Giving Thanks to God for Jillian’s Time with Our Parishes

After nearly five years of ministry with our parishes, this is the last weekend of Jillian Carelli’s regular ministry with us as our collaborative’s Coordinator of Youth Faith Formation and the St. Mary Director of Music Ministries. We hope you can join us for the reception after the Sunday 9:30 Mass this weekend. I am personally grateful for this opportunity to minister with her on our team, and many others have already expressed how blessed they have been by her faith, music, maturity, and other personal gifts.

As I mentioned in a recent column when first announcing her plans, we have been blessed to have Jillian with us longer than we anticipated. In the fall of 2018, when the search committee and I agreed to hire Jillian Carelli for music ministry at St. Mary, we thought she might only stay for two years. At the time, Jillian was a young prodigy, still in college with plans to continue pursuing her music career in higher studies most likely out of state.  She was accepted into a graduate program in New York City, but she initially deferred and eventually relinquished that invitation – in part because of the pandemic, but also because she had truly become part of our collaborative parishes. Instead, she doubled down on her involvement here, taking on a second part time position as our Coordinator of Faith Formation for Youth, becoming a valued member of the Pastor’s Leadership Team, and volunteer involvement as co-chair of our Sunday Experience Team.

As much as I would love to keep her here, it is now time for Jillian to resume a more focused program to continue developing her exceptional, God-given gifts in music. By the end of June, Jillian will complete her extended time with us as St. Mary Director of Music Ministries and Coordinator of Faith Formation for Youth in both parishes. I have always assured her that we would support the fostering of her musical career, even though eventually that would mean a loss for us. We are close to hiring new music and faith formation staff; in the interim, our St. Martha Music Directors Anne DiSanto & Jeff Johnson and others will help cover Masses at St. Mary.

Jillian, we hope and pray the next chapter of your life, music, and faith journey will be as blessed as your time here has been for us!