By Susan Munn
Thank you to everyone who helped and participated in Father Sean's last official mass last week at Holy Rosary. We had a good time together. Father Sean is on a well-deserved break. He will return after July 24th to spend his last weekend at St. George's. And then on to Our Lady of Mount Carmel. He seems to be following Father Dan Hawkins who is there temporarily! There are two cards circulating for Father Sean; so please sign these. The cards will be at the back of the church - just ask the greeters if you don't see them immediately.
Father Sean, Deacon Mathew and the parish office are in touch with our new Pastoral administrator Father Francis Ndey who will begin in August. People ask what that title means. A pastoral administrator is a pastor who is still responsible for the pastoral and administrative needs of the parish but doesn't have a formal contract with dates. QMHR has had many pastoral administrators over the years so this is not new. Father Francis will spend 50% of his time at Holy Rosary and 50% at the Diocesan Centre. We are excited to meet him in person. There is an extreme shortage of available priests compared to the number of parishes; so this is impacting assignments throughout the Diocese. This situation and the true awareness of our own Baptism is calling us (the laity) to have a greater role in the Church to help this situation. This is being echoed by Pope Francis. Please pray for vocations and our priests!
The same theme appears in this week's Gospel: "But as for what was sown on good soil, this is the one who hears the word and understands it, who indeed bears fruit and yields, in one case a hundredfold, in another sixty, and in another thirty." We have a strong foundation - 76 years as a parish and over 125 years of welcoming people - young, old, newcomers, refugees, the poor and those seeking the love of Jesus. We must continue to evolve and grow as a faith community in service to others. Onward!