Dear Parish Families,

As we continue our birds-eye look at our Parish Vision and Pastoral Plan our second section focuses on two key ideas: evangelization and connection. The first part of our plan, which I shared with you last week, focused on worship- how we come together in prayer before God. Part Two focuses on where our worship leads us, to go out and to share the good news of the God who we've just worshiped.

While we certainly need to and are called to develop our own individual prayer lives and personal relationship with Jesus, our faith is also not meant to be solely a "Me and Jesus" type of faith either. We come as individuals to praise and worship God, but we also come together as parishes, as communities of disciples oriented towards a common mission. We receive Communion-the Body, Blood, Soul, and Divinity of our Lord- and we also become communion: communities united in faith. The second part of our Parish Vision and Pastoral Plan focuses on strengthening and building up the connections and the community among us.

At both St. Patrick and St. Vincent de Paul, we have some small groups that gather together, both on and off parish grounds, bringing people together around various interests and devotions. From small groups focused on prayer to various parish ministries, to more social types of small groups, these groups help to build up the communion and community in each of our parishes. The hope and plan of our new vision is to seek to encourage every parishioner to consider connection in some type of small group and/or ministry. These groups don't necessarily need to be formal groups or even large groups, not everyone is comfortable with gathering with large groups of people, and that's fine. For some, this invitation may mean joining an already established parish group and/or ministry. For others, it may simply mean gathering with a few friends or fellow parishioners to share a meal or take a walk together, even if that walk is simply around the parish grounds. Ultimately, what matters most is the invitation to move beyond simply living out our faith alone and instead growing together as disciples of Jesus Christ in community and communion.

Have a blessed week and know that you are in my prayers!