I cannot believe that my final days here at St. John have come so quickly. These final days are days that I thought were far, far into the future, yet here we are on the day that marks the birth of our nation and I must take the next step and move on to the next parish I have been called to serve. As I leave, I want all of you to know how much you mean to me.

Since I became aware of the fact that I was being called to serve the people of Our Lady of the Visitation Parish in Mack, Ohio, I began looking for a way to express to you how deeply grateful I am for the time that the Lord gave me to be with you. You have truly been a blessing to me and I didn’t really know how to adequately express that to you until I spent several early morning sessions in prayer in the Blessed Sacrament Chapel in our church. It was during one of those times of prayer that I remembered something a missionary I know had told me years ago.

According to that missionary, the Masai tribe of West Africa has a very unusual way of expressing thanks to others. He said that when the Masai express thanks, they bow; put their foreheads on the ground and say, “My head is in the dirt.” Once they have done that, they sit for a long time in front of the hut of the person who has blessed them or done them some favor and literally say, “I sit on the ground before you.”

When this came to my mind the other day in the chapel, I literally laughed out loud! I was glad it was 5:00 am and there was no one there but me and God! As I thought about it, however, I decided that my parting words to you as I answer the Lord’s call to my new pastorate would simply be these few words which will serve to sum up how much I love you and am grateful to God and you for these past 8 years:  “My head is in the dirt!” and “I sit on the ground before you!”