In my daily prayer I meditate on the words of Zachariah… “He has raised for us a mighty Savior, born of the house of his servant David.” We welcomed our Lord just a little more than a month ago. The Word made flesh is God coming to dwell in this world, undoing the effects of sin and turning it into what it was meant to be. From his fullness we have received grace and truth from our Lord, Jesus Christ.

Recently I had a skin rash, and it was awful. (Please don’t tell anyone.) I am embarrassed to admit that I didn’t handle it well. Complaining, whining, begging for sympathy, and crying were my responses to the merciless itching and burning. In the aftermath, a silver lining emerged. I feel a new heartfelt sympathy for all those vexed with chronic skin problems. If you’ve ever had a seemingly unending skin problem, you know how that sympathy flows up from deep inside.

Hello St. Mary Magdalene,

Thank you for tuning in to this State of the Parish address. This last year has provided many opportunities for us to invest in our parish; especially in our worship space and there are the final parts coming in! Thank you all for your prayers and support in these improvements that have enabled us to focus on, and give glory to God!

My goal today is to share with you how we are managing our resources as a parish, address our financial standing, and share a vision for the future of our parish community and its long term goals. As part of this address, I will be sharing a lot of numbers. Don’t worry, if you miss something in this video as a text of my message will also be printed in the bulletin of February 11th.