My dear parishioners and visitors;
“Immediately they left their nets and followed him” (Mark 1: 18)
I shared with you my 5 years-plan, 2015-2020, in the weekly bulletins of October and November 2014 and invited you to read and to pray with what St. Luke teaching us about the early Christians in the Acts 2:42-47. St. Luke, in Acts 2:42-47, clearly tells us that the early Christians committed and devoted themselves to the teaching of the apostles, to the communal life, to the breaking of the bread and to the prayer, and to the contribution to the well-being of the community’s life and ministries. I take these 4 priorities of the early Christians as a point of reference for our parish’s 5 years-plan. I am so glad that we now have the 5 years-plan-committee. The committee has threefold missions:
- to act as the parish pastoral council
- to plan for the parish’s anniversary in 2016 and 2018
- and to have a good pastoral plan with new visions and ideas helping the parish to grow
I presented the 5 years-plan to the committee on December 6th 2014 and January 10th 2015’s meetings. The committee and I will study this 5 years-plan and to celebrate it in the next five years. The committee dedicates this year 2015 as the year of the Catechism of the Catholic Church. It is a year that we come together to learn more about the Catechism of the Catholic Church (CCC) given to the Church by St. John Paul II in August 15th 1997. They also decided to take on the following projects helping the parish, with God’s blessings and everyone’s active participation, to grow spiritually, socially and physically stronger and better:
- The parish pictorial book
- The parish historical book
- The parish’s anniversary quilt
St. Mark, in this Sunday gospel reading, tells us that Simon (Peter), Andrew, James and John “immediately they left their nets and follow him” (Mk. 1:18) when Jesus said to them “Come follow me” (Mk. 1:17). May we be blessed with these Apostles’ generosity and enthusiasm to work together to build up our parish-family.
Have a blessed week. Fr. Peter Hoan.