Posted on November 9, 2022 View all Pastor's Letter
Dear parishioners,
Today the Gospel presents us with the figure of the unfaithful administrator: who took advantage of the trade to rob his master. He was an administrator, and he acted as owner of what was not his. His heart was tied to the material, that’s why he stole. As Christians, it must be clear that we are not the owners of material goods, but simple administrators; we must not only conserve these goods, but also make them produce as much as possible within our possibilities. We must not adore them, let them dominate us or take away our peace. One of the great sins before material goods is to fall into greed and hoarding, forgetting that we have to share, whether we are rich or poor. Saint Ambrose affirmed: “It is not a part of your goods that you give to the poor; what you give them already belongs to them. Because what has been given for the use of all, you appropriate it. The land has been given to everyone, and not just to the rich.” We are selfish if we only think about accumulating material goods, like the administrator of the Gospel – lying, stealing, practicing justified theft and hardness of heart, which prevents us from being moved by the needs of others. We must frequently think of Saint Paul’s words: “God loves a cheerful giver” (2Cor 9:7). Therefore, we must be generous!
This weekend we have our ministries fair, I thank everyone who makes it posible- thanks to the Staff for all your effort and to all the volunteers, thanks for your kind heart and for the apostolate you carry out in our parish, and in advance I thank and I congratulate those who are going to enroll and continue serving in the various ministries. Blessed be God for responding to His call and for accepting this great honor.
It’s been a few months since I’ve mentioned the Capital Campaign, we are still actively raising these funds to continue with the restoration of the parish facilities. There are many areas that need to be restored soon. One of my priorities right now is the building of the pastoral center, which, as I have already mentioned, we have started with the design, but we still have to collect part of the money so that we can start this work. I am very grateful to those who responsibly send their contribution each month, but unfortunately only 31% have made a commitment, the rest have not yet; I encourage the remaining 69% to take it to meditation and prayer and consider helping our parish by making a commitment, which in this case would be for three years. We still have a lot to do, and if we unite we can achieve our goal. I also encourage those parishioners who have made the pledge but have not yet begun to send in their donations to consider doing so, your contributions are important to our parish.
Finally, we are receiving back a lot of correspondence whose address has not been found. Perhaps you moved or put the wrong address when registering; I ask you to please, if you have registered and have not received any correspondence from us, let us know to see if your address is wrong and to be able to correct it, otherwise we will have to remove you from our parish system, because that causes us an unnecessary expense in the mail. I ask for your help and understanding with this.
May God bless you and keep you healthy always. I always have you in my prayers.
Fr. Alex