The parish family of St. Gregory the Great, would like to acknowledge Father McClane’s six years of spiritual direction, leadership, and dedicated service to our parish and the inspirational way he quietly led us to know, love and serve our God.
In Ecclesiastes we are told, “there is a season and a time for every purpose under heaven.” Father McClane, we are ever so grateful for the time you have spent here with us. We offer our thanks to you for being a great example of living a life of faith.
You have been a wonderful pastor and a blessing to our parish. Your enthusiastic and approachable personality made it so easy to love and respect you. We saw the hand of God at work in our parish as you helped to nurture and guide us, asking the Holy Spirit to work among us, especially during troubling times.
Your faith motivates one and all to honor the Lord. You have been our shepherd of souls, guiding and directing us in all things spiritual, by way of example and through your teaching. We are appreciative of your homilies that inspire us with your wise and thoughtful words, always entwining the Gospel into daily life and giving us a bit of a history lesson too. You have taught us how to walk humbly with our God. You have made us more aware of our responsibility for our actions and our decision to follow Christ’s teaching in our everyday living. You motivated us to live a better life.
You have served the Lord and his people, the people of our parish, with your God given talents and strengths. You have served the Lord with gladness – tirelessly, faithfully and with great compassion for his flock. So many more words come to mind to describe you… devote, loving, humble, caring, patient, great listener, counselor, gentle, reverent, dedicated, but most of all, a man of God. These are all qualities that have endeared you to us.
Under your leadership you helped us grow individually and as a parish family in faith, hope and charity.
Now as the day dawns on the next chapter in your life, may God continue to richly bless and watch over you. May he sustain you with His grace and give you joy always. With gratitude and affection we pray that ''The Lord bless you and keep you; The Lord make His face shine upon you, And be gracious to you; The Lord lift up His countenance upon you, And give you peace''