Pastor's Welcome

A message from our Pastor, Father Joe Mozer

Our Collaborative Values
Love - Welcoming - Compassion - Boldness

As a teenager, I found great love and support in my home parish, and it was in the parish community that I experienced my vocation to become a priest, so it is humbling and fulfilling that I am now called to be pastor of our two parish families. Our relationships really are like family relationships. Fr. Bill and I are like brothers, and our two parishes are like extended family with each other. As a priest, I am called to be like a spiritual father to both the young and "adult children" of the Church; as adults, we're all called to a more mature relationship with God and one another. As a celibate, I strive to live out the ways celibate love bears some similarities to a spousal commitment; Fr. Bill and I both value this analogy, where we are called to live a committed love with the community of people we serve.

            I love that St. Martha Parish is a more intimate community, and I admire the people of St. Martha for your perseverance and steadfast hope for our future. I love that St. Mary (unlike many parishes today) is truly multi-generational, with a youthful spirit. Each of our parishes is unique, a special gift to the wider communities of Plainville and Wrentham in which we have important roles to play.

            I pray that my joy in being a priest and my excitement for our lives together as sisters and brothers in Christ come through in all my interactions with you. Among my dreams for our years together, I have great hopes:

• that Fr. Bill & I can provide stable priest relationships & continuity in priestly leadership for several years to come
• that I can use my enthusiasm, training and experience to inspire and organize the communities within each of our parishes to live our faith ever more fruitfully and joyfully
• that we can take this opportunity before us to move forward as disciples of Christ, strengthen our mutual support as a collaborative, and work together to grow our parish families.

            One of my most important obligations as pastor is to pray for you. To be able to serve you well as your pastor, I need your prayers and support. I can't do this without God's grace, and without your input and active participation in parish life, our parishes will never grow to be the vibrant communities of faith and love that we are called to be. In this spirit of mutual support, I humbly ask for your ongoing prayers in the years to come, and I pledge to pray daily for you in the liturgy and in a special prayer I offer for you adapted from Ephesians 3:14-21 (see below).

With love and rich blessings in Christ,
Fr. Joe

A Priest's Prayer for Those He Serves

Heavenly Father,
Father of these communities of St. Martha Parish and St. Mary Parish,
Families that you love, families that I love
and ask that I may always love more,

Bestow on this extended family
Gifts in keeping with the riches of your glory. 
Strengthen the members of these families inwardly
Through the working of your Spirit.

May Christ dwell in their hearts through faith,
And may love be the root and foundation of their lives.
Let them grasp fully the breadth and length and height and dept of Christ's love
And experience this love which surpasses all knowledge. 

To you, Father, whose power now working within us
Can do infinitely more than we can ask or imagine,
To you be glory in Christ Jesus
Through all generations.

Amen.