord in every possible way. My dream, which is at the same time the dream of the Church, is to have in Holy Trinity Church truly disciples of the Lord. I will work on this, but I need your help.
It is gratifying to see how many people participate in the different pastoral activities of the parish. Seeing lectors, cantors, extraordinary ministers of Holy Communion, ushers, greeters, altar servers (acolytes), sacristans, counters, and so on are expressions of the great love that all of us have for the Lord and for the Church. Even though we have many people working for the Lord through the different ministries at Holy Trinity, it is always good to see new and more volunteers.
Remember that any help is appreciated, regardless of its “importance.” Everything that we do in the parish is important. It is like the boy who offers the five loaves and two fish to Jesus. How much is this for feeding over 5000 people? Nevertheless, Jesus used this little help from this boy to do a wonderful miracle (Cf. John 6:1-15). If we help in our parochial family regardless of how big or how small it is, God will use our help to multiply it for the goodness of our parish. If you are a sacristan, extraordinary minister of Holy Communion, lector, usher, acolyte, greeter, or another ministry in the parish, let me say to you “Thank you very much”. We really appreciate your help. Let us remember, “The Parish that we dream is the parish that I help to build.”
God bless you, and may the Blessed Virgin Mary be with you always!
Fr. George
