Br. Bernard Delcourt, OHC
Thanksgiving B - Thursday, November 22, 2018
Joel 2:21-27
1 Timothy 2:1-7
Matthew 6:25-33
Click here for an audio version of the homily
We all have so many God-given gifts to be grateful for. I hope you take some time today to count your own blessings.
Here at the monastery, we are particularly grateful for 116 years of prayer and worship in this location in West Park. The sixteen monks who call this monastery home are the stewards of 26 stunning acres of river-hugging land and 75,000 square feet of beautiful buildings, some dating back to 1902, 1921 and 1965.
We wouldn´t be the stewards of this wonderful inheritance without the vision, care, hard work and commitment of generations of monks and benefactors of this monastery. Today, we give thanks for each one of them.
We hope more monks and benefactors will continue in their tracks for generations of prayers and worship to come on these hallowed grounds. And we pledge ourselves to continue to be visionary, careful, hard-working and committed to the flourishing of monastic life in this place.
Three years ago, we started planning for our Open Doors, Open Hearts capital campaign. The impetus came from the need to upgrade this church of Saint Augustine which will celebrate its centenary in 2021. We wanted to raise the necessary funds soon enough to hopefully complete all the improvements before celebrating that milestone.
Of course, there was a need for capital improvements beyond just our worship space so we widened the scope of the campaign to encompass our ministry of hospitality, our financial sustainability, as well as our worship.
Today, we are officially closing the full year of public solicitations for our Open Doors, Open Hearts capital campaign. If you didn´t contribute yet, don´t worry, we won´t refuse further gifts to the campaign, but we will stop asking!
By the generosity of over 350 donors, we have been very successful in this campaign. Our initial goal was to collect pledges for $2.550.000. To date, the capital campaign has received pledges totaling $2.658.000. We are blessed with benefactors who understand the value of the life and ministry of this monastery. We are blessed and very grateful.
In a few moments, we will bless all the pledge cards received in our Open Hearts, Open Doors capital campaign to honor the many givers who contributed to our efforts. Thank you for a successful fundraising campaign. And to every one of you who sus
tains us in prayer, companionship, volunteering, and treasure: Thank You Very Much Indeed!
Praise God, from whom all blessings flow;
Praise him, all creatures here below;
Praise him above, ye heav’nly host;
Praise Father, Son, and Holy Ghost.
No comments:
Post a Comment