Dear Parishioners,

This weekend is commitment weekend for the Ministries Appeal. This is the new way the diocesan ministries are being funded. If you haven’t given or haven’t made a commitment yet, this is a good time to prayerfully consider how you can help with this effort. The Ministries Appeal will support ministries which we benefit from. You can give online through the diocesan website www.dioceseduluth.org/support-the-ministries-appeal or by mailing a check or if neither of these works, you can send your check to us at the parish office and we can forward it to the diocesan office.

The St. Joseph Gala is this Friday at the Northern Pacific Center in Brainerd. The door opens at 5:30 PM. It should be a great event. I will be sharing some important news regarding our building project at the Gala. Please pray for an open heart so that we can all move together in the direction which God is leading us. We started praying a Novena on May 1st to St. Joseph the worker. It’s a perfect time for us to ask God for continued clarity on our path forward.

Next Monday the 13th is the Feast of Our Lady of Fatima. Fr. George will celebrate an extra 9 AM Mass at OLF for this special day. I’d invite parishioners to come to the Mass.

The Eucharistic Congress in Bemidji is fast approaching May 17th -19th . It coincides with the Pentecost celebrations. I am going to be doing a wedding that Saturday in Duluth, so Fr. George will be doing the Mass at OLF on Saturday May 18th . I hope the Congress is a very energizing and exciting event for all who are able to attend. I hope to hear about it from you, since I don’t get to go.

I’ve been working with the parish staff and my advisement team to talk about our parish culture, our mission and our direction we want to be focused on. It has been a good conversation and it has helped me continue to think about how we can be God’s instruments here in our local area. We’ve been working on a Mission Statement and Core Values. We will be sharing this information with you in the near future. It’s an opportunity for all of us to think about our bigger

purpose and our contribution to creating a parish culture which is open to others and yet remains faithful to Christ and his Church. Part of this will be taking time to meet with the different groups which use our parish facilities or which are part of the parish.

To be honest when we started talking about mission statements, it took me a bit to understand why that was important. However, as we have moved along in the process, it has helped me to see that it is a helpful tool for us as a parish to evaluate what we do. There are a lot of things going on in our parish, many of the ways our facility is being used are for groups that just need a space to meet. Others are parish groups which belong to the parish. Sometimes its hard to know exactly… is this a parish group, or an auxiliary group? It is important to try to understand that, because it then helps us know how to prioritize usage, and our own efforts with regard to these groups.

When we are trying to share our mission statement and core values, it is a chance for everyone in the parish to re-understand how they are living their Catholic faith. It is an opportunity to see ourselves from the eyes of a new parishioner, or a visitor. It helps us to see how to help people join our parish or find a place of belonging here. When we are more aware of ourselves and what people experience here, it can help us create opportunities for people to enter into this life we are living together. I look forward to sharing this information with you soon.

In Christ,
-Fr. Eli