Getting Back On Track

Those of you who are longtime readings of this blog know I used to write articles at least weekly here on various topics and events. It’s been at least several months since I have posted anything on a regular basis besides my Sunday homilies.  Honestly, the only reason the homilies got posted regularly is because I preach every Sunday so why not spend five minutes to post the homilies.

It used to be that I only posted my homilies if there was a particular point in the homily I wanted to offer here.  Some parishioners asked me to start posting the homilies on a regular basis so I did.  I’m happy to post the homilies here but the downside was as long as I was posting the homilies, when I got busy, I never made it a priority to write much else. However, this was just an excuse.  Those who read the article I posted a couple of weeks ago when I didn’t preach may have a better sense of what kept me from posting.

We went from mid January to the start of August without a Finance Director.  Our current bookkeeper was just hired shortly before.  She worked hard but was just learning about everything herself.  We were also fortunate to have four generous parishioners who are all retired business persons step up the plate to volunteer to help and a part-time person who helped.  Without their help I don’t know how we would have managed. Even with their help, I took on a lot of extra responsibility.

I overworked myself to exhaustion and grew weary.  There were a lot of days when I felt more like an administrator than a priest. In the middle of all this our Cemetery Caretaker resigned.  Fortunately (Thanks be to God), it didn’t take too long to find a great replacement at the cemetery. Part of me believes I handled things well but I know I didn’t always handle them well.  I am also aware that, however well I managed, the only reason I managed as well as I did is simple, The Grace of God.   Without God’s grace things would have worse.

The new Finance Director is working hard and learning the ropes.  I’m working with him but finding more and more time to be a priest and a pastor.  It’s going to take a while to get everything back on track but we are getting there.  Just last Saturday I was doing some “pastor work” and just stopped and realized how wonderful it felt to be getting back on track.  I’m not there but with God’s help we are getting there.

Thank you to all who have been praying for me and the parish during this time. I thank those who helped and for the rest of the staff and parishioners for being patient with me. I hope to start writing more here soon.

Peace,

Fr. Jeff