• Skip to content
  • Skip to primary sidebar
  • Skip to footer
Translate: ||

Our Lady of Peace Catholic Parish

  • About
    • Mass Times
    • Parish History
      • Church Windows
    • New Parishoner Registration
    • Pastor’s Messages
    • Ministry Guide (pdf)
    • Contact Staff
      • Priests
      • Deacons
      • Staff
    • Marian Order
    • Council/Committee
      • Parish Council
      • Finance Committee
    • Bulletins
    • School
    • Sitemap
  • Sacraments
    • Sacraments for public school-children
    • Baptism
    • Marriage
    • Divorce and Annulments
    • Becoming Catholic
    • Sacrament Certificates
    • Eucharistic Home & Hospital Visits
    • Funerals
  • Worship
    • Mass Times
    • Eucharistic Home & Hospital Visits
    • Vocations Prayer Calendar
  • Serve
    • Parish Life/ Volunteer
    • Council/Committee
      • Parish Council
      • Finance Committee
    • Eucharistic Home & Hospital Visits
    • Find a Ministry
    • Ministry Proposal Form
  • Formation
    • Religious Education
      • Welcome
      • Registration Forms
      • Sacraments for public school-children
      • Calendars
      • Volunteers
      • Contact Religious Education
  • Stewardship
    • Time, Talent, Treasure
    • Donate Today!
    • Find a Ministry
  • Connect
  • School

Archives for November 2018

Of You My Heart Has Spoken ~ Bishop J. Peter Sartain

November 8, 2018

Have you thanked your parish secretary? (PP. 363-365)

“Among the many unsung heroines and heroes of the Church are thousands of parish secretaries.

They are a special breed, unique for their dedication and generosity, indispensable in the variety of roles they play. They are at once receptionists and counselors, intermediaries and managers, bookkeepers and social workers, detectives and confidants.

As I think of the parish secretaries with whom I have had the privilege to work, a flood of names and fond memories pop into my heard? Ethel, Donna, Virginia, Sweetie, Louise, Shirley, Marge, Harriet, Joyce, Nancy, Judi and Peggy. All of them bring a special gift to their parishes, and they are the backbone of parish life. Often, parishioners are unaware of the long hours they work and the countless behind-the-scenes tasks they perform to ensure that everything runs smoothly.

Usually they are a parishioner’s or visitor’s first contact with the parish. They shift gears constantly, because their service is linked directly to the lives of others. What has happened today in the life of family in the parish often determines how the secretary’s day will unfold. In a parish office, one never knows whether the next phone call will be from a grieving family, a newcomer, the bank or the plumber.

Believe it or not, sometimes there are complaints, and parish secretaries are posted at the front lines. They listen, explain, pass along the message, heal, repair and save the day – usually getting no credit for having done so. Daily they are confronted with a host of expectations (often conflicting), and they are subject to all manner of evaluation, but they take it in stride. Although it is not in their job description to read minds, they are expected to do so. Amazingly, they succeed.

There is tedium, too, and accuracy matters when counting the collection, recording sacramental information, assigning Sunday ministers, or making reports to the diocesan office.

Scheduling software notwithstanding, how do they keep track of the fact that altar server Harry should be assigned to the same Mass as his lector-dad, Miles, and his extraordinary minister-mom, Susan? How do they balance the checkbook while the phone is ringing and the doorbell chiming? How do they remember to tell Father, as he rushes from one appointment to the next, that Mrs. Smith is in the hospital and needs the anointing of the sick?

Church work is about Christian discipleship, but one must also have street smarts to be a parish secretary. As one recently told me, “Bishop, you wouldn’t believe who comes to the door.” I would believe, and I know that a good dose of holy skepticism and good humor makes the job easier. As pastor of the Church in Arkansas, I am proudly confident that whoever does come to our doors, each is treated as Christ.

Large parishes have multiple secretaries, each of whom carries out a delegated set of important tasks. Small parishes have one secretary (perhaps part-time), the jack-of-all-trades who runs the place with quiet competence. Rarely are parish secretaries paid a salary commensurate with their work, and in many cases they just volunteer, out of love for the Lord. What would we do without them?

When someone accepts the job of parish secretary, she is soon astounded at the sheer variety and volume of the work and says to herself, “I would never have guessed that so much goes on in the parish office.”

She probably wonders how she will get it all done, probably works past closing time, and probably doesn’t count the cost. Realizing both the amount of work and the amount of good accomplished, she responds with a generous heart. Her response is one of faith in the Lord, love for His people, and stewardship of her own gifts.

We don’t thank our parish secretaries near enough. Why not give yours a call or write her a note to express your gratitude? No doubt she’ll be busy when she receives it, but she’ll welcome the break and smile that someone noticed!”

Suppose…

November 1, 2018

Do you remember when President Ronald Reagan gave a speech, I believe to the United Nations, and asked the gathering of people this question: suppose there was an alien invasion? Wouldn’t such an experience unite us all as one people? I’ve seen that speech several times in different contexts on TV, YouTube, and in other ways. The President was trying to unite all the nations of the world, having them feel a connection with each other via an imagined scenario.

I remember reading in the Chicago Tribune about a Polish couple in Poland who were anti- Semitic. Then they researched their ancestry and learned that they, themselves, were Jewish. So, they learned that they belonged precisely to the people they hated. I’m sure that brought about some serious reflections on their part.

And it happened to me! I got involved with Ancestry.com and volunteered my own saliva. I got two reports back. The bottom line is that I am very Russian for one thing, a result that I admit did surprise me. There is Polish in me for sure, but I am mostly a Slavic mutt, with Polish, Czech, Slavic, Lithuanian all mixed together – and to a large percentage, I am also very Russian.

I’m not finished, however, as there is one more element to these findings. As with the Polish couple above, I too have Jewish ancestry. Now, I decided to mention these findings in this Pastor page as many Jewish people were recently murdered by someone with exceptional hate for Jewish people. Of course, everyone remembers the Holocaust during World War II when millions of Jews were killed. Over the centuries, in fact, Jews were routinely killed. What is different now is that my recent discovery causes me to view all these experiences differently.

Before, all these killings were against “those” people. Now, it’s “my” people as I have learned how connected I am to them. Back to the comment of President Reagan! Suppose you woke up one day and learned something that made you feel connected to everyone in the world? Suppose that experience in turn was felt by everyone in the world simultaneously? Wouldn’t there be peace in the world now?

This experience is what Jesus wanted us to feel. He wanted us to recognize that we are all brothers and sisters. We’re family. For this reason, we need to know, or must know, that we are all connected to each other. Unable perhaps to feel such a reality right away, there are possible experiences that we can have to help us along. Like spitting in a test tube and learn that I am also a member of a people that could conceivably get me killed, just because my ancestry is connected to them.

So, I am left with reading the recent news report of Jewish people killed in a synagogue. Feeling somewhat hollow, yet sad. And I cannot help but wonder how it would be, if we all woke up one day and realized that we were all family? I wonder more, why that day cannot be now!

Peace, Fr. Walter

Newer Posts

Primary Sidebar

Contact Us

  • This field is for validation purposes and should be left unchanged.

Footer

Contact Us

  • This field is for validation purposes and should be left unchanged.

Quick Links

Parish Registration Form
School
Give Online
Employment Opportunities
Sitemap

Catholic Resources

Relevant Radio EWTN The Pope's Five Finger Prayer

Address & Map

701 Plainfield Road
Darien, IL 60561
630.323.4333

Copyright © 2019 · Gallery Pro on Genesis Framework · WordPress · Log in