“As the Lord spoke to me, the Spirit entered into me and set me on my feet, and I heard the one who was speaking say to me: I am sending you…” (Ezekiel 2:2-3)
Like Ezekiel, I have recently felt the Spirit of God telling me, “I am sending you somewhere new.” So it is with an array of emotions that I announce I am leaving St. Robert of Newminster Parish. The Holy Spirit is calling me to explore a new path of ministry.
In the twelve years that I have served here at St. Robert of Newminster Parish, I have been blessed to get to know this community and many of you who call St. Robert’s home. Together, we have enjoyed exploring the Bible together through our various Bible studies. We have deepened our understanding and practices of prayer through the Summer Prayer Institute. We have read some good novels. We have welcomed new Catholic Christians into the Body of Christ through the Sacraments of Christian Initiation. We have prayed with and for each other. We have laughed and cried together. We have grown in our relationship with each other and deepened our relationship with Christ Jesus.
We’ve also experienced many changes together through the years. We have experienced three different building projects. First with the renovation of the “airplane hanger” into classrooms, the renovation of the first floor offices, and the conversion of one third of the Marian Chapel into offices. Then we renovated the first floor classrooms to accommodate the new St. Robert School in order to add Catholic school education to our palette of ministries. Now we have begun a third building project to renovate the Marian Chapel into offices and dedicated spaces for adult faith formation, and to expand the campus with additional classrooms for the school and faith formation programs and a Parish Activity Center to allow us to offer more large-scale activities and events.
We went through COVID together. We worshiped God together virtually and prayed for the day when we would be able to return to the sanctuary, to worship together in person, and receive Jesus in Holy Communion once again. Remember Fr. Len’s video updates and cooking lessons?
And three years ago, Fr. Tony joined us as our pastor. Through his guidance, the parish will continue to grow in the mission of serving God and calling people to Christ.
We have experienced a lot of changes through the years. It has been exciting and painful (change is always hard.) I am glad that I have been part of this community through these years. I am blessed to have been able to serve with you in the building up of the Kingdom of God in Ada. I will treasure you and all of these memories in my heart as I move onto the next chapter of following God’s call and fulfilling my mission of living as Jesus lived, serving as Jesus served, and loving as Jesus loves. You will always be in my heart and in my prayers. May God continue to bless you with much peace and joy.
