Here’s what I want to see happen: we become a thriving parish community of growing disciples of Jesus Christ in South St. Louis. A church I respect says that to grow your church you need to get members of your congregation up out of the pews and serving others. The youngest person at our “Conversation on Music” said something similar: Young people need to see Catholics up and out, living their faith in service to others. Our Serve Together program makes it easy for you to take your first step — or your next step — in serving others. This semester, we’ll help at St. Anthony’s Food Pantry in Dutchtown on Sunday Nov. 5, and we’ll sing Christmas carols for the residents of the Mary Queen and Mother Home in December. For more details, visit www.sspstl.org/serve-together. How can you serve others, invest love in them, and prepare for the day when they meet Jesus at church?

How about rotating periodically which church has the Saturday evening Mass?    My limited experience suggests that changes to the weekend Mass schedule are hard on parishes and hard on parishioners. I think that rotating the Saturday Masses among our churches would tend to make it harder for parishioners to settle into a new pattern of weekly prayer, and would make it more complicated to invite people to come to church.

This is more an observation than a question. There are 188 children at SSP School. Very few of them and their families seem to be at weekend Mass. Maybe our evangelization efforts should start with school parents.    It’s a great idea. I’d suggest that you pick one of our school families and then invest your time and energy in loving that family and boosting them up. Then, when the time is right, invite them to come to church with you.

Are you going to tell us about yourself?   I had not planned on it, because the less our parish is about me and the more our parish is about Jesus, the better. Also, I figured people would get to know me little by little.  But since you asked, here goes.

I am the oldest of six kids. My mom and dad are pretty fantastic and gave us a happy home, despite our squabbling and not-paying-attention. My sister Audrey is the youngest; she works at a bakery and is writing a novel. My brother Anthony, the youngest of the five boys and the most charismatic, married Megan, one of the kindest people I have ever met. They live in Wildwood and take care of my goddaughter, who turns one year old this month! If anyone knows a good life lesson to teach a young girl, tell me! My brother Alex is a priest taking care of parishes in Pacific, Moselle, and Catawissa, Missouri. We spend our Mondays off together, playing complicated board games and trying to ensnare other family members in our games, too. Recently we have been playing lots of Gloomhaven and Sleeping Gods; Terraforming Mars is another favorite. My brother Abraham and my sister-in-law Stephanie live in Texas with my niece and nephew. It is always a lot of fun when they come to visit, and they are definitely the cool branch of the Nord family. They cook amazing food and listen to insightful podcasts and have a garden. Stephanie teaches piano, and Abraham’s an expert in conversion ratios for business-to-business sales. My brother Adam and his wife, Mango, are the international adventurers in our family. Mango runs scuba diving tours in Thailand, and Adam helps the United Nations run refugee camps. Right now they live in Amman, Jordan. When I visited Adam in South Africa a few years back, I was amazed how large lions were! They are scary up close, even when you are in a car! Adam is off-the-scale smart; he’s the second oldest. My family often reminds me that “No one is as old as Aaron."

I grew up in St. Louis since I was three. Dad had a good job at Monsanto, and Mom, with superb efforts and mixed results, attempted to civilize a growing home of tiny barbarians. I went to St. Blaise school in Maryland Heights, then was homeschooled three years, then did sophomore through senior year at DeSmet Jesuit High School, then got math and English degrees from Truman State University, and then went to Kenrick Glennon Seminary in St. Louis to become a priest. If there’s more you want to know, ask me after Mass someday.

Finally, a request. I’ve been saying a rosary each week for our music ministry program. Can I ask you to do the same? Music is important to our parish, but it is not simple to find the right path. Please pray that God gives us the wisdom, diligence, and humility that parish renewal requires, and that we find the path God wants us to take so that our music ministry supports newcomers in prayer.

God bless you!