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Below are reflections submitted by
parishioners regarding our parish merger. Through these, we hope to grow together in understanding and
support of one another, tell our stories, voice our
dreams for parish life, and share our struggles as we
clarify our call to communal and personal growth.
Participants were asked to spend time
praying over a short scripture passage and share their
responses to related questions.
The passages and questions
that they received:
John 14:15-21
God has promised us an Advocate to be with us
always and life in the spirit. What hopes do you have for
the new parish?
Isaiah 55:6-11 Isaiah calls us to “seek the Lord.”
How has the merger experience challenged you to seek God’s
will?
Matthew 4:18-22
Jesus says “Come after me.” Do you think
these words have an application for us as a parish? How do
they speak to you?
Submitted by Gerald Decker
No Scripture Referenced
While shopping one day, I ran into a
parishioner as we were both rushing toward a checkout lane
that had just opened. After “pardons” were exchanged, the
topic of parish merger came up. In essence, this person
shared that these days they just felt numbness toward
church. This was very striking to me considering their long
history of involvement in the parish. The remark prompted me
to get in touch with my own feelings about the merger. I had
just attended the Holy Week services at the East Campus. The
services were wonderful, well planned, lots of singing, good
homilies and enthusiastic participation. Surprisingly, when
I arrived home after the Easter Vigil I found myself feeling
upset, in fact angry. Praying over this, it became clear
that I was angry that, in all likelihood, I would never be
able to participate in another Holy Week service at what we
now call the West Campus. The words of St. Paul that came to
mind and brought me a degree of peace and comfort were: “I
count all as loss except to gain the knowledge of Christ.”
When the possibility of merger was first was
brought up, I thought that I would be able to face this
dispassionately since I had experienced many changes in the
church before. In the day when it was considered stylish for
men to wear plaid slacks to church, we used to celebrate
Solemn Benediction every Sunday. It was great; there was so
much incense that servers appeared to be ghosts moving
around the altar. We sang Gregorian chant in four voices,
and had litanies to every saint possible. Looking back, I am
sure the pastor just made some of these up. But who cared,
it was wonderful. It was also a time of change and there
were rumors that the new concept of a pastoral team was to
be introduced. Shortly after the new team arrived, I recall
walking up the steps to church and upon entering the
vestibule my heart stopped and darkness took over my spirit.
There on the bulletin board a large poster with a painting
of a large basket of tomatoes with the words that said, as
best I can recall, “Mary, the juiciest tomato of them all.”
I was incensed. What really got me steamed was that this
creation was done by a nun
“How profane,” I thought, “What’s this world
coming to?” Can you imagine how difficult her life must have
become, especially with people like me attributing to her
all sort of motives. Then not too long after that, I walked
into church one evening and was even more shocked by what I
saw. There on the tabernacle was a veil made out of Wonder
Bread wrappers. This was too much. I wondered if there was
any faith left in the church.
Over the years I have come to cherish these
delicious symbols of church piety and worship. Among women,
Mary is truly the pick of the crop and the Eucharist is
truly wonder bread. Even more, I have now come to appreciate
those who stuck their necks out to create these works of art
and now try to remember them in prayer. Our pastor used to
always remind us, “You might find reason to question
another’s expression of faith, but never ever question the
sincerity of another’s faith.”
Having been part of several parish
committees, faith sharing groups, More Connections and being
a bit nosy, I have been privileged to hear many stories
about parish life and the merger. Some of the stories are
full of hope and energy, others tell of loss, some of hurt
or disregard and some of numbness. None lack for passion nor
is there any lack of feeling. The language is not always
pious, but the stories come from the heart. These are
stories of faith; these stories have a personal history and
get right to the core of what it means to be church. The
stories and those who tell them must be cherished and held
in highest regard. Again, the spirit of St. Paul’s words
become a challenge for me at this point. “I count all my
presuppositions and judgments as loss that I might gain the
knowledge of the one telling the story.”
Dare I say that it is to gain knowledge of
Christ? Yes it is! My hope for the parish is that through
this process of merger we become even more attuned to the
stories of faith all around us, especially when we find
ourselves in secular settings. May it be said about us,
“Here are those More people, they are always expecting
miracles.” ~ Gerald Decker
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Submitted by Trixie
Crescini Williams
Based on
Isaiah 55:6-11
“Seek the Lord
while he may be found, call to him while he is near. For my
thoughts are not your thoughts, nor are your ways my ways,
says the Lord. As high as the heavens are above the earth,
so high are my ways above your ways and my thoughts above
your thoughts.”
Seeking the Lord is difficult during
transitions and changes. It’s a time when fears and
uncertainties cause us to rely more on our own efforts.
Eventually, God’s will is pushed aside. As churches merge
and even close, I reflect on the Mass. It leads me to search
for the Lord in the Eucharist.
We experience solidarity in the Mass, because
it unites all Christians to Christ’s suffering, but most of
all it signifies the true presence of God in this world.
When I take Communion, I can hear Christ’s words saying to
me “love your neighbor” and “love God”. When I kneel before
the Blessed Sacrament, the images of Christ living among the
marginalized, call me to serve the people that are in need.
The world is changing, yet our hearts are the
same. Because amidst all the changes in the world or church,
we still seem to fall into the same fears. Partaking in the
Eucharist is a constant, yet the effect it has on my heart
is life changing - to me and to the people I serve.
There will always be the unknowns in our
future, but God knows what we need and has a plan. Through
our recent merger and name change, I have sought the
Eucharist with more attention. What I have found is a quiet
place in my heart - where God is near, and a place where I
can find peace and God’s voice. It’s a place where I can
make room for God’s will. I cannot find this sense of peace
anywhere else. However, the challenge is not to forget that
it is always close to me. I don’t know what will happen in
the future of this church, but I will continue to be present
and help build a new community.
