With the new year 2022 approaching, it’s time to imitate our patron St. Joseph and have some dreams of our own for the parish in the coming year:
1) a successful and fruitful conclusion to our Year of St. Joseph — our local parish Year of St. Joseph extends past the universal Church’s year, which has already ended. We are continuing to put special focus on our patron until May 1, 2022, and from now until then, we hope parishioners will take up the offer to participate in the consecration to St. Joseph which begins Dec. 29, to attend special events we are beginning to have in mind for our patronal feast on and around March 19, 2022, and to be ready for a big finale around the time of the feast of St. Joseph the Worker on May 1, 2022.
2) a good beginning to our Family Faith Formation model — a lot is at stake in the pivot we’ve made to a new family-centered model of faith formation. With mandatory participation of parents, we hope to re-establish the family as a core unit of parish membership and Sunday Mass attendance. We hope the parents will develop and strengthen their own faith, and we dream of new, best practices that the families can share with the rest of us.
3) financial stability, better stewardship of our properties — part of our parish financial struggle is that 3 of our 4 properties are not maximizing their value. The parish cemetery has been closed for new plots for around 40 years; the annex/office building is largely unoccupied; the parish rectory has value far beyond the need for priest lodging, and only the church is buzzing with activity seven days a week.
In 2022, our dream is to make the most of whatever properties we have, even if that means relinquishing part of our current lineup. In addition, we continue to be committed to making the grounds around the church a living testimony to the teaching of Laudato Si.
