I think our faith community takes seriously the task of making our visitors feel welcomed, but it would be great to welcome a lot more.  Our Mass attendance reflects only a very small number of the visitors to our Island.  While long lines wait to get into the Sunrise Restaurant or the Breakfast Club on Sunday morning, not many are crossing the threshold of St. Michael’s. 
After suffering great persecutions for the first couple of centuries, the Church for the next 1700 years was the leading force in shaping Western culture, but not today.  Beyond shooting ourselves in the foot with scandals and cover-ups; secularism, consumerism and individualism are now the dominant forces that shape our society.  There are many who do not believe in God.  But most folks are indifferent to the question of whether God exists.  If he does exist, he has little impact on the way we live our lives.  So dilly, dilly – let’s just eat, drink, and be merry shoppers and sports fans in this present moment.
The Church has rested on its laurels for too long and sadly we now have very little influence in forming our culture.  And in a way, I am glad for it.  I am glad for a fresh beginning.  I am glad that we can no longer simply “go through the motions.”  I welcome the challenge of bringing God’s love and gospel values to an indifferent world.  There is so much work to be done in building up God’s Kingdom here and now that we don’t have time to mourn the passing of the so-called good ole days.
At St. Michael’s, I hope our visitors will find a loving and compassionate faith community.  We are working hard to make our liturgies joyful, prayerful, and uplifting experiences.  I hope that our parish will always be a place where our members thrive; a place of fellowship where we passionately pursue our Catholic faith.  I pray that our faith community will help both visitors and parishioners experience the presence of our Risen Lord and encourage all who gather with us to go deeper in their daily walk with Christ.
I love Pentecost.  On this day, we commemorate the outpouring of the Holy Spirit on the disciples. It is not only a day to celebrate the birth of the Church, but it is also a time to celebrate the presence of God’s Spirit active in the Church today.  As pastor, I am so very grateful for all of you who take an active role in our parish, but we are always in need of more helpers.  From time to time, we will invite the leaders of our different ministry groups to make an appeal for your help during the weekend Masses.  Today, it will be Bill Robinson who is looking for more ushers/greeters.  These men and women play an important role as the first folks to welcome visitors to our parish.  I pray that the Holy Spirit will inspire some of you to respond to Bill’s appeal. June is wedding season.  The parish hosted the destination wedding of Mara Forsythe and Heath Hansch who came all the way from Fort Dodge, Iowa to get married at Tybee Island.  Next weekend I’ll be in Charlotte for the wedding of Ashley Baker and Charles Purcell.  And after that I’ll be juggling my duties here with two more weddings on the following weekends in Atlanta and Valdosta.  Church weddings could be making a come back.
 
Fr. Jerry Ragan