From the Pastor's Pen - June 21, 2020
Lots going on—Appointments. This was announced last week and written here, but
some people miss things first time around. I’ve been appointed pastor of St. Monica’s Parish, Creve Coeur (Olive and 270) starting July 28. Fr. Nickolai is appointed parochial (parish) administrator of St. Rose starting then, and after a year he loses his training wheels (his term) and will be named pastor. With your help, that is. Please give him the support and cooperation I’ve enjoyed, and he’ll make the step.
Another appointment is our new Archbishop! Mitchell Rozanski is appointed to succeed Archbishop Carlson here starting August 25, Feast of St. Louis. Archbishop-Elect (chosen) Rozanski has been bishop in a small diocese in Massachusetts, but before that he was raised and ordained a bishop for Baltimore. This gives him a huge leg up in leading us in St. Louis, because Baltimore is probably the city most like St. Louis in the nation. They have similar deep tradition and size; split city/county government; great diversity, and the challenges that brings. When he spoke to reporters last week, he avoided nothing and sounded very knowledgeable and relaxed. I look forward to serving under him.
There’s nothing new at this time regarding our church practices. Things are going well, with weekend Mass attendance slowly increasing, and livestreaming serving those at home. A great joy was to have First Communion last Saturday, June 13th. The children have been waiting, and were as excited and faith-filled as ever, masks and all. Without communion from the cup, they each got their own small communion cup with their name applied on it to keep.. You can see the joyous Mass on our website or Flocknotes notes, listed under the June 14 weekend of Corpus Christi.
Today we return to the Sundays of Ordinary Time. Each Sunday now till Advent we’ll
receive another slice of the Gospel opening our lives and revealing things. I like preaching in this time.
Finally, some have heard, some not: Sr. Emily is retiring at the end of June. It’s almost unthinkable—she’s been in service to the seniors and the sick since the start of the parish in 2005. I know the depth of the respect and gratitude the parish feels for her. We’ll recognize her at Mass next weekend, and probably hold a reception for her down the line, as she’ll still be around the parish.
- Fr. Tom