Dear Parish Family,
I hope you are all enjoying the nice, summer-like weather this week. Our Sunday evening youth group (Metanoia Youth Ministry) has launched at the parish, and the Fall Alpha courses are beginning this week. Also, our 33 Days to Eucharistic Glory Book Pilgrimage has started (yesterday!).
Things are coming together as we establish our routines and plans for the fall.
As we all embrace this changing of seasons together, I want to share a few updates for your information, prayer and consideration: Firstly, Kate Pinto, Our Grow Together and Evangelize Coordinator has been hired part-time at Sacred Heart School of Halifax. For her, this is an unexpected yet welcomed opportunity. We believe God is behind all this, so we trust His purposes and timing. Here at the parish, Kate will remain part-time as the Evangelize Coordinator. (Sigh of relief.) We now need to begin the hiring process for the part-time position of our Grow Together Coordinator found on our webpage. Please pray that God’s timing will fill this position before Advent, if not earlier. I will keep you all posted as things progress. Let us keep Kate in our prayers as she begins this new season in her life.
Secondly, For the Eucharistic Congress in our Archdiocese this October, our parish has an opportunity to pause to focus on this wondrous miracle. Since Jesus is truly present with us in the Eucharist, we want to show Him our faith and reverence by times of kneeling at the Mass. The Knights of Columbus, along with Pat Monahan, are constructing and installing kneelers at our parish so that all (who are physically able) may kneel before Jesus, our King. I am told that we can expect the installation sometime over the next two weeks. At a later date, a second phase may consist of putting padding on the existing kneelers to match the colour and softness of the new kneelers. I hope and pray that this will be a welcome way for us, as a parish, to demonstrate our faith in the Real Presence at Mass tangibly.
Finally, to acknowledge the former churches comprising Holy Trinity parish, a statue of St. Elizabeth Ann Seton will be mounted at the entrance to the church hall downstairs. As we begin the Ignite program this weekend, I will officially name the Parish Hall as the St. Elizabeth Ann Seton Hall. As a devoted catechist and evangelizer of the young, this will be a suitable patron as we prepare children for Sacraments and journey with families to learn more about our beautiful faith. In the future, we will designate another area for St. Francis of Assisi; stay tuned. Earlier this month, we designated a new space in the basement. Since Blessed Carlo Acutis is a famous, modern patron among our youth, the new Youth Ministry Room in the church basement has been named in his honour. In this time of the Eucharistic Congress, Blessed Carlo is worth learning about, as he devoted himself, during his short life, to spreading, via the internet, numerous Eucharistic miracles throughout history.
I want to express my heartfelt gratitude to each one of you for your support, prayers, and commitment to our parish. I am truly blessed to be part of this community. I will limit my message to these three main points for now, but I look forward to all that the Good Lord has in store for us. As we continue to keep our hearts open, become explosively alive in the Holy Spirit, strengthen our community, and transform the world for Jesus, I am confident that we will achieve great things together.
Sincerely in the Lord,
Fr. Tim Devine, CC