Father’s Notebook - September 10, 2019

Greetings brothers and sisters,

How can it be September already!? It seems like just yesterday, it was July and I was just starting at Most Holy Trinity. The parish is beginning to buzz with activity now that Summer is coming to an end. I just wanted to give you a quick rundown of all the things that will be happening in the following months.

September 18th @ 6pm
Youth Ministry (7th-11th grade) Kick-off

September 21st @ 8:30am
Altar Server Training Day (for both old and new servers) 

September 23rd
CCE (K-6th) Kick-off

September 28th @ 10am
Children’s Adoration

September 28th @ 6:15pm
Young Adult (age 18-35) Backyard BBQ with Fr. Khoi

October 6th
PARISH BAZAAR at KC Hall

October 26-27th
Parish Ministry Fair

And these are only the big things and not including all the ministries that we have meeting and putting on small events as well! What a blessing it is to be a shepherd at such a vibrant and active parish.

Sometimes in the midst of what we are doing, we can forget why we are doing them and even worst who we are doing them for.

After the Resurrection, Jesus appeared to his disciples and gave them (and us) a clear mission of what they were to go and do:

“Jesus came and said to them, ‘All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me. Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, and teaching them to obey everything that I have commanded you. And remember, I am with you always, to the end of the age.’” – Matthew 28:18-20 

This is our mission. In some sense, all of us have been commissioned by Jesus to be missionaries. If I could, I think I would like to get rid of the word “volunteers” in the church and just replace it with “missionaries” or “missionary disciples”. It would better define just what we are called to do here at Most Holy Trinity. But this is not only my desire, but it is also the Holy Father’s desire.

“I dream of a ‘missionary option’, that is, a missionary impulse capable of transforming everything...for the evangelization of today’s world...” – Pope Francis, Evangelii Gaudium 27

To be a missionary means that I am sent by someone, by Christ, and that it’s not my own initiative to volunteer. It means also that where I am sent, it is for the people and not just a task to accomplish. Where being a volunteer could simply be that I choose to go, to do some task, in order to help people... Missionaries are sent by Christ, for people, in order to make disciples.

I will keep you in my prayers this week and offer a Mass for all of you.

Pax Christi,
Fr. Khoi