Dear Parishioners, +JMJ
What a blessing it was to see Father Scott Perry get ordained this past Saturday, along with two other classmates! I’m grateful that some of our parishioners were able to make the trip to the Cathedral for this beautiful event! So important, since our parish partook in Father Perry’s formation for a whole summer. Please remember that the weekend of June 23-24, Father Perry will be celebrating all of our weekend Masses as an act of thanksgiving for his ordination, and for the role all of you played in his formation last summer. This will be an opportunity for all of us – especially those who could not make the Cathedral ordination – to rejoice with Father Perry and congratulate him. On June 24, we will have a reception/open house at the rectory in Paulding, right after the 10:30am Mass. I hope everybody can make it.
This weekend we have the privilege of welcoming another seminarian – Brad McNeal. He will be with us throughout the summer. I hope he gets to meet many of you. He and I will try to visit as many homes as possible, and hopefully sit in on some of the youth sporting events happening throughout the summer. I guarantee you he’ll be an inspiration during home visits. (This is not just a ploy for me to get some delicious home-cooked meals that I otherwise would not get!)
Here are some of the things we are thinking of to occupy Brad’s efforts throughout the summer: One major project will be to help organize the rectory biblical library, which has been sitting in a closet, ever since we tore up the carpet in the rectory library room. He should learn plenty just by having to handle these biblical study resources. Another major project will be to help create the discipleship talent structure on our ParishSOFT database (the diocesan-wide software that has a ministry module to help manage various volunteer ministries). I hope that our prayer groups and book clubs and Bible study groups will reach out to Brad to invite him to a meeting to share the Faith. (Call the parish office to get in touch with Brad for this.) Brad will also help with the girls’ retreat at Antwerp in June, and the Summer Bible Camp for kids. He’ll help serve any funerals or weddings we have. He will also “sit in choir” for all of our Masses. (This means he’ll be up in the sanctuary to help out as need be, yet without taking away any work from somebody already scheduled to serve. It’s just basic protocol to have a seminarian or deacon, or even a priest who is present at a Mass sit in choir up in the sanctuary, even if he does not have a particular ministry to serve.) Finally, Brad will attend any meetings that I have, and assist my hospital calls and home visits to the sick. I think all of this can be a tremendous learning opportunity for Brad. I know he will be a great blessing to our parish, and I’m confident that our parishioners will be a great blessing for him. Thank you for welcoming him, as you have done so beautifully for the other seminarians throughout the past number of years!
Finally, a couple weeks ago I had another young man come to see me who will be entering seminary for our Diocese. His name is Eric Kaufman. Because of my rapport with him, I think he should be the one to step into Deacon Scott Perry’s place, when it comes to parish financial support for seminarians with our second collection, whenever there is a fifth weekend in a month. Hopefully we will be able to find a time throughout Eric’s training for him eventually to meet our parishioners. So, the seminarians we’ll be supporting for this next fiscal year (with a little gift from that collection on a fifth-weekend) are: Peter Grodi, Zach Brown, Curtis Weisenburger, Brad McNeal and Erik Kaufman. Please keep all of our seminarians in prayer…. and please encourage vocations in your own homes!
Have a blessed week!
In cordibus Iesu et Mariae,
Fr. Poggemeyer