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Submitted by
Dan
Kelly
Based on
John 14:15-21
The scripture that struck
me most was John 14:15-21….I will not leave you orphans;
I will come to you.
I will come to you. We don’t know when.
Perhaps today, tomorrow or next month? Do we simply wait? I
believe our challenge is to do the work of our parish & to
prepare for the Spirit’s arrival. Perhaps the Spirit has
already arrived? Were we paying enough attention to know it?
Let us do our best to be prepared, to be present in mind &
spirit when one is sent.
Like any other important relationship we have
(with our spouse, children, parents, family, friends) it
takes work, a lot of hard work to grow as time goes on.
Those relationships don’t just happen. We don’t just show up
in those relationships & expect them to have changed or
grown or improved if we haven’t done any work for them. Why
should we expect our parish & spiritual relationship to
require any less attention? If we don’t tend to those
relationships they will not thrive.
As Father Joe has said, we have a once in a
life time opportunity to form a ‘new’ parish. Like those
before us who founded our parish we have both opportunity &
responsibility. We did not choose this time or situation any
more than the generation that founded the parish chose their
time or situation. We can’t choose the setting or
circumstances; we can however choose how we react & choose
what we do. We need to do our best.
Let us seize our opportunity; we will not
have this chance again .
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Submitted by Bill Shea
Based on
Matthew 4:18-22
Call To Follow:
Ever since Jesus called the fishermen to follow
him, the church through its history, has asked its believers
to become part of the human process to follow Him and his
word. Oftentimes our modern world gets us tangled up in all
sorts of other things and deflects our focus on the fact we
are one body and one church following the word of Christ for
the ultimate fulfillment he promised.
Courage to Change:
Our everyday practice of faith through church
attendance and social interactions leads some people to
think that this is the way it is and the way it is to be and
not subject to change. Our church grows and evolves in many
physically ways and we are asked to see, that while the
tenets of our Catholicism remain constant, much of that
around us has its evolution. We form new parishes, new
church buildings and worship spaces. It takes courage to
make these moves and takes faith to realize we are growing
as Christ asked us to do.
Determination to
Build a New Community: It was 57 years ago that
ground was broken to build the new IHM parish. At that time
many parishioners at St. Luke and St. Mark understood that
the time had come when their customary worship space would
change, and many families were then determined to build a
new, strong spiritual community. They were determined to
make it a success and they did.
Rejoice:
This is an historic time for all of the parishioners to
share in the opportunity to build a new parish and spiritual
community. It is a challenge that can have many rewards.
When Christ asked Simon Peter and Andrew and James and John
to follow him he also was asking them to leave their things
behind just as we are now asked to leave many of our
feelings and ways behind and rejoice in a renewed community
with a beautiful new opportunity.
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Submitted by Mike
Sarafolean
"Come
after me."
Matthew 4:18-22
An invitation, a choice. Accept it or not.
But if we do accept the invitation, I think we are called to
follow Christ and his commandment - love one another as I
have loved you.
I think that is our challenge as a parish. To
follow Christ, love one another, and use the gifts and
talents we have received to bring others to the Lord as we
work to make our parish, our community, our world better,
more Christ-centered places.
God has blessed us with a variety of gifts
and expects us to use them to bring each other closer to
God. But it is a choice - a choice we make each and every
day about how we act. We cannot control what happens to us,
we only control how we choose to act. And if we are open to
hearing God's voice, to following Christ, then in that space
- where we make our choices - that is where God allows
miracles to happen. It's a simple choice.
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Submitted by Nonie Osendof
Based on
Isaiah 55:6-11
"Seek the Lord while he
may be found, call to him while he is near. For my thoughts
are not our thoughts, nor are your ways my ways, says the
Lord. As high as the heavens are above the earth, so high
are my ways above your ways and my thoughts above your
thoughts."
There is an immediacy in this scripture
passage and hefty, even painful questions arise within me:
When might I not be able to find my Lord? When might he not
be near me? How could this ever happen?
With reflection, questions, answers and more
questions present themselves and finally I realize that God
is always near, waiting for me to lift the roadblocks
keeping me from his embrace and welcome in my new parish of
Saint Thomas More:
v
When have I had an unforgiving heart?
v
When have I been unwilling to soften, to listen to another
or to recognize the fragileness of my own heart and seek out
someone to listen to me?
v
When has my will overruled my conscience?
v
When do I allow my ego, my need for recognition and praise,
my pride, surpass my gut knowledge that God loves me as I am
and needs none of the fluff my ego is seeking?
v
When do I act without considering the choices before me and
their consequences? Am I afraid of commitment they may bring
and loss of my own time?
v
When have I blocked God from being present tome because of
anger, worries or concerns from the pas or of the future?
v
When have I allowed the busyness of my
life to leave no time for reflection on the present moment -
where God is?
"Seek the Lord while he
may be found, call to him while he is near."
Time is of the essence, the clock is ticking.
I can look to my past and learn from and embrace the good
that comes from it; I can look with hope toward the future
even though it may not come. But God is her, in my today, in
this new community of St Thomas More - east and west . I
recognize my giftedness to this community as I recognize
your giftedness, fellow parishioners, several whom I met
through the recent More Connections Campaign. Together we
will attend to each other's physical, spiritual and
educational needs with our given talents, bringing
grace-filled, God-filled moments to our parish community,
our Saint Paul community. Our efforts will resonate on a
universal level. The Holy Spirit will tend to that.
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