In my column this weekend I want to express my personal
gratitude to Pat Bjorum, who will be retiring after forty years of service to
our parish and school. Her
retirement date is set for April 30th, 2015. This is well deserved having served for
twenty-five years as a second grade teacher at St. Thomas Aquinas Catholic
School (1975-2000) and fifteen years as our Director of Pastoral Care
(2000-2015).
To be honest, I feel ill equipped
to write this article. I happen to
be the last pastor with whom Pat worked—and that is an honor. Pat has worked at St. Thomas Aquinas
parish and school for no less than 12 pastors (and longer than I have been
alive!) More than this, I now consider
Pat a friend and coworker in the vineyard of our Lord.
In less than a year, Pat has shown
me what it means to follow Jesus’ command in the Judgment of the Nations: “Then the King will
say to those at his right hand, ‘Come, O blessed of my Father, inherit the
kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world; for I was hungry and
you gave me food, I was thirsty and you gave me drink, I was a stranger and you
welcomed me, I was naked and you clothed me, I was sick and you visited me, I
was in prison and you came to me’”
(Matthew 25:34-36). Pat has always been a voice to those left on the fringes of
society. She steadfastly spoke for
the poor in our parish—the hungry, thirsty, stranger, naked, ill and
infirmed. I know she will continue
to do so in this new phase of life.
As we
move forward we are discerning what our needs are and how we can best fulfill
God’s mission as a parish. As we
do so, please pray, especially for the right person to say yes to joining our parish staff!
As we do
so, I want to be clear—our goal is not to replace Pat. This is impossible because individuals
can never be replaced (especially someone with four decades’ worth of
experience and a Master’s Degrees in pastoral care to back it up!). At the same time, the mission to serve
must carry on. Our goal ought to
be offering similar services to the poor, homebound and sick that Pat provided
and established in our parishes with the same compassion and care. Individuals—both paid and
volunteer—will be called upon to ensure we always seek the lost in our
community.
I am
proud of our parish for its longstanding outreach to the poor, elderly,
homebound, infirmed and ill. Thanks,
Pat, for your many years of dedicated service to those who are often left on
the margins of our society. While
I wanted to throw a huge retirement party, Pat specifically requested serving
coffee and donuts after the 10:30 Mass on Sunday, April 26th. Please thank her now and then!
God Bless!
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