Dear Parishioners,
It’s hard to believe that I’ve been away from the parish for nearly three months now. The reality is, once I had my CT scan on Easter Monday afternoon and later that evening received the news from my primary physician about the egg-sized abnormal mass in the right frontal lobe of my brain, I’ve been carried along by medical processes, appointments, treatments, and the need to nap at least once a day and take things slow. After my craniotomy in April, I began trying to process everything that has unfolded, and learn about the type of cancer I have, I now have a better understanding of what the diagnosis of Grade 4 Glioblastoma Multiforme will likely mean for my life, my family, and my work at St. Mary. The truth is, glioblastoma is incurable and considered a terminal illness, and any treatment measures are done with the intention of prolonging the quality of my remaining life in this world.
Given this reality, I’d like to share two things with you. Firstly, in your charity, please pray for me as I seek to be present and responsive to the Father’s will for my life. I know His love, trust Him, and and I trust that He can be glorified in any suffering I may experience and that Jesus can relive in me His Paschal Mystery. Secondly, after much discussion and discernment, I will be taking a leave of absence from my responsibilities at St. Mary of the Assumption. It has become apparent to me that I no longer have the mental faculties required, nor with my diagnosis, can I carry out with the consistency and stability the people of the parish deserve, the responsibilities I had been entrusted with at Saint Mary. Fr. Eilerman has been making arrangements for the responsibilities I previously had for the upcoming spiritual year. I will remain at his service and will walk in support of those who he appoints to coordinate religious education programs this coming year as much as I’m able.
I humbly ask for your prayers in charity in these next months as I continue in my treatments. Please pray for my family, our parish, and for God’s will in all of this — that I’m present to what He has for me and that I may follow Him faithfully and that anyone who glimpses whatever may come may somehow encounter the Lord – who has conquered our sin and our death by His Cross. I continue to welcome your prayer intentions if you send them to me. It is a joy to be able to intercede for persons, relationships, situations, etc. in our parish family. You may email them to me and Gina keeps my little prayer booklet updated and current.
I’m grateful for the thirteen years I was able to serve at St. Mary of the Assumption. It’s been an honor to try to support and pass on the one, holy, catholic and apostolic faith at the parish in which I was raised in the same faith by my parents. It’s been a joy to work with Father Franks and Father Eilerman our recent pastors and to be trusted by all of you to walk alongside and guide persons and families in our parish to come to know, rise-up, and follow the Lord in His Church thru her sacraments and to be welcomed into intimate moments in your spiritual lives where the Lord in good times and especially the difficult ones, always works make all things new in Him and fill us with the fullness of life.
My wife Gina posts occasional updates on my health and cancer journey on a CaringBridge site that was started for me in April. You’re welcome to follow it if you’d like: www.caringbridge.org/visit/brianmccauley
See you at Mass.
Under His mercy,
Brian McCauley