In the past six months, I have been exploring with you the process of becoming a true stewardship parish. I’ve shared my vision of stewardship in previous bulletin articles. I do hope by now that everyone understands that Mary Immaculate is part of a second group of parishes in the Diocese of Jefferson City who are embracing the way of stewardship as exemplified by the Diocese of Wichita, KS. I invite you to re-read my bulletin column of August 29. I shared the key values that stewardship puts into operation.
In my bulletin column from October 24, I introduced the parish to the wonderful process called Grateful Living: The Joy of Stewardship. This is a total parish experience designed to help all in our parish community bring faith to life by embracing stewardship as a spiritual, practical way of living. The heart of this process will be the gathering of small groups of people in homes or other suitable locations to read and pray with the Scriptures. RENEW International will provide training for those who will lead this process in our parish. We are hoping as many people as possible will see this as a moment of grace and will participate.
I am working with other parishioners who will lead this process and will be providing you with information about how Grateful Living works and how it can breathe new life into our discipleship and stewardship as individual women and men and as a parish committed to continuing the mission of Jesus. Next week’s column will give a brief outline of the content of the program. But for now I am inviting all parishioners to consider their own participation in a Grateful Living small group this Lent. In mid-February we will hold a sign-up week, engaging in the process of identifying who is going to participate in the small groups.
At this time though, we are looking for those in the parish who might act as facilitators for these groups. I know there are several groups in the parish who are already meeting and I can count on them to participate. However, we need to have some more folks step up and be willing to host a small group, either in their homes or at a suitable place at church or even some other suitable location in Kirksville. In the past folks have been able to hold their groups in some of the restaurants or educational facilities.
At this time we are all very conscious of the rapidly evolving nature of the pandemic. This is certainly going to impact how we gather and share our faith. There are going to be some who will only be able to participate through an online meeting. All who gather will need to be especially conscious of best practices to manage the risk of getting sick and spreading COVID. Please know that I will be working with all the group leaders to identify how best to respond to the pandemic and still achieve our goal of strengthening our community.
This program is just what we need to challenge us to regroup, reconnect, and revive our parish and help our parishioners on their journeys. The pandemic has stressed the bonds that hold us together as family. Something as reliable as the First Friday Young at Heart Mass, Anointing, and dinner is still suspended. That’s a shame and we need to either find a way to meet safely or find another way to share mutual support for the elderly.
It is not just the elderly. I know that families with children have been particularly challenged by the pandemic. Health, safety and economic issues we seem to be able to manage most of the time. But nothing can substitute the need for companionship, compassionate outreach, and simple friends-getting-together with a common purpose. I will be working with school staff and the Home & School to discuss the impact of the pandemic on our common purpose and find ways to rebuild what has been lost in the last two years. The Sweetheart Dinner is a good step forward. Catholic Schools Week this year will be an especially important opportunity to demonstrate our commitment to each other as a family of faith.
The small group process is designed particularly to meet the very human and God-given need to be loved, appreciated, and simply be listened to as we tell our stories. During the Christmas Season, we heard from the First Letter of John: “In this is love: not that we have loved God, but that he loved us.” This is the great truth of our faith. Love doesn’t begin as a duty. Love begins as an experience of being loved. God sent his Son into the world that we might know that experience of love. Our roles as Christ’s disciples are to ensure that everyone can count on that experience of being loved by God.
The pandemic has been a powerful challenge to that truth: where is the love of God in the midst of the anxiety, suffering, isolation, and confusion of the past two years? It has been all around us. It is in the faithful day-to-day struggles of just getting up, getting everyone fed and clothed; keeping everyone safe from harm; and simply showing up. The enemy has not won. Compassion and love have flourished in every corner of our lives. Sometimes in the middle of the battle, famously called “the fog of war”, we lose sight of our objectives, we get out of touch with our comrades, and we lose our place in the overall plan. The rapidly developing nature of the war tests all our plans and disrupts our communication and cohesiveness. We begin to doubt.
We are still in the middle of a struggle against so many difficult forces. We are going to have to adapt and regroup if we are to not only survive but flourish in the midst of this trial. It is my firm conviction that Grateful Living: The Joy of Stewardship, will be the way forward to rebuild our Church and more effectively make our parish a center of true mercy and generous charity.
If you recognize your need and the need of your family and friends to reconnect to your faith and share the journey together, please contact me at monsignor.mak@miparish.org. I am so looking forward to walking with you.