Amen Generosity

Dear Friends in Christ,

Generosity begets generosity, and God has given us everything: our life, our health, our family, our vocation to love, our parish, and our Church. Not only that, although “all of us have sinned and fall short of the glory of God, now all are undeservedly justified by the gift of God in Jesus Christ!” When Lauren Daigle sings, “What have I done to deserve love like this?” the answer is “Nothing” as it was in the beginning, with “creation ex nihilo”!

As we “approach God with praise and thanksgiving,” we also recognize that God is calling us to a “Greater Mission” than individual holiness and sanctification. By God’s manifold gifts, he is “equipping us for the work of ministry” for building up his body the Church, until we are all “one body, one spirit in Christ.” How, then, shall we live? Scripture exhorts us: “The gift you have received, give as a gift!”

Because of the generosity of the Archdiocese of Washington, we are beginning again with a program of parish renewal called “Greater Mission/ Amen Generosity.” Rediscovering ourselves, individually and as small groups within the parish family as “generous distributors of God’s manifold gifts,” we are not concerned that “Not many of us are wise by human standards; not many influential; not many of noble birth:( 1 Cor. 1:26). As St. John Paul II says: “The future for us remains an unknown quantity, which we now accept without anxiety. Love has overcome anxiety. The future depends on love.”

Throughout my years as a priest, I have seen God’s generosity time and again, and believe that “the workhe has begun in us he will bring to completion.” God is faithful to his word to us in Psalm 91, and made us a refuge for many throughout the pandemic who had nowhere else to go. He sustained us and continues to sustain us through multiple attacks because we bore witness to the truth.

Because God has begun again his work of rebuilding his house, we can:

1. Welcome all back to community and fellowship just as they are, and find and invite all those from “the highways and byways” to come that the banquet be full;

2. Build on the success of parish-wide and small-group community retreats in fulfilling our parish mission of bringing the day of Pentecost to fulfillment;

3. Pay back debt while simultaneously moving forward as “the parish Church in Little Rome.”

More information will be shared in the weeks ahead. For now, thank you for being a part of this family of faith, and never giving up on God’s love! Let us pray!

Peace,

Father Fred Close
Pastor