Hearty Welcome to Bishop Checchio to Our Parish

10-12-2025Weekly ReflectionFr. Abraham Orapankal, Pastor

Dear OLP Family,

I am very happy to welcome Bishop James Checchio to our community today, as he comes to install me as the Pastor of Our Lady of Peace Parish during the 10 AM Mass. Although I had already begun my new assignment here as your Pastor on August 1st, we celebrate this Rite of Installation liturgically today not only to ask God’s blessings on me for my ministry as your shepherd, but also because it reminds all of us of an essential part of being a disciple:

Disciples do not choose their own path, they follow Christ where He leads them.

Pope Saint John Paul II, in his Apostolic Letter, Novo Millennio Ineunte, wrote that “all pastoral initiatives must be set in relation to holiness.” (nos.30-31). My primary mission is to live in holiness and to lead you in the path of holiness. This is so basic and essential for all of us to realize that whatever we do in this parish must be in relation to holiness. If we forget that, it will not take long to stray off course from what we should be doing in parish ministry and why we are doing it. Holiness consists of following Jesus as His disciples, as people who listen and learn from Him, and who put Him first in our lives.

It was with this in mind, that I had called for a meeting of the heads of all our Ministries/Committees last week: Music Ministry, Eucharistic Ministers, Lectors/ Readers, Ushers, Pre-Cana, Altar Servers, Social Concerns, Knights of Columbus, Blue Army, Altar Rosary Society, Columbiettes, Holy Name, and Religious Education.

We had a good sharing about the need to make OLP a more participatory and active parish. One unanimous idea was that each ministry is in need of new members. Hence, you will hear a short 2-minute-pulpit invitation on different Sundays and I invite you to consider joining a ministry of your liking so that we can make our parish more alive and active than it is now. Let us make our parish truly a vibrant community of the People of God.