A NOTE FROM FR. VINCE
Hello everybody!
As you know, if we keep living in this crisis, we will soon have a ‘new normal’! Let’s hope we don’t get too used to it. We want some new semblance of our family, our parish, and our country. I don’t think we are going back to 10 weeks ago. So where are we going then? It all depends on what this crisis means for us. If it is just surviving, hoping to stay employed, and our old lives back, we probably need to rethink it. There is a deep financial and economic crisis, and we need to attend to whatever emergencies we must. I am talking about a deeper meaning. For me it has been trying for a deeper connection to my family and friends. Thank God I have a part-time job here, but I still have a feeling of isolation. That means more time with myself, and a deeper look at my life. I’ve been semi-retired for a year. How come I haven’t pulled my new life together more than I have? So it took a pandemic to wake me up! Darn it! Dealing with myself is hard work!
Enough about myself! I’m really talking about all of us. Whether you live alone or with others, don’t you feel this too? There needs to be a re-assessment of where we want our lives to go. What we want our lives to mean.
This conversation just gets bigger when we talk about our parish here at St. Augustin. You are its members, and therefore its family. That must lead to the same question: What do we want our parish to mean? I’m just a 4-month interim guy. So it’s not my place to assume very much about you. I’ll be gone and you will still be in pandemic mode. I’m pretty disappointed that our national church, and even our diocesan church has not transitioned into helping us find the meaning that this crisis demands.
At the same time, the top-down approach is not always the best. So it will be important for the pastor and parish leadership to try to help discover this new meaning for us. That has to include a robust conversation with you as parishioners. You probably have great ideas for what the future holds for this parish community. I pray this happens. Stay strong everybody!
