¡Siempre Adelante!

As you may know, a group of 30 comprised of staff and parishioners have been in a version of the Ignatian Spiritual Exercises known as the 19th Annotation for the past nine months. We called this process FIRE. Most of us have just finished a transformative commitment to daily prayer, weekly spiritual direction, and a communal discernment process that has harvested six longings for our community. A few of these will be developed quickly over the summer, and all of them will be the groundwork in formulating our next strategic plan.

This past Tuesday began a farewell tour of sorts: we invited our spouses and partners and shared with them the graces of this experience. This weekend we enter into a closing retreat, welcoming our spiritual directors (most of which are in Northern California). Next week, our pastoral team will journey to San Jose and Sacramento to offer a second round of gratitude and honor.

It's evident in our liturgies that St. Monica has continued to grow in worship and ministry. FIRE is a clear example of that. It's counter-intuitive to think that we would have launched a new program at the parish during a pandemic. But we did, thanks to Fr. Dave Ayotte. The fruits will spread like wild-FIRE as we bring it to more of you this autumn and even other parishes. This is possible because you are committed to supporting our mission--which is always moving forward.

This Pentecost, let us celebrate that St. Monica has kept the FIRE alive and will continue to send out the spirit in new and engaging ways. Thank you for your continued generosity.