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Rev. Adam Hertzfeld
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“Take thought now, redeemed man, and consider how great and worthy is he who hangs on the cross for you” (Saint Bonaventure). With these words, Saint Bonaventure draws our attention to the love of Jesus as that love pours itself out for us on the gibbet of the Cross. The words themselves appear in the Sacred Liturgy for the Solemnity of the Sacred Heart, a feast which we celebrated last Friday and which also happened to be my first day as your new pastor. I cite them now because they express well my own desire for the parish: namely that we look together to the Lord and His immense and self-sacrificing love, so that we may be grateful for that love and reciprocate with a profound love of our own.
By way of introduction, I offer just a few words about my background. I grew up near here on a farm between Waterville and Whitehouse. My parents and seven siblings still live in the area, along with many nieces and nephews. Like Fr. Hite, I attended seminary in Rome. I was ordained a priest in 2002. After ordination I served at Saint Michael the Archangel Parish in Findlay as a parochial vicar. In 2005 I returned to Rome for further studies, completing a doctorate in Moral Theology in 2008. I then became Director of the Office of Vocations for the diocese, until 2010. For the past year I have been serving in the English Language Section of the Holy See’s Secretariat of State. While it was an honor to serve the Holy Father in such a capacity, nevertheless my true desire has been for parish work, and so I was quite pleased when Bishop Blair supported that desire by assigning me to Saint Joan of Arc.
I look forward to settling in and getting to know all of you. By God’s grace we will grow closer to Him, especially through the Holy Mass. You have my prayers; please keep me in your own.
In Christ,
Fr. Adam Hertzfeld
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