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June 10, 2023I’d like to take a brief moment to offer my thanks to a pair of employees in our family of parishes, and also invite our parishioners as a whole to reflect on how we might better exemplify the golden standard of parish work that those two aspired toward during their time with us. Sadly (for us), both Kathleen Holt and Nancy Feverston have taken positions elsewhere and will be departing from us shortly. Nancy will be with us for most of the rest of the summer, but Kathleen will be starting her new position sooner than that. My internship pastor told me years ago that good parish secretaries are worth their weight in gold, and I have seen just how right he was. I am immensely grateful to both of them for the many times that they were waiting with a kind word for me or a visiting parishioner, and for the diligence with which they took calls, gleaned information, and sent it off in the right direction so that people could be anointed promptly, continue their sacramental prep, find the right form, or whatever was called for in the moment. Please keep them in your prayers as they move on from us.
It's also a great opportunity to reflect on a maxim that might sound trite but is certainly valuable in the work of spreading the Gospel. It is often said that people don’t care how much you know until they know how much you care. It is, in a sense, a paraphrase of St. Paul, who once said that we can speak in human and angelic tongues and accomplish great works, but if we don’t have love, then we are little more than a clanging gong. Just as a parish secretary is often the first touchpoint people have with their parish, so too are our conversations with people, the first touchpoint people might have with the Faith. We live in an increasingly secularized world where you can no longer assume that people have a basic understanding of the scriptures or Catholic doctrine. But people still seek the truth, and so every time we talk to someone or offer to pray with them might be the best opportunity that person has to feel connected to God. It may seem like an overwhelming responsibility, but more than that, these are the everyday opportunities that God gives us to live out the Great Commission in our lives.
As we segue into ordinary time, perhaps take a moment in prayer to think about how you might exercise that ministry of hospitality and welcome in the conversations you have this week. The more we seek out these opportunities and seize them as they come, the more God rewards our openness and generosity in sharing what we have received first from Him.
Prayers always,
Fr. McC
