My first priestly assignment
So, I moved from St Francis to my first priestly assignment, St Andrew Apostle, last Friday. I was able to fit all of my stuff in one carload (although it was a tight fit, and I was a bit weighed down - Fr Lee cautioned me about hitting speed bumps!) which made me happy. Right after I moved my stuff in from the car and met the St Andrew's staff in the rectory, I shot over to the school to meet some of the school staff. Some good people work here!
At the pastor's request, I introduced myself at all of the Sunday Masses. I said that I was struggling with one thing by being here: coming up with the right word to describe my experience. I said, "to say that I'm happy doesn't fully do it...I'm excited, pumped, juiced, stoked...I'm PSYCHED to be here!!" People probably thought I had too much coffee or something, but they were getting a kick out of my energy.
I went on to explain what I meant. "The Cardinal gave us our assignments just days before he ordained us. When I heard that he was sending me to St Andrew's, it was like winning the lottery days before getting married!". It is a great parish with an extraordinary pastor, Msgr Mike Mellone, and staff, many young and large families, and an impressive amount of 'lights of the world' (the youth that I love so much).
It was a tremendous honor to celebrate the feast of Corpus Christi my first weekend here. I told the congregations that I have two great loves in my life: the first is the Eucharist, and the second is youth (the third, I said, is the Washington Redskins...yeah, Skins...we're talking Super Bowl!) By the way, Msgr Mellone asked me to make my Eucharist brochures available to folks after the Masses...they took about 200 of them! Woo-hoo!
I mentioned about how it took me twelve years to get ordained (normally, it's six years after college), but didn't explain it further. "The point is", I said, "that I have waited many years to be here with you. To serve you, to pray with you, to break bread with you, to have fun with you, to enjoy life with you. To fall in love with you....with your families...with your marriages...with your kids. This is going to be very good!"
At the pastor's request, I introduced myself at all of the Sunday Masses. I said that I was struggling with one thing by being here: coming up with the right word to describe my experience. I said, "to say that I'm happy doesn't fully do it...I'm excited, pumped, juiced, stoked...I'm PSYCHED to be here!!" People probably thought I had too much coffee or something, but they were getting a kick out of my energy.
I went on to explain what I meant. "The Cardinal gave us our assignments just days before he ordained us. When I heard that he was sending me to St Andrew's, it was like winning the lottery days before getting married!". It is a great parish with an extraordinary pastor, Msgr Mike Mellone, and staff, many young and large families, and an impressive amount of 'lights of the world' (the youth that I love so much).
It was a tremendous honor to celebrate the feast of Corpus Christi my first weekend here. I told the congregations that I have two great loves in my life: the first is the Eucharist, and the second is youth (the third, I said, is the Washington Redskins...yeah, Skins...we're talking Super Bowl!) By the way, Msgr Mellone asked me to make my Eucharist brochures available to folks after the Masses...they took about 200 of them! Woo-hoo!
I mentioned about how it took me twelve years to get ordained (normally, it's six years after college), but didn't explain it further. "The point is", I said, "that I have waited many years to be here with you. To serve you, to pray with you, to break bread with you, to have fun with you, to enjoy life with you. To fall in love with you....with your families...with your marriages...with your kids. This is going to be very good!"
posted by Fr Greg at
8:29 AM
3 Comments:
Its great you love your new parish! We are all so happy for you!
Incidentally how many years has it been since the Red Skins won their last Super Bowl?
By
Anonymous, at 10:23 AM
Thanks for sharing about your first week at your new parish! Wow! You fit all of your stuff in one car load.......now that would have made a good picture!
We may have to help Father Lee(I hear he's not too good with the speed bumps)lol.......Still praying for his transition. Happy to hear that you are spreading the joy at your new parish!
By
Anonymous, at 5:41 PM
All of us at St. Francis are so happy for you Fr. Greg !! God has given you many new faces to share your passion and fire with at such a large parish and school. He knew he needed you to be someplace that would reach many.
We at St. Francis can only pray that the next pastor assigned to our parish has that same enthusiasm and excitement that you had about being assigned to St. Andrews.
By
Anonymous, at 10:11 PM
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