We welcome Fr. Benny back to Modesto, and hope he had a good visit with his family in India. Now both of our Indian priests are back, but I am gone (in Brazil, giving a retreat to the Missionaries of Charity). We are fortunate to have four priests at our parish (Fr. Larry is only part-time for the parish, but renders as much service as any hard working associate). Because our parish has four warm [clerical] bodies, we are able to “lend them out.” Fr. Larry has been helping Msgr. Gruber with Masses at St. Mary’s in Oakdale and also taking Masses at St. Frances in Riverbank. Fr. John Peter has been celebrating Masses at Sacred Heart in Turlock. I’ve been doing ministry all over the world for Mother Teresa’s sisters. We are happy to help other parishes and foreign missions, not only by lending priests, but also by lending lay expertise. Two of our staff members met with staff at St. Stanislaus recently to help them set up their administrative system, while one trained parish staff at Sacred Heart in Turlock last year. Other parishes use the materials we have developed, such as Presentation Parish in Stockton, where they are using the Employee Handbook we developed. Other parishes look to our long-term strategic plan for ideas. Our RCIA coordinator, Stacy Phillips, has been approached by three foreign dioceses (Vancouver, Lisbon, and Singapore), that wish to use the model we have developed at St. Joseph’s. The speakers and concerts we sponsor, such as Christopher West, Fr. Mitch Pacwa, Fr. Stan Fortuna, etc. draw folks from the Bay Area, Sacramento, and Fresno. People drive 45 minutes to attend our Latin Mass, the only High Mass in the Diocese offered every Sunday. Certainly, we benefit from the services other parishes offer as well, but I am proud of our parish for serving folks far beyond our borders in these ways. Truly, our parish is “dynamic” and “vibrant;” it is “effective” and “successful.” And yet, in the end, God does not ask any of these things of us. In the end, He asks only fidelity. A holy nun regularly reminds me that, despite the dynamism at St. Joseph’s, what Jesus wants from me personally is my fidelity, not my success. “It is not what or how much you do,” she says, “but with what love and fidelity you do it, that pleases Jesus.” The core of our parish, our large and dynamic parish, is Mass, confessions and adoration. Please remind me, if I forget, where my heart should be. It is to be near that beautiful white stone altar, kneeling in front of the little red candle, listening to the heart of Jesus beating in the tabernacle.