Happy Sunday!

This Sunday we are glad to welcome Fr. Matt Lowry in his role as Episcopal Vicar of the North. Fr. Matt is celebrating the 8:00am Mass to install me as pastor of SFdA. It’s hard for me to believe that it’s already been 5 months that I’ve been back in Flagstaff. I love it here and am incredibly grateful to Bishop Dolan for asking me to serve as pastor here at San Francisco de Asis. Thank you to all of you for welcoming me back so warmly. It has been such an easy transition to come back here and I am thankful for each of you.

Happy Sunday!

I hope everyone is doing well as we prepare for Thanksgiving. I have a number of exciting updates. First, you heard last weekend that Bishop Dolan is assigning us a new parochial vicar, Fr. Carlos Gomez, beginning on Fri, Dec 1. Fr. Gomez was the pastor of St. Augustine in Phoenix for the last 17 years. He is currently finishing his sabbatical and is looking forward to coming here.

Dear members of SFdA community,

First of all, I would like to express my deep gratitude to Fr. Dan Connealy, to the parish staff, and to all of you for your love, care, support, and prayers since I came to this parish for my pastoral year. I am so blessed to be part of this wonderful community. It has been a great experience for me. I am so grateful to God for each one of you.

Happy Sunday!

It’s good to be back from retreat and see everyone. Thank you so much for all of your prayers. In the week and a half before I left for my retreat I had four funerals. I want to offer a special thank you to all of our funeral volunteers. We have so many wonderful people dedicated to serving families in their time of grief. Many people give up weekday mornings to come and lector for a funeral or simply attend. In fact, at one of the funerals, the person who died only had her daughter and son in law present.

Happy Sunday!

I am writing this ahead of time since I will be finishing up my retreat this weekend. Thank you for your prayers for me while away. This week we have a Holy Day of Obligation on Wednesday, November 1st. Please see the Mass schedule in the bulletin for the Mass times and locations. I will be back for all of these Masses.

Happy Sunday!

This past Friday I left for my retreat. I will be gone until All Saints’ Day. Please keep me in your prayers during this time of retreat. I am grateful for Fr. Peter and the Newman priests for covering Masses, confessions, and sick calls while I am away. At first, when I found out I would be the only priest for a few months I was hesitant to take my already scheduled retreat. However, our office staff and these priests have been incredibly gracious in helping cover the needs of the parish while I am away.

Happy Sunday!

As the semester gains steam it makes me thankful for all the wonderful volunteers we have in our parish. One way that many of you volunteer is by bringing Holy Communion to the sick and homebound. A few weeks ago on a Sunday, one of our wonderful volunteers reached out and told me they had just been to visit someone in the hospital who was very ill and dying. The gentleman (we can call him Leo) had asked to be baptized. Leo was in his mid thirties and had been sick for a while. Our volunteer prayed with him and soon reached out to me to see if baptism was possible. That Sunday I had all the Masses, but being able to go see Leo after the last Mass of the day was so energizing!

Happy Sunday!

We are a week into October and I can’t believe it. Time has flown quickly since I’ve been and I’ve been grateful for every moment. Thank you for welcoming me back to Flagstaff so warmly. As October gets going we have much to look forward to. This past week on the 4th we celebrated the Feast of St. Francis of Assisi, our patron. St. Francis was very special to me before I was first assigned here.

Happy Sunday!

Thank you to everyone who showed up to Texas Roadhouse this week to support our school fundraiser. It was a great evening and fun to see so many of you there. Please keep our middle and high school students in prayer this coming Saturday. We will be hosting a retreat all day for them. It should be a great day, as of this writing I’m not sure if registration is closed but I’m sure it never hurts to reach out to Katherine Buckley if your middle or high schooler is interested in attending!

Happy Sunday!

I hope everyone had a great week. It’s hard to believe that I’m coming up on just three months back here at SFdA. It has been so good to be here and be the pastor of this wonderful parish. Thank you everyone for being so kind, welcoming, and patient with me. I look forward to many years here!

Happy Sunday!

This week the priests of our diocese will gather here in Flagstaff for our annual Priest Convocation. This is a unique time of year when we gather together as a presbyterate to share prayer, community, and discuss topics pertinent to our priestly ministry. The main portion of this week will be spent together listening to presentations on evangelization in the modern world. It’s always a good time when we can gather together and take time apart to rejuvenate.

Happy Sunday!

I hope everyone had a restful Labor Day weekend last week. By now you have probably seen our seminarian for the year, Joseph Nguyen, serving Mass here. Joseph is a seminarian for our diocese in his final year of academic studies for the priesthood. He has been assigned to our parish for the year as part of his formation. You will see him serving Mass, teaching classes, assisting with youth group, and much more throughout the year. If you get a chance, please stop and introduce yourself to him.

Happy Sunday!

Happy Labor Day weekend to everyone! It’s pretty wild that September is already here. We’re a month into the school year already and things are off to a great start. As we look forward in September the parish continues to increase in activity. Religious Education, Youth Group, and RCIA will all be getting underway. If you are an adult who has never received the Sacrament of Confirmation please reach out to Michael Vollmer about receiving this Sacrament. Confirmation will be conferred in the spring but a semester-long class called “Renew Our Faith”can be taken this fall to prepare for Confirmation in the spring. This class begins September 18 and runs every Monday from 4:15-5:45pm. Hope to see you there!