Dear Parishioners,

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It was a week ago Wednesday (a day after bulletin cut off time for last week’s bulletin) the Parish Councils of St. Peter and St. Julie Parish met at St. Peter Parish for a joint meeting. It was a fruitful and hope-filled gathering. I was able to share the joys and challenges of being pastor of two parishes. I commented on the many ways that our parishes have been cooperating in doing God’s work and the new ways we are doing this in 2023-2024.

I also commented on some of the challenges of pastoring two parishes. In pastoring two parishes, Bishop Malesic asked me to work smarter but not necessarily harder. I am still learning that art. And by God’s grace, I’ll get better at it. In the meantime I am grateful for the support staff of both parishes. Amy Gaffney, Pat Hoffman (the bookkeeper and secretary of St. Julie Parish), Suzanne Snyder, Kelly Reed, Greg Dubecky, and others have been a great help in me taking over the reins here. And the staff of St. Peter Parish, Chris Stefanek, Sandy Pawlak, Regina Wojciechowski. Cheryle Koberna and others have made the load lighter at St. Peter’s.

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During the meeting we had a fruitful discussion of what people want to see. Both parishes feel the need to engage younger generations. We recognize that our young adults, high school teens and elementary students (because their parents are the young adults not around church environment) are missing from Mass and other church activities. I pray that by God’s grace and our labors, we can connect with these younger generations.

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We started three adult education programs in this last week. During this year of parish level Eucharistic Revival, around 35 adults have gathered for a book study of Bishop Robert Barron’s book This is My Body. I pray that the knowledge gained, and the material discussed deepen our understanding and devotion to Christ in the Eucharist. This program is being held at St. Peter Parish. The next book study for this Year of Eucharistic Revival will be at St. Julie Parish. The second program that we began was Discovering Christ. This was the first time we hosted the program at St. Julie Parish. There was a group of 35 people made up of parishioners from both parishes, as well as others who were simply curious. The third program we commenced this week was our Reach More discipleship training program. Again, both St. Julie and St. Peter parishes were represented in this more intensive training process.

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This is Catechetical Sunday. Fr. Isidore will be here to bless Kelly Reed and the St. Julie PSR teachers. We pray that our young people come to understand and embrace the Catholic faith, heeding the voice of Christ above all other voices.

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Finally, our gospel reading is a story that illustrates one of the petitions of the Our Father: forgive us our trespasses as we forgive those who trespass against us. Jesus’ story shows us what it means to ask God to forgive us the way we forgive those who offend us. We cannot withhold forgiveness from others if we want to be forgiven by God. This is challenging. Perhaps these three things can help. First, when St. Paul speaks of forgiveness, he told the Ephesians to forgive, as the Lord has forgiven you. Like the man in the story, we can experience God’s forgiveness first. We need to be then quick to forgive those who have offended us. Secondly, we need to remember that forgiveness begins with a decision. We choose to forgive before we have feelings of compassion. Finally, we need to remember that forgiving those who have offended us does not always mean that the relationship will be reestablished. The offending party must acknowledge their offensive behavior and ask for forgiveness.

In Christ,

Fr. Bob Franco

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