Join in the Hope-Filled Planning

We are coming through another challenging winter in New England. The early darkness, frigid temperatures and snow, the return of cold and flu season, the waning pandemic, and ongoing debates about how we should be responding... If you are feeling low on energy, strained relationships, or your patience running thin, you are not alone. In some ways, the past month or so has felt to many people like the “heartbreak hill” in the marathon of the past two years. Yet there are also many signs that we are cresting that hill, “passing by Boston College” and beginning the downslope that makes it easier to keep fighting through the strain toward the finish line!

In our collaborative parishes, we are experiencing the typical slowdown of activities after the busy Advent and Christmas seasons, exacerbated a bit by the surge postponing a few events. But don’t let the quieter calendar fool you – many of our planning teams are working behind the scenes to prepare for an engaging Lenten season and hope-filled spring. The Senior Connections Committee and Sunday Experience Team meetings are evaluating recent activities and planning new ones. Plans for our Lenten Mission 2022 are coming together, and a few people are starting to look ahead to celebrating the gift of our parishes and the priesthood on the occasion of my silver jubilee. We have also formed a small but hard working PWC Survey Committee to develop and implement a custom survey of both active and inactive Catholics in the Plainville-Wrentham area, which will guide a new Plan Writing Team in updating our Local Pastoral Plan priorities and goals for the next three years.

During our welcome back initiative last year we saw an increase in new volunteers, which helps bring new ideas and energy to our plans for the future. If you are interested in any of these efforts, please contact me this week to learn more about them. We could especially use anyone with experience running surveys or making long range plans and goals. Meetings allow for online participation if you can’t be here in person. By your prayers and your participation, you can be part of the instruments God uses to guide and power our continuous renewal in faith and action! God bless you all.

Fr. Joe