Welcome!

.Dear Parishioners, 

Next week, we will have the joy to welcome many visitors to St. Joseph for our annual Parish Dinner.  I would like to personally thank all of you for the many hours of labor and time given to this event each year.  My hope for this event is twofold.  One, that we may grow closer as a Christ-centered community.  Two, that all our guests may encounter the face of Christ during their brief stay.

Many people will be traveling from around our county and even from out of state to be with us.  With so many travelers, we get to live out the Benedictine model of hospitality.  Hospitality is the virtue of welcoming and serving others generously, especially strangers and those in need, as an expression of God's love and grace.  As St. Benedict taught his monks, "All guests who present themselves are to be welcomed as Christ, for he himself will say: 'I was a stranger and you welcomed me' (Matt.25:35)."  Guests remind us that we are not a life unto ourselves.  The gift of guests can refocus individuals and community members away from themselves. This can be refreshing and humbling. A commitment to the needs and practicality of guests can temper our prideful selfishness. Guests remind us that, ultimately, community is not self-serving. The community serves the needs of the society and culture it is a part of. Benedict reminds us here that Jesus has identified himself with the guest as a stranger in their human need. Christ abides in the uniqueness of each person and in their circumstance. To turn them away, to ignore their needs, is to close ourselves off from the union-in-being that each person is with the divine life. In not receiving a guest, a community does itself real damage by rejecting Christ in the face of our neighbor.   

I look forward to this time, so I may get to see and encounter each of you as well!  As a pastor, community events provide a time for us to go deeper in friendship and connectivity.  I invite you all to pray with me at this time that the Lord may bless us, our Lady teach us, St. Joseph guard us, and our dear guardian angels watch over us. 

In Christ, 

Fr. Luke Fleck,