January 11, 2026

Dear Brothers and Sisters in Christ, Following the Christmas season each year, we spend some time following the Lord through the beginning of his public ministry: how he taught, healed, and above all reached out to so many people. Let’s enjoy this simple time once again out on the road with Jesus. Reflecting on how we as a parish can join in the on-going task of reaching people with the good news of God’s love, I found myself struck by an interesting statistic this year: our Mass attendance across the Christmas weekend was about the same as what we had been seeing on our weekends throughout the fall (about 1550+ people over five Masses). That’s a very encouraging observation: it means the people of St. Thomas are equally committed to gathering with our community when it’s a holiday and when it’s an ordinary Sunday. Thanks for giving such a strong witness to your love for the Lord. At the same time, that statistic means that we’ve got a challenge. In decades past, Christmas and Easter attendance tended to be far higher than an average Sunday, due to many people who would only attend with family on those days. Their habit of coming to church a couple times a year used to give us an easy way to reach them: make sure they had a positive and welcoming experience on those holidays. But it seems like one of the cultural changes that the pandemic has accelerated is that people whose connection with the Catholic Church is very weak tend not to come even for the big holidays. Which means, brothers and sisters, that we’ve got our work cut out for us. If we’re going to follow Jesus in reaching out to others, we’re going to have to make a point of doing more than just welcoming the people who come in the front door (even though that welcome remains very important!). I invite everyone to join me in my own New Years’ resolution to pray and brainstorm about ways to reach our neighbors in this new moment. Through the intercession of Mary, the Queen of the Apostles, and our patron St. Thomas, may the Lord send us the gifts of the Spirit to help reach all people with his Good News. God bless,

Father Jantz