Dear Brothers and Sisters in Faith:
Well, my friends, this will be my last bulletin article. It
seems so short a time ago that I was writing the very
first one of these little letters to you because the past
three years have simply flown by for Joanne and me.
So much as happened in the life of the parish . . . as I
look back I remember the first weeks I came here as
your new pastoral administrator when the tabernacle
was to be placed so that it could be seen by all in the
church and the sound system was due for an upgrade.
Later on came the need to dispose of sacred artifacts
from St. Leo the Great church and to put the property
up for sale, and how only the church and adjoining
land are still for sale, while the St. Leo cemetery re-
mains the responsibility of St. Vincent de Paul parish.
When our friends at Mt Pleasant Sacred Heart reno-
vated they gave us their ‘Gather Comprehensive’
hymnals; I asked Bill Daniels and Bob Wachowski to
build new book cases for the hymnals and what a
wonderful job they did.
The ‘Traveling Chalice’ from St. Leo church still circu-
lates among your homes on a weekly basis; it serves
as a reminder to pray to the Lord for an increase in
vocations to the priesthood, diaconate, and religious
life for our Church, diocese, and parish. In this regard,
Stephen Blaxton of our parish is a seminarian studying
for the priesthood. Also, we have two individuals (Gerri
Clark and Morgan Monte) in formation to eventually
become Commissioned Lay Ministers.
Shortly after arriving in Shepherd I began offering
Word & Communion Services on Wednesday eve-
nings at the St. Patrick site. These have continued for
all three years. They are followed by a pot luck dinner
in the church hall. These have been very successful
and have proved to be a real blessing for me.
These are just a few of the highlights of the past three
years. It would take a really long epistle to enumerate
all the ups and downs, but in the last minute I just want
to say thank you to every one of you who have helped
make this time go by so quickly through your kind, lov-
ing, and generous support of Joanne and me for the
past three years.
I hope you have a Christ-filled week!
St. Vincent de Paul, pray for us!
May the Holy Spirit always be with you.
Deacon Mike