Dear Parishioners,
I’ve written to you here almost weekly since September 2003. That makes this final letter approximately the 700th one! Now I want to thank you for your faithfulness to our parish, and more deeply your fidelity to Jesus Christ in the Church. Without committed parishioners, no parish amounts to much. Christ has many devoted disciples here.
As I leave, I think of all the good you have shared with me. You have opened your hearts and your wounds to me, so that I might be a listening ear or a channel of God’s healing. You have given me prudent advice. You have rolled up your sleeves and worked on projects of all kinds, so that God might further His Kingdom through us. So many of you, in so many ways, have given me your trust and support. I think of all the Masses, classes, events, conversations, laughs and cries, meetings, home and hospital visits, drives, communications and prayers that have comprised our time together during my years of service here. Little by little, in ways big or small, we have been connected.
Over nearly fourteen years, there have been successes and failures, in our parish and surely in my own ministry. If in any way I have been not an instrument of God’s grace but somehow an obstacle to it, I am sorry.
Continue to be a strong community of faith. Keep on practicing acts of devotion, service and peace. Look for ways to explore your Catholic faith so that it can be sustained and thriving. May I too try to live this counsel. May we be prayerfully and thoughtfully connected, in the Body of Christ, in the communion of saints, across a few miles. Please pray for me as I serve as a priest in a world and a Church moving forward through blessings and challenges — just as each of us progresses as a pilgrim bound for heaven.
If you are out traveling and come upon Holy Name Church in West Roxbury, or if I can be helpful to you in any way, don’t hesitate to be in touch.
Please give a warm welcome to Father Dan Riley, interim administrator, and your full support to your new pastor, Father Mark Mahoney.
I look forward to coming back for a fuller farewell on May 21st .
Sincerely and gratefully,
Father George Evans
