Dear Parishioners,

     This month we bid farewell to Fr. Kevin Upham.  I hope that you can make it to his farewell party at the Cathedral Guild Hall on Sunday, October 15^th at 2:00PM.  Fr. Kevin has dedicated over five years to our parishes and has served with great generosity and kindness.  As he continues and increases his ministry in our hospitals, it is important to send him off with our best wishes and prayers!

     This Sunday, October 1^st, I am beginning a multi-week series on the anatomy of the Mass on Sunday evenings following Vespers and before the new evening Mass (6:00-6:30PM in the chapel).  If you are interested in learning more about the Mass in a very practical, hands on, way, I think you would find this series helpful.  We will explore the various roles, ritual elements, vessels, vestments, sacred spaces in an informal, conversational way.  Hope you can make it.

     This weekend we are distributing our Pastoral and Administrative Annual Report.  It was a lot easier to put together this year, since we really developed the boilerplate for it last year.  I encourage you to please take a copy and bring it home to read, so that you can familiarize yourself with the various dimensions of our parish life.  As you are reading, I invite you to reflect with the Lord about your relationship to your parish.  What is it that you are offering of yourself to our parish family?  How have you been able to connect with your brothers and sisters in Christ in this past year?  Are there new ways and opportunities to deepen your relationship with Christ and the Church that you might be able to pursue in the year ahead?

     A parish is not merely a community center, religious club, or charitable organization.  The parish is our little piece of the Body of Christ – a flock gathered together by our Good Shepherd who is leading us together toward green pastures.  Our parish flocks include not only those sheep who are gathered around the Shepherd on Sundays, but every sheep that lives in our pasture, which is made up of the Portland Peninsula, Islands, and other surrounding communities.  There are many sheep who have wandered quite far from the Shepherd in our time.  They are our brothers and sisters, sheep of the flock of the Lord like us.  Parishes give us the opportunity to provide a focus point that can lead others back to the shepherd.  A lone shepherd is difficult to see well on the horizon or to hear above the wind.  But when surrounded by his flock, their own voices (though not as beautiful) can amplify his, their own bodies can make his body more visible to those who are at a distance.  Thus, the Shepherd is able to call his sheep back to himself even through this very simple, ordinary and routine faithfulness of his flock that has raised their voices and are gathered around him. 

     Let us ask the Lord to help us to stay close to him, to eat the spiritual food he gives us in harmony and peace, and to raise our voices in gentle clarity so that others can be drawn closer to him.  Through the grace of God, may our parish life resemble more and more each day the life of a healthy, vibrant, and growing flock gathered together around our Good Shepherd.  Sending prayers your way!

Fr. Seamus