As many of you know, our parish has been searching for a new staff member for about a year now to fill a new position entitled a Pastoral Associate. This person will serve as a close collaborator with me, assisting in the planning and implementation of the evangelization, adult faith formation and outreach initiatives to help our community grow in faith and in size.

In 2022, the United Nations declared November 18 as World Day for the Prevention of and Healing from Child Sexual Exploitation, Abuse and Violence. Cardinal Sean asks the people in all parishes of our Archdiocese to mark this weekend as a time to pray for those impacted by child abuse and to publically reaffirm our Church’s commitment to remain vigilant in our efforts to keep all children safe. Child abuse in our society is a far too frequent occurrence. The numbers are staggering, and the lifelong impact can be profound. Each of us must do all that is possible to intervene – preventing abuse wherever it occurs, interrupting and reporting it when it is happening, and helping heal those who have been abused.

How’s your pace of life? I often find myself saying, “Busy.” That seems to be the experience around Duxbury and beyond. Talking to parents of young families I will often hear references to sports: soccer, lacrosse and football among others. One parent shared that sports seems to rule their life. I marvel at the great distances some families are traveling to get to their child’s games. And, when there’s more than one family member involved in sports, the busyness is multiplied! Our lives can get so hectic that it can sometimes get the best of us. One mother shared with me that while driving her daughter and friend to a game, she “lost it,” complaining of all that she had to do - only to be reminded at a gas pump display shortly after her rant that the “word of the day” was prayer. This made her stop and think. She felt God was saying something to her in that experience.

This week is National Vocation Awareness Week (Nov 5 – 11). So, what does that mean? It’s a time to help make people aware of the fact that everyone has a vocation – the primary one is to be holy; rather basic, but not so easy all the time. However, then, each of us is called by God to a particular vocation/state in life. In faith, we understand that each of us does not live merely for ourselves, but for God – realizing that it’s part of our true nature as followers of Jesus to follow His plan for our lives in a particular way.