Dear Brothers and Sisters in Christ,
What a year it has been! I am so grateful for my first year here at Holy Spirit! It has been a year filled with so many graces from the Lord.
Last spring, I announced that our parish would be starting a strategic planning process that would help us to discern God’s will for us as a church and school. We hired a Catholic non-profit called Partner’s Edge to assist us in this process and we started by collecting as much data as possible about our parish and surrounding community from over the last 12 years. We then formed a planning committee which is made up of members of the Parish Council, Finance Council, School Advisory Committee, staff, and trustees of the parish. We began to meet over the summer and have been learning about our Current Reality based on the findings of the study. We shared these findings with the other members of the councils and staff. Over the last couple of weeks, you should have seen in the bulletin or in our email communications a summary of the Current Reality and the Guiding Change documents where we have begun to articulate why we need to change and how we think things ought to be. If you did not see these communications, you can find them online. There will be an opportunity in the coming weeks to provide your feedback through a survey. We want to hear from you!
While we are still a ways away from producing our pastoral plan, one thing has been clear to us throughout this process. There are many opportunities for us to grow! The Lord has blessed us in many ways and has called us to be his witnesses in Saint Paul, Minnesota in the year 2023 and for years to come! I am so grateful for how generous you all are with your time, talent, and treasure. There are so many incredible things happening in and around our community because of your generosity. At the same time, I know that the harvest is still abundant, but the laborers are few.
And so, I would like to invite you to commit or renew your commitment to this important work. I invite you to reflect on how you are using your time, gifts, and finances. If you are not giving financially, please prayerfully consider starting with a small recurring gift. If you are already giving, prayerfully consider increasing your offering if you are able. Please fill out a pledge card. If you are not signed up for online giving, the card has instructions on how to enroll. You also can fill out your bank information and we can enroll for you. If you are already enrolled, you can update your giving by going to our Online Giving page. Once on that page, you can login and click “edit” under “my scheduled transactions”. If you have any questions or need assistance, please contact Justin Carrick at (651) 698-3353 x2213.
Thank you for joining me in supporting our parish. Let us entrust Holy Spirit to the Blessed Virgin Mary in prayer, who allowed herself to be overshadowed by the Holy Spirit so that Christ may enter the world.
In Christ,
Father Nathan Hastings