ATTENDING MY FIRST DEANERY MEETING AS PASTOR OF OUR LADY OF LOURDES PARISH..........

My seminary classmate, priestly colleague,, and neighboring pastor to the east, Reverend Father Eduino Silveira, Pastor of St. Philomene's Parish in the Arcade Arcade area of Sacramento, just a few miles from Our Lady of Lourdes Parish, is the current Dean of the American Rivers Suburbs Deanery of Parishes.  On Monday he held a Deanery Meeting at St. Philomene's, at which we discussed presently pertinent topics of pastoral, parish and diocesan concern, and had a well rounded discussion about them.  Matters such as nomination of lay persons in our parishes  to the Diocesan Pastoral Council and learning about changes in the new Roman Missal and its implementation in Advent 2011, which is the topic of our Priests' Study Days in October, among the agenda items covered.   Deanery are one of the ways the priests, parish staffs, and lay leadership, in specific geographical areas come together mutually during the year, to share, support, and collaborate,  in addressing the wider parochial needs of our parishioners and the collaborative assistance we can provide each other  in fulfilling our ministries and mission as Church.  It was a good meeting and lunch that followed it and a morning well spent plugging back into the wider context of this deanery, in which I have served  in previously for much of my priestly ministry.  And it is my hopeful expectation OLOL will continue  to  participate effectively in sharing in the work of the American River  Deanery, which from 2001-2004, I had the privilege of serving as Dean..........Fr.  Troy