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Thirty-Third Sunday of the Year
14 November 2010
Dear Friends in Christ,
Each year since I began my service here in 2001, I have written an Advent letter to the parish which arrives at your homes just before Christmas, and this year will be no exception. When I sat down to prepare this year’s letter, I looked back at previous texts and was reminded that in 2009 I proposed four specific areas of parochial life for the people of St. Mary’s to emphasize in our common effort to follow the Lord Jesus, and here is what I wrote:
“As individuals, we live our faith in the Lord Jesus through radical conversion, deep fidelity, joyful discipleship, and courageous evangelism, and now I propose four ways in which we can live our faith as a parish. Like the four marks of the Church given in the Creed (she is one, holy, catholic, and apostolic), these four traits can identify the things that are distinctive about St. Mary’s Church and reflect both our parish history and our present character:
1. Celebrating the sacred liturgy with loving attention to the beauty of sacred music, the dignity of ritual form, the solemnity of divine worship, and the fellowship of the baptized assembled to pray.
2. Forming Christian disciples of every age through vibrant and orthodox catechesis in liturgical preaching, our school and parish religious education classes, parish groups of every kind, and occasional classes, lectures and programs of spiritual renewal.
3. Bearing witness to the Gospel through our own missionary outreach to those in need of any kind and through support of the efforts of others to serve the least of Christ’s brethren.
4. Welcoming each other and all who come among us with gracious hospitality.
Some of these things we already do well; others need much more effort. But I believe that we can excel at all four of these ways of living together as disciples of the Lord Jesus, and in the months ahead, I will ask every member of the parish and our staff to think about the ways in which we can make progress in strengthening our common life and parish identity around these four goals.”
I now renew these suggestions and ask each member of our parish family to examine the ways in which he or she can help us all be more faithful followers of Christ in these distinctive ways. As we approach the end of this old Year of Grace and the beginning of a new Advent, let us commit ourselves to live our faith ever more deeply as individuals, as families, and as a parish.
Father Newman