If you were not present at the 9:30 AM Mass on Sunday, July 7th then you missed the formal introduction of our new DRE, Lauren Joyce.  Lauren took the opportunity to share her thoughts regarding her new position:

“Hello, MDP!

First of all, I’d like to thank all of you who have been welcoming me so warmly to the parish and praying for me today and over the past weeks.  My transition into ministry has been greatly blessed by your kindness!

I’m thrilled to officially meet you this morning!  For over a decade I have been preparing personally and professionally for this day, and I’m so excited that all of that preparation has led to this moment.  I look forward to putting my training and past experiences to use in service of this parish community.

As your newly-installed Director of Catechetical Formation, I would like to offer you an invitation.  Faith formation takes many shapes, but one thing all faith formation has in common is that it comes from a choice to action.  Whether that is the choice of our parents to send us to PREP or the choice of an adult to study a new part of the faith, the Lord is continually inviting us to encounter Him in new ways, especially through opportunities of faith formation.  It falls to us to make the choice to action- to commit to new and fruitful routines and experience which will enhance our faith.  In the weeks and months ahead, I will be using Church bulletins, bulletin boards, emails, the MDP website, and any other means of communication Fr. Cioppi will allow me to highlight faith formation opportunities for all age groups in our parish and local area.  I invite you today to consider personally and as a family whether or not the Lord may be calling you to take advantage of these new experiences in the weeks and months ahead.

I simply have to add one more note: today’s Gospel reminded us to pray to God to send harvesters, for the harvest is abundant but the harvesters are few.  I know that when I was growing up, I heard this Gospel explained  almost exclusively in terms of religious vocations to the priestly and religious life.  While this is certainly important, Monsignor Murray was wise to remind us in his homily that the laity are also called to be “harvesters” of souls!  If you feel that God is calling you to be involved in being a “harvester” of hearts by sharing the Good News with our parish children, please contact me.  We are always in need of volunteers to help with our parish PREP program – truly a situation in which the harvest is abundant, but the laborers are few! 

And so I’ll close my little talk with a reminder to keep your ear to the ground and eye to the bulletin to see what my office is up to!  I look forward to serving this community faithfully, so that together we may grow ever-closer to our Lord.

I’ll see you at the Carnival!”