Strength In Numbers

Strength In Numbers

The image of Moses at the battle against Amalek, with his arms held high in prayer but supported by Aaron and Hur, is a beautiful image of priests and parishioners in a parish.

A pastor, associate priests and chaplains within a parish can be seen in the person of Moses with arms raised in prayer. By virtue of ordination, a priest is to minister at God’s Holy Altar and be actively engaged in all aspects of parish life, from celebrating the sacraments, to making pastoral visits, to caring for the temporal needs of the parish, to being available for counsel and advice and many other tasks that fill a priest’s day with the work of God. But if he seeks to do all these tasks by his strength alone, his arms will begin to drop like Moses and in weariness he will waver in his resolve.

But when a parish community supports him, like Aaron and Hur did for Moses, a priest’s resolve to pray and be a good shepherd to his flock is strengthened because he knows many others are looking to support and affirm his ministry and discover in doing so their own baptismal calling as priest, prophet and king to live their vocations with charity and grace.

This weekend our parish will host its annual ministry fair to encourage more participation in the life of our parish to support myself as your pastor, my brother priests Frs Botta and Oballo, and our parish community.

Thank you for very much to all those currently involved in various ministries, your continued support is a true treasure to our parish! To those who are considering becoming involved or more involved in the life of parish, ask the Holy Spirit to show you where you can be involved.
It maybe that the Spirit inspires the priests in our parish to tap you on the shoulder and ask you to become involved in some ministry. But do not wait only be asked by your priests to get involved since it is a great joy to any priest to have someone approach them to say they wish to be involved in the life of the parish.