August 3, 2015
The cathedral parish, like so many others, is coming closer to the end of summer and the beginning of school. (Say it isn’t so!) I have always believed that most parishes get moving in late August and early September and think about the things that need to be done to make the parish a livelier more welcoming place. When I first became a pastor, I found a book that I thought was very helpful. It was called The Catholic Parish, and what I liked most about the book was that it contained some very common sense.
In one portion of the book, Father Michael Hater, a priest of the Archdiocese of Cincinnati says, “People … want to be challenged by the Word of God, and celebrate it in ways that connect with their daily lives.” A business person put it this way: “… people search for a welcoming, community-minded parish with vibrant liturgies, good catechesis and excellent preaching.”
You, of course, as parishioners are the best judges of whether the cathedral community of faith measures up to those qualities. I have the prejudiced view point that we do. But even with the realization of my prejudice, I know that every so often we need to stop and ask ourselves and our priests and other ministers are we a welcoming and community-minded parish? Could we do more to assist other people to come and see whether we do what we say we should?
I’m going to propose to the pastoral council that we have a Welcoming Sunday in the fall and again in the spring where each of us deliberately invites someone who does not ordinarily come to church to join us as at the Eucharist. Sometimes we are so busy that we forget to simply invite someone to come with us to church. Would we invite them to a movie, maybe even to dinner in our homes? Then why would we hesitate to invite them to one of God’s homes and the home of the faith community with whom we share Eucharist? How will someone ever know how wonderful and welcoming the cathedral parish could be if we do not invite them?
Last week a friend invited me to play a round of golf. Then he invited me to his home where four of his children and his wife were gathered together around some simple things like wine and cheese. We just chatted and laughed, ate and drank, and had a wonderful time sharing stories together. The key to the lovely evening that I had in that home was the sense of welcome and being around a family who clearly cared about each other, watched out for each other and had reached out to someone who had never been in their home before.
Is asking someone to join us at church so very much different?