To the Brothers of the Province of St. Paul the Apostle in\nMalta:<\/p>\n\n\n\n
May God give you grace and peace!<\/p>\n\n\n\n
I am both humbled and honored by\nthe request to serve at your General Visitor, and I look forward to meeting\neach of you, and coming to know you and your ministries in the coming year. I\nam sure it will be both educational and inspirational for me. I did visit Malta a number of years ago for\nan ESC meeting. This experience will no\ndoubt open up a new world for me and I expect it to be an experience of\npersonal ongoing formation in Franciscan life. \nI am grateful for this opportunity. \nI look forward to experiencing the \u201cextraordinary hospitality\u201d (Acts\n28:2) of the Maltese people that St. Paul raved about during his shipwreck\nthere!<\/p>\n\n\n\n
I thought it might be helpful to\nintroduce myself to you by means of a letter before we meet in person. You might be wondering, who is this guy?<\/p>\n\n\n\n
I am a member of St. John the\nBaptist Province headquartered in Cincinnati, Ohio in the USA. I also grew up in Cincinnati, in a Franciscan\nParish, which explains how I found my way to the friars. I have 7 siblings; both my parents are\ndeceased. Currently, I am 67 years old,\nserving as the Pastor of the Church of the Transfiguration in Southfield,\nMichigan, which is just outside of Detroit. \nI live with 3 other friars, and this summer we will receive another. We are a small parish, about 500 households,\nmostly older, but we are a vibrant parish, very committed to service to the\npoor.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
I went to our minor seminary (St.\nFrancis), our college seminary (Duns Scotus), and our major seminary (St.\nLeonard), none of which exist any longer. \nAs our numbers diminished, we closed our internal schools. Our formation\nnow is interprovincial. I made first profession in 1975; I was ordained\nin 1980. My first three year assignment\nwas in Our Lady of Guadalupe Parish in Galveston, Texas. I then served for one year at St. Boniface\nParish in Lafayette, Indiana. During\nthat year, I was asked if I would be part of the Novitiate formation team. I was the Assistant Director for about 8 months,\nwhen unexpected circumstances forced me to become the Novice Director, a\nposition I held for about 6 years. I\nthen served as a campus minister at Rice University in Houston, Texas for 4\nyears. The Province then asked me to\nbecome the pastor of St. Monica-St. George Parish in Cincinnati, a parish which\nhad campus ministry for the University of Cincinnati for three years. During\nthose years I served as a member of our Provincial Council. I then served 9 years as Provincial Vicar and\n9 years as Provincial Minister. While I\nwas Provincial Vicar, I served as Secretary for Formation and Studies. After a 6 month sabbatical I came to\nTransfiguration in Southfield. So my\nbackground includes parish, campus ministry, initial formation, and\nleadership\/administration. My time in\nleadership gave me the opportunity to become acquainted with the Provinces in\nthe ESC, and also the Custody in Pakistan, with whom we have a special\nrelationship since we shared the same patron, John the Baptist, and the\nProvinces in Japan and the Philippines where some of our men served. (I noticed that John the Baptist also played\nrole in your history.) I have enjoyed\nthe journey so far! I very blessed and\nprivileged by all the experiences life with the friars has given me. And now another blessing!<\/p>\n\n\n\n
When I served in leadership, I\nconsidered visitation to be both a privileged responsibility and\nopportunity. I was humbled by the\ncandor, trust, and openness the brothers showed me.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
It is too early to share with you\nexactly what the visitation will look like and what the schedule will be. I have so much to learn! I will share that information with you as\nthose things clarify. I do realize that\nI have a responsibility now to this parish, and I need to balance my\nresponsibility to you and to the people of the parish. With God\u2019s grace and guidance, I am confident\nwe can figure all that out!<\/p>\n\n\n\n
In the meantime, I will be\npraying for you each day, and I ask that you keep me in your prayer as well.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Your brother,<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Jeff<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
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