It is hard to believe how fast time flies! I tell time to slow down, but time does not listen! It feels like yesterday that Fr. Verbsky moved in and started serving us here, and now we find ourselves at his last weekend with us. As you can imagine, this time of the year Fr. David is packing his things up and Fr. Cameron is unpacking his things here. In the midst of this, I also tried to move things out and declutter. In the process of this, I found a few bulletins from Fr. Suso’s farewell weekend. In the bulletin article, Fr. Bline did a great job explaining what a gift St. Francis de Sales Parish is for a newly ordained priest…
“The best way I know how to thank God for sending [Fr. David] to us is by acknowledging how much YOU have been used as the instrument of God’s love and formation for His newly ordained priest. YOU let him know the dryness of your life so he could refresh you with enlightening words of hope from his powerful and intelligent homilies, and be nourished with Christ’s Body and Blood, Soul and Divinity through his priestly hands. YOU entrusted your children to him so they might come to believe in the Truth and beauty of our Catholic faith even in the midst of a political and media driven world that just does not know how to want it any more…especially from a Catholic priest. YOU let him walk your brides and grooms on a covenantal journey bound by Christ’s love and not just their own. YOU called him to touch your loved one’s lives with consecrated oil so that they might know true healing or be led to Heaven’s glory. YOU waited in lines and made your appointments to ask him to share with you your confessing hearts and desire to be made whole again through Christ’s complete forgiveness. YOU truly let him be in persona Christi (in the person of Jesus Christ), so he might begin to know the awesome joys of serving you and loving you by laying down his life as your priest. Do YOU realize what kind of a start you have given him? God ordained him as His sacred priest for eternity, but YOU have loved him into knowing what it means to be a priest now.” Thank you, Fr. David, for your love and service to the people here! It’s been a joy and privilege to walk these years with you.
St. Francis de Sales, St. Francis Xavier, Our Lady Help of Christians, pray for us!
Fr. Jeremy
