By Shirley Baker, Pastoral Council Chair

   Saint Mary of the Rosary Mission Statement: To welcome and accompany individuals and families, forming them into intentional disciples of Jesus Christ, faithful to the Gospel and teaching of the Church, who live and spread the power of the Eucharist and the joy of the Gospel in their homes, Church, and world. 

   This week is an important one as we give life to the 2025-2030 Pastoral Plan. I am so grateful to everyone who stopped and talked with me after mass last weekend to offer words of encouragement and engagement in the Parish Council’s vision for our future. 

   Our parish has already become enlivened by the key areas of our plan. The daily and weekend mass schedule, plus the incorporation of reconciliation as a prelude to Family Faith Night, fulfills key elements of our worship plan. The growth of Faith Night participation provides evidence of our expanding devotion to discipleship. The incorporation of our Feast Day Banquet into the parish event calendar – along with the Crystalline Luncheon and the Mardis Gras Dinner - serves as evidence to our understanding of the importance of fellowship. Our regular contribution to the Chewelah Food Bank, and the maintenance of the parish cemetery by the Knights of Columbus, demonstrate our commitment to service. And each time we host a Community Dinner or participate in a local civic event, like distributing candy during BooFest, we enlarge our civic presence and open an entry point for people to join or return to our faith community. All these activities have kindled our fire of faith. Now, it is time to stoke the embers into an inferno. 

   How do we accomplish this?   

  The National Eucharistic Revival directs us to commit to the daily gift of ourselves in the concrete service of others. God has adorned each of us with a charism, a gift of God for the Church and the world that defines how we live for the Gospel. Putting our gifts to work for the fulfillment of our parish mission unites us as servants of God. Like any relationship, our care for one another grows as we work for the benefit of something or someone outside of ourselves. Our sense of community expands in proportion to our service, “. . . so that we might exist for the praise of his glory, we who first hoped in Christ,” (Ephesians 1:12). Our individual commitments to our parish will help us strengthen our relationships with each other so that we may deepen our relationship with Jesus Christ. 

    This week, as you help us prioritize our parish activities, I pray that every child and adult in our parish will consider how our faith, skills, time, and personal qualities can be dedicated to bringing life to our parish mission. After masses at St. Mary’s, please join the Parish Council in showing your support for the activities you feel are most essential to the Pastoral Plan. In this way, we can answer the call of the Eucharistic Revival to encounter the Lord in the Eucharist, to grow in our relationship with our Lord, to allow Jesus in the Eucharist to shape our identity, and to go out on mission with him for the life of the world.