Pastor’s Letter: May 19, 2024

Pastor’s Letter: May 19, 2024

17 May 2024 | Posted by: chadmin

Dear friend,

Two years ago, Bishop Lou hired Catholic Leadership Inc. to guide him in an effort to revitalize the Church in Peoria. The Bishop named the new strategic plan “Growing Disciples.” The Growing Disciples campaign is largely based on the Five Foundations for the first five years of Bishop Lou’s service as Bishop to the Peoria Diocese. The Five Foundations identified by Bishop Lou are the Legacy of Fulton Sheen. I hope you have seen the excellent videos the Diocese produced to shine a light on the Bishop’s Five Foundations and to prepare for the Growing Disciples Pastoral Plan. The most public aspect of Growing Disciples is the discussion about church consolidations and church closures. Over the last two years, I was a participant in the Growing Disciples Core Team. The Core Team assisted the Bishop in analyzing the current state of our parishes and investigating the process of Church growth through consolidation. We all know that there are a limited number of resources in life and there are changing demographics to our Diocesan churches. Growing Disciples seeks to bring future growth to our Church by rightsizing our current number of parishes and operating church buildings. This weekend, every church in the Diocese of Peoria will publicly read a letter from Bishop Lou to communicate his final decisions on the new parish structures. The implementation of the new parishes will take place over the next one to three years. Along with this implementation, the Diocese will encourage new efforts of evangelization by helping to create new disciples of Jesus Christ. While the most public aspect of the Pastoral Plan will be the consolidations, the true effort is to build a revitalized Church that meets the needs of the next generation. We will communicate more information about the plan once it is made public on Saturday, May 18. Please keep the Bishop, and each other, in prayer as the Pastoral Plan is implemented.

This Sunday we celebrate the gift of Pentecost. The priest wears the Red Vestment as a sign of the fire of the Holy Spirit. This feast day marks the formal beginning of the Church. The Spirit of God comes to give grace and power to the apostles to unite under the truth revealed by God. Not only does the Spirit bring unity to the Church, but it also brings spiritual gifts to each individual Christian. The Gifts of the Spirit come to us in Baptism. The Seven Gifts of the Spirit are then confirmed in us at Confirmation. As Christians we rely on the presence of the Spirit to guide us, to teach us, to strength us and to prepare us for reconciliation and heal us. As we pray this weekend, may we invite the power of the Spirit into our lives to help us live authentic Christianity and be true models of Christ for all those we meet. All members of the Church, all members of the Body of Christ, whether clergy or laity, are called to daily reflect on the ways we can best serve God and neighbor. May the Holy Spirit guide and strengthen our service.

You have likely noticed that we are replacing the kneelers in church. I hope you find them more comfortable. To be honest, I was a little surprised by how little padding was left on each kneeler! If I had realized how bad of shape the kneelers were in, I would have replaced them a long time ago. I apologize for any sore knees; although, a little pain on our knees can be good for our relationship with God.

Please keep in prayer all of our St. Philomena Tiger 8th grade graduates, as well as our Peoria Notre Dame and college graduates. This time is always one of celebration and a bit of anxiety. Change is always a bit difficult, but we continue to pray that the next generation is being prepared to be strong Christian witnesses in our world. Have a great week.

God bless

Father David