Just several days ago, Fr. Sandquist received official notice from the Archbishop that he is going to be reassigned to the parish of Holy Family Catholic Church in St. Louis Park and serve as chaplain to Chesterton Academy High School in Hopkins, MN. Fr. Sandquist will be starting his new assignment on June 9th, which only gives us a few more weeks with him. I know I speak for so many when I say I will greatly miss him. He has served our parishes so well and has been a great companion along the way. Over the next few weeks, please take the opportunity to express your gratitude to him and share with him parting words and blessings. We are planning a going away celebration for him. Please, stay tuned for details on the date and location of this event. As we prepare to send Fr. Sandquist off to be of service to others elsewhere, let us prepare ourselves as well to welcome Fr. Michael Barsness who will be coming here to serve as Parochial Vicar (Assistant Pastor) (also on June 9th). Fr. Barsness currently serves at St. John the Baptist in Savage, MN as Parochial Vicar. I look forward to ministering alongside Fr. Barsness, and I am confident he will be a great blessing to our parish communities. Thank you, Fr. Sandquist and welcome, Fr. Barsness!
Attempt at Greater Unity I have wanted for a while to figure out a way to be more present to you as your Pastor. It is certainly less than ideal that I generally only see most of you every other weekend for the weekend Masses. I truly desire to be more greatly a part of your lives and to better understand how to best serve you as your Pastor. Therefore, I have decided to start trying to spend a couple hours a week at both Nativity and Marysburg. Hopefully, this will allow for more face time with you. This is a beginning, and it is experimental. If it does not work, other methods can be tried. Starting this week, my schedule at the parishes will be as follows: Every Thursday at our joint parish office on the Marysburg campus: 11am-1pm Every Friday at the Nativity Rectory: 2-4 pm Feel free to stop by! If for some reason I am not in, please understand that something came up which prevented me from being so. God bless you all!