A Place for Something More

Dear Parishioners,

Welcome to the new year. As we close a year we always are spurred to reflect on our lives. We think about where we have been and what we want to do in the future. 2025 was certainly a year that has been full of activity at Sacred Heart Parish.

The question is what do we do next? We have been engaged in a program with Our Sunday Visitor called “Welcoming Pathways.” The object of this initiative is to try and encourage families to attend Sunday Mass. At Christmas we passed out brochures to everyone who attended Mass. We all notice that there are more people in church than normal during the holidays. The challenge is to get parishioners to attend Mass more often after the Christmas rush is over. The brochures that we shared had snippets of information about upcoming events on our calendar that could be of interest to people.

I recently read about a survey of young Catholics that showed that the young are more religiously inclined than we might imagine. I notice people of all ages coming to explore our parish community. We are living through difficult times. Materialism and self-absorption do not provide meaning in a person’s life. There is a desire for something more.

We are called to invite people to follow Jesus. We do this by exploring our own belief about our Lord and by being able to share that belief with others. I encourage all of us to rededicate ourselves to the celebration of the sacraments and to participate in our parish community.

We can all model what an engaged Christian looks like. Perhaps that can be a new year’s resolution.

Blessings,

Fr. Mark