Dear Friends,
It gave me great joy to present the State of the Parish to you last weekend. I am deeply grateful to God for blessing us with His presence. We have been blessed with so many families, a wonderful staff team, and an amazing number of Ministry Volunteers who keep our operations going. We certainly could not do all we are doing without these generous and amazing people who are in love with God and with our community. I am also grateful to all of you for your incredible generosity toward making our parish a most vibrant community.
As you know, our elections are around the corner. I request that you keep our country in prayer. And as you prepare to cast your vote, please know that, as Catholics, we have a greater responsibility to be accountable for how we vote. We are called to faithful citizenship. Unlike others who might not have them, we have many amazing resources for properly forming and cultivating our conscience, which comes from God. One of these resources is the Florida Conference of Catholic Bishops’ website. Please visit the site for guidelines about exercising our right to vote and what issues are at stake: https://flaccb.org/election-materials-and-guidelines.
I take this opportunity to thank Joanne Fusco, who has served as President of the Parish Council for the past 6 years and is now stepping down. She has worked with me diligently and tirelessly, in such a very humble way, keeping the parish focused on things that matter. Joanne, you are a huge blessing to us! As I thank her for her leadership, I extend a warm welcome to Mike Moss, who is taking on the role of the President of the Parish Council. He brings with him many years of involvement in a variety of ministries at St. John’s. We are very proud of him and his wife Cathy.
I am very happy to announce the creation of another ministry: The Ministry of Spiritual Direction. Information about the start date and other details will be given at a later date.
We are blessed to have among us Cheryl Sansone, who received a certificate as a Spiritual Director through St. Thomas University in Miami in 1997. She has served as a spiritual director in three other dioceses in Florida. She is already serving a few of our parishioners. We are also blessed to now have a person who will lead the Ministry. Let me introduce to you Brother Tom Giumenta, C.S.C., a Holy Cross Brother, who has retired recently and come to live at the Congregation’s retirement home in Cocoa Beach.
As you know, religious never retire. They continue to serve the Lord and the people around them. In that spirit, shortly after Brother Tom arrived, he approached me to offer his expertise in the field of Spiritual Direction. He is a Certified Addictions Counselor (C.A.C.) from Parkside Medical Services. He has had wide range of teaching experience in our High Schools, Universities, and parishes as an Addiction and Family Counselor. He is fluent in Spanish, having served as principal of Fe y Alegria School in Lima, Peru. He also served as Summer Residence Hall Director at the University of Portland. I am so very grateful to him for his generous offer to help our parish. A hearty welcome, dear Brother Tom! I look forward to when this ministry will be available to our parishioners.
In my presentation last week on the State of the Parish, I mentioned Our Catholic Appeal 2024 and how grateful I am to the 38.4% of our parishioners who came forward to support this Diocesan program. As you well know, this fund supports a number of important programs throughout the diocese. Here is a list of some of the things that Our Catholic Appeal has been able to accomplish this year, thanks in part to your generosity:
- Catholic Charities has been able to serve more of our neighbors in need
- The Office of Schools has been able to adapt to meet needs of students and
- The Office of Laity, Family and Life has been able to create more faith formation programs for our youth and adults.
- Retired priests are now part of a comprehensive healthcare
As we enter into the 26th Sunday of Ordinary Time, Year B, our scripture readings invite us to reflect on how we can affect our brothers and sisters through what we do. While we can certainly help others to get to know and fall in love with our Lord, we also can be people who cause others to sin by what we say and do. And Jesus has some stern words for us, should we cause scandal or lead others into sin. Listen to what He says in Mark 9:42: “it would be better for him if a great millstone were put around his neck and he were thrown into the sea.” Although Jesus is using exaggeration to make his point, the message is clear: it is a serious sin to cause others to fall into sin. Even our own misdirected zeal might at times undermine the mission of Jesus. May our zeal for the Lord be expressed through embracing and including all those He has called us to serve.
Have a Blessed Week!
With love,
Fr. John