Looking back at the weekly messages of Father Paul Counce, first published in The Carpenter, our weekly Parish Bulletin
Published: June 27, 2021
You’re reading my last column as your pastor in this weekend’s issue of The Carpenter. It’s the 571st one I’ve penned in this space over the past 12 years! (I only missed 4 or 5 a year when away on vacation or offering the space to the occasional “guest columnist”!) It’s a sad moment. As I hope you know well by now from my words here and elsewhere, it’s exceedingly difficult to say “goodbye” to you all, even though I know in my heart, soul and body that it’s good to step away from Parish ministry and offer my work for a little while yet before retirement to the Diocesan Tribunal that I also head.
In the Bible there are a number of “Farewell Discourses.” The most famous of course is Jesus’ own lengthy one at the end of the Last Supper, recounted in the Gospel of John, in chapters 14-17. It’s made up of teachings, predictions, warnings, musings, and finally prayer, all spoken by the Lord for the benefit of His disciples. Another well-known “Farewell Speech” is that of my patron St. Paul in chapter 20, verses 17-35, of the Acts of the Apostles. In the port city of Miletus near Ephesus, he said goodbye to the leaders of the Christian community there, where he had ministered for some time. In his remarks he was a bit more boastful about what a good job he’d done (St. Paul, after all, always did have an attitude!), but he too is concerned for the flock, that they continue to grow in faith and charity even when this becomes hard to do. He ends his remarks with prayer too.
I don’t think I can come up with anything really new here, and certainly not anything better than Christ Himself and St. Paul. So I’ll make the broad strokes of their sentiments my own as I take leave of you: remain close to Christ, especially in prayer, works of charity, and participation in the sacramental life of the Church. Take your inspiration from Jesus’ image of the vine-and-branches in Jn 15:5. Know you all are dear to my heart – and this includes all our wonderful forebears in St. Joseph Parish since 1792, and since we became the diocesan Cathedral in 1961. I give thanks to God for you, and won’t stop doing it! And lastly I beg you kindly to continue to pray for me.
Ever in Christ,
Father Paul Counce
