Over the past more than thirty years, I’ve been welcomed into any number of communities.

Sometimes—think the first days in a seminary—it was a highly organized, incredibly active orientation program. Occasionally, it’s the cookies and punch reception after Sunday Mass. In one parish, I was intrigued that the cookies were precisely lined up, and since they were the chessmen cookies, they were organized in rook, pawn, and bishop piles. I thought that might be a sign that that particular parish would be extremely organized in all parts of its life. I was completely wrong! But, I was certainly welcomed.

This weekend we begin to welcome Fr. Dias Antony to St. Boniface Parish (and ultimately to St. Ann Parish this fall). I’m looking forward to once again sharing the rectory. More importantly, I’m looking forward to sharing our priestly responsibilities. I’m not one of the pastors who believe the parochial vicar is there to do the things that the pastor doesn’t want to do! I’ll try to be attentive to make sure that you all see both of us as much as possible. And I hope we’ll be able to manage to continue in that vein when St. Ann Parish becomes part of our pastoral responsibility.

But, in these weeks, I suspect we’ll do a good bit of introducing Father to people and places. I want him to taste the flavor and the spirit of our community.

Please help in whatever way you can. Introduce yourselves. Reintroduce yourselves—that actually helps us a lot! Engage conversation. Invite. Discover the things we have in common. Explore the ways we're each different. Be part of building a community of priests and people, united in our great pilgrimage of hope towards God’s kingdom.