Fr. Timothy

The week after Easter we learned that our parish priest, Fr. Timothy, was scheduled to move to another parish which is over an hour away from where we are currently living. Although I did not find the news surprising (a bright, young, enthusiastic priest with an STL in theology is not going to stay in a village parish forever), J.R. and I cannot help feeling a little sad to see him go. Fr. Timothy is the priest that spent hours and hours with us during our engagement as we prepared for marriage, and it was he who presided over our wedding mass; we had hoped that it would be Fr. Timothy to baptize our first child as well, though we recognize that a valid baptism is a valid baptism and look forward to meeting our new parish priest soon.

Last Sunday, May 6, we wished Fr. Timothy farewell. We had a pleasant conversation with him, in which we discussed many topics, including his new parish, our baby, and the importance of Christian names (as well as the sad reality that so many people do not seem to recognize the importance of this today). Fr. Timothy has congratulated us many times on the upcoming birth of our child, and seems to rejoice in the fact that J.R.'s and my marriage has "taken," as evidenced by the fact that we will be parents less than fourteen months after we were joined in marriage. Yes, we will miss Fr. Timothy certainly, but we hope to visit him occasionally at his new parish, and look forward to his (very) occasional visits to our parish. We know that God has called him onward to do great things in his new parish as he has in our parish, and our new priest, Fr. Dennis, surely has been sent to our parish as part of a greater plan as well.