Pastor's Column 7-23-2023
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July 23, 2023Dear Parishioners,
This weekend members of our parish Youth Group are heading to Steubenville East Youth Conference. The Steubenville Youth Conference is a yearly gathering of youth and young adults for a weekend. There will be great music, great talks pertinent to teenagers, Mass, Confession, a chance for kids to come together and see the beauty of our Catholic faith, and on Saturday evening a chance for Eucharistic adoration. I have been to several of these conferences in the past and so I am looking forward to sharing that experience with our own Youth Group. This year the conference takes place in Springfield Massachusetts. Thank you to all who helped support this trip. No doubt it will bear much fruit.
This upcoming week I have one project due and a final oral exam. After July 27th I will have finished five classes in two months. It has been an intense experience of class and reading. I have spent between four and six hours a day, Monday through Friday in class (granted there are quick breaks between classes). There are about twenty students in class with me. They are mostly priests, some still associate pastors, others who already work in their diocesan chanceries, and a few pastors like me. It has been good getting to know them. I drive back to the parish on August 1st. I will have two more classes from September until December, but those will be remote (so no going back to DC just yet). In the spring I will have two more remote classes. Then next summer, the process repeats again (for a total of four years). I have enjoyed it so far, but I look forward to returning to the parish.
Until then, I am off to class (I am currently writing this before the beginning of my morning class).
In Christ,
Fr. Barrow
