From the Heart of the Shepherd

From the bulletin for The Third Sunday of Easter (May 04)

Project Updates on Matters Various and Sundry

Phew! Perhaps you too feel like we are just surfacing for air. After an early “spring” Bible Study, we plunged into a torrid Lenten season, then ascended the summit of a very special Triduum which blossomed in a flurry of Easter activity this past week with the record-setting Rummage Sale and our parish patron family feast. Now, perhaps for the first time since January, it’s just a “regular week”... except for the May Crowning this Sunday and the fact that the Church is pope-less and preparing for CONCLAVE2025. Time for some parish updates. 

One massive undertaking that has been going on in the background (from many of your vantages, I imagine) is the Campus Master Plan project. We inaugurated it last summer (pretty sure I told you all) and though it is far from wrapping up, the work is gaining momentum and clarity by the day. The goal, again, is to develop a long-term plan for our parish campus that serves our mission in this new stage of its history. Effectively, like good Catholics our parish family has received a hand-me-down suit (i.e. our campus) from our older siblings in the faith. Though made of the best material, it just doesn’t fit well (pretty loose in the limbs) and is rather worn thin in many places. So we are talking to tailors to see what can be done. 

Shedding metaphors, those involved in parish leadership are realizing with ever-greater clarity that we simply can’t afford to maintain our aged buildings as they are without a comprehensive vision for their use. From a parish standpoint, roughly 70% of our school building and parish center go underused. Yet a startling proportion of our annual budget goes to heat and maintain them. (If you are wondering why the parish so consistently runs a substantial budget deficit, know that the buildings–with all their “expected unexpected” repairs–are the principal reason.) And though time and again the Lord (through His generous servants… and once through COVID cash) has often made use of unexpected means to resolve the deficit before year’s end, good stewardship requires that we find a way to ensure our parish assets are not a drain on our limited resources, and that we get the parish to a place of long-term financial sustainability. 

After completing a campus inventory last fall (in which we took stock of all our parish facilities, their state of repair, current usage statistics, etc.), the committee is now waist-deep in exploring what options are feasible going forward. Though initially we were prepared to “dream together” about many possible uses to which our underused facilities could be put, we’ve learned that in reality our options are much more limited. Once the committee has completed its investigation into the viable alternatives, I plan to share its findings with the parish. The end result needs to be informed by the whole parish family and a plan we are all excited to get behind to help implement. Though hard work, it’s very exciting and most timely. Please keep the work of the committee in your prayers. 

Secondly, it’s time again to sign up for photos for the new directory!  😄 Just kidding. This time last year we were taking photos for the new directory, and as some occasionally remind the front office, that directory is so “new” that it still doesn’t exist. When the company rep told me that parishes usually take much longer to put things together for printing, I laughed. “That won’t happen to us; not St. Mark’s!” Well, here we are a year later. You can fault your pastor, who may have started to build a tower not realizing how much effort it was going to cost. But two bits of good news. First, most of you don’t look a day older than last April. Even more believably, I am told that the directory is very near completion and will indeed be sent off to the printer any day now. In any case, I interpret the prolonged chanting of the angry crowd that regularly gathers outside my bedroom window in the early mornings (“Stop loafing about the rectory! Get to work on our directory!”) as evidence of the earnest desire you all have to know one another better. Patience! 

From the Heart of the Shepherd: Divine Mercy Sunday