Hi folks,
This year I am filled with gratitude! I am grateful to God for all he is doing in the lives of our parishioners, and I am grateful for your ‘Yes’. As you read these pages full of testimonies, and hopefully look online at some of the full videos testimonies, I am so moved by the people whose lives have been transformed by our Lord, and I hope you are too. God is good!
I want to briefly mention to you that our partnership with St. Willibrord parish in Verdun is also bearing much fruit. Fr. Garrick and his team have built a parish that went from a couple of dozen people to now having more than 180 people on a Sunday. They also have outreach ministries that are making a significant impact and are an important part of the community. I encourage you to continue to support their food bank and soup kitchen, as well as their Alpha, which has borne much fruit.
Their success is emboldening us in our desire to ‘plant’ into another parish in the near future, as we want to multiply our impact and have more lives transformed by the power and love of God. To that end we will be welcoming in a new priest this summer to serve as my associate and apprentice with us. He is part of a religious order that is interested in pursuing a strategic partnership with us to learn from our model of ‘church planting’. What we are doing here at St. Ignatius matters to the global church and can have far reaching implications. Therefore we will also found a separate organization that will lead these initiatives, and thus allow us to focus on our parish and building up joyful leaders and missionary disciples.
All this is because of your generous yes to our mission and vision for a thriving, joyful community, and to creating opportunities for all of us to grow closer to God, letting him transform our lives.
God Bless you all
Fr. Michael
