The Pastor's Corner - A Message from our Pastor, Father James Brady

Things continue to go well in the transition of pastors in our parish. Each week I get to know more people and am learning more about our parish. It's been a great month and I appreciate everything each of you have done to welcome me and make my transition comfortable. As several of you have suggested, one liturgical adjustment that could be made is to schedule more Eucharistic Ministers for each Mass. As the new school year approaches, Mass attendance tends to increase as families return home from vacation, and this has occurred over the last few weeks. It is expected that Mass attendance will continue to increase for the next few weeks as more families return home and we settle into our "school year" rhythm. We are in the process of scheduling additional Eucharistic Ministers, but this may take a few weeks, so I ask for your patience in the interim.

This Sunday, August 8th, is the 102nd anniversary of the laying of the cornerstone in our current church. This is a good time to reflect on the beauty of our Church and to thank those who came before us for the great gift they left us. Our worship of God is most important, and our ancestors and predecessors definitely left us a most fitting place to do so. On a trivia note, the rector/pastor at the time of construction of the Church, according to the cornerstone, was "Rev. J. Engerbrink.” In Valentin Hall, there is a portrait of a priest named "Fr. John Engberink" who was the "Dutchman" responsible for building the current Church and was the pastor here from 1895 to 1918. His tomb in the Church has the same spelling. In the rectory, there is a mini-portrait of "Fr. John Embrank”, who looks exactly like the man in the portrait in Valentin Hall. We know all three are the same man, but his name is spelled differently in each place, and two of the three items (the cornerstone and the mini-portrait, which have the most diverse spellings) appear to have been done within a close period of time. Does anyone know the correct spelling?

Father James Brady