Dear Parishioners,
My time here at St. Anne and her missions comes to a close this week. It is poetic that this is the Thirteenth Sunday in Ordinary time as well as my 13th year as your pastor. This is a very sad thing for me and for many of you. This is the longest I have stayed in one parish assignment which makes this all the more difficult to bid you, goodbye. But, looking back, my heart is full of gratitude. So, pardon if this last letter rambles some. So be it.
I leave with wonderful memories and lessons. I have had the privilege to work with your children, been on retreats with your teens, offered blessings for your graduations, helped you prepare for marriage, presided over your weddings, baptized your children, blessed your anniversaries, anointed you when you were sick, offered some of you the commendation of the dying, and celebrated your loved ones funerals, and mourned with you at their burials. I have been deeply touched that you allowed me in to your struggles and was humbled to hear your confessions. I was honored to join you in your many celebrations of life and visited many of you in the hospital, care facilities, retirement centers, and homes. I made many friends, and have felt your prayerful support throughout these thirteen years. I could go on and on.
I became a priest as an effort to thank God for all that he has done for me. And in return, he gave me a grand adventure unlike any I could have imagined. All of you are part of that adventure which now turns a page to a new chapter. And so, thank you for what you have taught me. Thank you for your patience with me. Thank you for gently correcting me. Thank you for saying yes when I asked you to join a ministry. Thank you for stepping up to serve without even being asked. Thank you for putting up with my long homilies. Thank you for listening and sharing your faith with me. Thank you for being Christ’s hands and feet for me. Thank you for laughing at my silly jokes. Thank you for Helping me when I needed it. Thank you for giving me a ride when I needed to go to the hospital for health needs. Thank you for being kind to me when I failed to be kind. Thank you for forgiving me when I messed up. Thank you for sticking around to clean up after an event. Thank you for being gentle when I was hurting. Thank you for the cards you sent me on my birthday, Christmas, and Easter. Thank you for letting me take your picture for our website or social media presence. Thank you for bringing me cookies. Thank you for taking me out for meals. Thank you for participating in the planning, and building of our new church! Thank you for letting me park my trailer on your property so I could go camping. Thank you for listening when I was trying to teach. Thank you for speaking when I needed to listen. Thank you for reminding me that I am precious in God’s eyes and that he delights in me.
Thank you to all the wonderful staff I have known in my thirteen years. Thank you to those parishioners who visited our sick and dying. Thank you for checking on fellow parishioners when you noticed that they were unusually absent. Thank you for being so generous when a need arose. Thank you for accompanying new parishioners and visitors alike. Thank you for participating in our annual church open house and booth at the county fair. Thank you for your patience through all the changes during the pandemic. Thank you for stepping up to make our Food Box Program so successful. Thank you for giving money to the church so we could employ the talented staff that we have. Thank you for naming St. Anne, our school, and/or her missions in your estate planning. Thank you for coming and participating at Mass. Thank you for serving in our liturgical ministries, bible studies, music groups, rosary groups, our grade school, Faith Formation, youth and confirmation ministry, and even auxiliary ministries, most notably the Knights of Columbus and St. Vincent de Paul. Thank you for praying, serving, cleaning, fixing, and helping when no one was watching. Of course God saw it all… and sometimes I did too.
Thank you, most of all, for loving me, and showing me what it is to be a saint, being passionately in love with our Lord, and willing to share that joy with others. I take all these things with me, as I move to Holy Trinity. You have been a gift of immeasurable value to me. You have blessed me with Christ’s presence, for which I will be forever grateful.
So, don’t hesitate to come to Mass at Holy Trinity in Beaverton. Pray for me so that I can be the pastor that they need at this time, and that I will be responsive to their needs as God would want me to be. I will continue to pray for you. A big part of my heart will always be here. I will pop in to check on you on Facebook an YouTube. I hope to see the new and amazing things that will happen under Fr. Wolf, your new pastor.
My heart is full, and there is not enough room to write it here. So, I leave with the miraculous prayer given to me from my mother which has changed so many hearts: O Jesus, I surrender myself to you. Take care of everything!
Blessings! Goodbye! God be with you! Thank you!
Fr. William Holtzinger
Pastor (2009-2022)