Pastor's Note: January 5, 2025

Friends,

Happy New Year! Father Ken, Mr. Ben and I would like to extend a heartfelt word of gratitude, appreciation and love for all the cards, gifts and food-goodies we received over the Christmas Season. We feel so blessed and honored to be called to serve you as priests and shepherds, fellow-disciples of Jesus, and members of this community. Please know that we feel, receive and appreciate your love for us and know that we love you, too!

With the new calendar year comes a wide variety of activity here at the parish. Let’s start with “institutional happenings”: enrollment from the 2025-26 and the planning process for the next fiscal year. Our education apostolate has been participating in the School Improvement Process for the last year or so and that is ending this next year. We’ve got a lot of great ideas about how to enrich our education apostolate and now the principal and faculty will get to work prioritizing and implementing some of those ideas.  And believe it or not, but we’re already planning for the summer: painting the first floor of the school building and planning for the 2025-26 school year. 

Now, let’s turn to “spiritual happenings”. My top priority remains the High Call to Mission Initiative and forming “small church communities” to enrich our community and fulfill the fundamental Mission of the Church and our Parish: to make Disciples of Jesus Christ. The first cohort of the High Call was a success and we’ll be launching Phase 2 here in a couple of weeks so keep an eye on the bulletin (and I’ll be presenting from the pulpit at some point). Commensurate with that is the work of a group using a book called, The Clear Path, to review the life of parish and make sure we have the right resources in the right places to optimize our ability to Preach the Gospel, Celebrate the Sacraments and Make Disciples in everything we do. 

To that end, I want to invite you to participate in two special apostolates this new year:

1. To the men of our parish: Exodus 90. Exodus 90 is a Discipleship-making, holiness-generating, conversion-catalyzing, adventure-stirring initiative that has exploded in popularity here at MQP over the last 3-5 years. I strongly encourage every man in the parish to give some serious thought and prayer to participating in this year’s cohort of Exodus 90. For more information, or to sign up, contact James Chalmers: call or text (816)835-6325.

2. To the women of parish: Beloved 90. Same deal as Exodus 90 but this one if specifically geared to speak to, as St. Pope John Paul II calls it, the “genius of women. For more information, or to sign up, contact Mary Burke at [email protected] or (314) 962-2311. 

Ladies and Gentlemen: these two apostolates will change our lives for the better in ways we can’t even imagine. We will encounter the life and teachings of our Lord Jesus, his Church, and our community in new ways.  And we will not disappointed. We may be challenged, we may be stretched, we may be surprised, but we won’t be disappointed. And we have nothing to lose. Nothing but that which the Father doesn’t want for us anyways! 

Happy and Blessed New Year to you and your family!