Dear Parish Family,
I am so excited about how many people in our parish (and beyond) have decided to take a chance and plunge into the 6-week small group series on the popular book The Purpose Driven Life, by Rick Warren.
I think you will be surprised by how many little gems of insight and wisdom this book contains. And I doubt anyone could leave an experience like this without growing in their relationship with God and in their connection to our parish and the wonderful people who make it up.
Can I promise you that you’ll like everything about this book? No, I can’t. Some people will love everything about it, but for others, there will be some sticking points, and items here or there that won’t sit exactly right with you. That’s true for me, too. But this is exactly why this experience will be so rich: it provides the ability to become a better disciple while at the same time sharpening your sense of what makes our Catholic worldview so distinctive. There’s no way to put a price on that.
And as Jesus told us in the Gospel this past weekend, “Whoever is not against us is for us” (Mark 9:39). Rick Warren is not a Catholic, but he is a Christian and shares more in common with us than he doesn’t. After all, there is one Lord, one faith, one call of service, one baptism” and we all share it (Ephesians 4:5). This book can help us to appreciate what unites us and become better versed in what things are distinctive about our precious Catholic perspective.
You will also get to experience a privilege that usually only priests, spiritual directors and confessors get to taste: you will be blown away by the grace and depth and everyday holiness of the other people in your small group. You will find that even people you may have known around town for years will surprise you with their distinctive and meaningful relationship with God.
It’s not at all too late to join us! You can buy a book online, download an audio version or get it from the library. You can join one of our groups that meets at a time convenient for you. Or, if you prefer to stay home, you can join a virtual Zoom group… or call in on a toll-free number, if you find a Zoom camera too much to manage. You can do a group with your family members, or read it alone and follow along with our weekly homilies and my weekly YouTube video messages.
Thank you for the openness you have brought to this very new way of gathering, learning and growing in faith. It means so much to me to be a part of a community this intent on growing into our fullest potential. I feel SO very blessed to be here.
Your grateful new pastor…
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