Fr. Jorge's Farewell Message

Today we celebrate the feast of Pentecost.  In these past 16 years that I’ve been your priest, friend, and pastor, I have witnessed the way in which the Holy Spirit has moved through our community of Mary Help of Christians. I have seen a  community that has lost fear. A community that knows how to live with joy.

Many of you never imagined becoming ministers. Today, many of you gladly serve our community as lectors, Eucharistic Ministers, in children’s liturgy, in the ministry of novenas, and several other ministries of compassion. In your own homes, you have organized prayer and bible study groups. I’ve seen hundreds of volunteers in the Novenas. There, the Holy Spirit has lived and manifested through this community. We’ve seen the Gifts and Fruits of the Holy Spirit, the understanding and fortitude during the difficult times we’ve lived through our church. We’ve seen the respect toward God, the piety, and the devotion you bring to Mass.

I have been a witness to the charity of Mary Help of Christians parishioners. Joy lives here. Generosity lives here, and so does faith. Today, we ask the Holy Spirit to come to our aid. Why? To continue renewing the face of the earth.

Dear family, after a long time praying, after much reflection and guided by the Holy Spirit, today I’m telling you that the Lord has called me to return to Colombia. Today I say goodbye to you with great sadness, but with great joy too, because I know I am leaving a mature community. I am leaving a community full of the Holy Spirit.

The Holy Spirit will continue to help you, filling you with enthusiasm, giving you the fortitude and strength you need. The Holy Spirit will assuage your fears and be with you always.

Let us pray for the new priest coming to our parish and for Msgr. Hogan that the Lord continues to inspire them to be a guide, leader, and pastor of our beautiful community of Mary, Help of Christians. 

Let us pray that this community continues to distinguish itself by the way you live as a family, a family where love, mercy, joy, Faith, and compassion become a verb by the actions of all; a community where you feel comfortable amongst each other, where you feel brotherhood that unites us in Christ.

You will be always in my prayers, and I hope I am in yours. As I always say at the end of an activity or a service you do, “May God pay you,” because I have no way to repay you for all your kindness and hard work. 

I am very grateful to Msgr. Hogan and Archbishop Wenski for all their help and support in processing my early retirement, as requested by me for health reasons.

Come Holy Spirit and help us to continue to renew the face of the Earth.

Amen.