On Sunday, July 1, 2001, Father Ralph greeted the St Brigid community in these words:

I became your brother in Christ on this day, July 1, 45 years ago when I was brought by my parentsto the church to be baptized. Little did my mother or father suspect that the baby they held in their arms would now be the next pastor of Westbury. As it is, as of six months ago, I didn't suspect that I would be the next pastor of Westbury.

When I got the news I had two strong reactions: First I felt very humble. Me go to St. Brigid's? For years me and my classmates at the seminary had called this "The Diocese of Westbury" since St Brigid's was so large, so cosmopolitan, so progressive as a parish. And look at which pastors I'd be following! It was quite humbling that the diocese would consider me for such an assignment.

My second reaction was the feeling of being overwhelmed. This is the first time I'll be a pastor and a parish of St. Brigid's size and complexity is not what I first had in mind when I thought that I could "ease" into being a pastor.

So because I felt so overwhelmed I knew I needed to pray. I needed a moment with Jesus.
Now, Father Frank had been mailing me lots of things and I saw on the front of the bulletin a phone number that said, "A moment with Jesus." (Have you ever called it?) (People nodded yes.)

So I call and here's what I hear:
{Father Frank's voice can be heard over the church sound system}

"Greetings blessed caller.
Sometimes it's hard to make a change and sometimes you wonder what to do.
Well stop wondering, Ralph! Go to Westbury! The people are great and you'll do great.

I know it will be a challenge because you will be following Father Frank who was such a wonderful and beloved pastor.

But you'll do fine. Just go to St. Brigid's and have a ball. AMEN!"

So after a call like that, I found it hard to say "no." (By the way, I never knew that Jesus had such a Brooklyn accent.)

Once it was clear that I was coming to St. Brigid's, I wanted to know a lot about the parish. There were two ways that I could get insights. You have a beautiful website where people were writing in their comments about what was special about St. Brigid's and I was also able to check in every week to see what was new in the parish.

And then there were hundreds of pages of letters from the parish staff and parishioners that had been written to the diocese when they were interested in hearing about what you hoped for in a new pastor.

Time doesn't permit me to share all those thoughts today, but I saw an article in a church bulletin that seemed to summarize what everyone expected in their new pastor:

"The ideal pastor should preach exactly 8 minutes. He should speak against the things that are wrong in the world, but never hurt anyone's feelings. His hours are from 6am to midnight, and he’s also expected to act as the church’s janitor. He ought to be around 40 years old and have at least 50 years of experience. He should make at least 15 calls daily on parish families, shut-ins and the people in the hospital, and always be in his office to receive calls whenever people phone or visit. He has to be excellent in working with the parish youth and should spend all of his time with senior citizens. He shouldn’t hesitiate to innovate while respecting the valuable traditions -- in other words, a new pastor should bring new ideas and perspectives to the parish without changing a thing since we’ve always done things the same way -- the right way. He should be able to celebrate mass in six languages so that each community feels comfortable praying in their own language while unifying all the groups with each other without prolonging the mass with different languages. He should make the budget balance and encourage the staff to develop new programs without asking people to increase their giving. The perfect pastor smiles all the time with a straight face because he has a sense of humor that keeps him seriously dedicated to his work."

So, of course I'll do all that!

Finally I'd like to share my only disappointment so far. It is rooted in todays story about Elijah, great prophet, and his successor Elisha. When Elijah is about to leave for heaven, Elisha turns to him and says, "Could I have some of your wisdom and grace and power?" Elijah said, "That is not for me to give, but if God wants you to share in that grace, when I leave, if I leave my cloak behind, put it on and you will have double my grace and wisdom and power." So Elijah left for Deer Park, sorry-- I mean heaven, and left his clock behind. Elisha put it on and did very well.

So I searched in all of Father Frank's closets and was very disappointed to see that there was no cloak left behind.

All I found was THIS (pulls out Peruvian Dancing Hat and puts it on).

Now whether I get double Fr Frank's grace or the same or half with this hat....well I guess we'll find out in the days ahead.

See the greeting to the Italian Community
See the greeting to the Haitian Community
See the greeting at the Spanish Community