As I See It

by Fr. Vin

Your opinion counts!

About a year ago we surveyed the parish to discover what helps you to grow spiritually.  You may remember that, a few months later, we invited parishioners to tell us more about what you found helpful through group meetings.  Since that time the Pastoral Council and the parish staff have been working on what you told us.  Each of those groups first studied both the survey results and your comments, and drew from them what seemed to be common themes of what helped people to grow closer to Christ.  Over the next few months the Council and staff, separately and then together, worked to use what you told us to draft statements of priorities for the future of Our Lady of Grace.  For the next several weeks I’m going to devote my column to those statements.  (There are six of them; I’ll do one each week.  We haven’t put them into priority order themselves, so which I do first and which last doesn’t indicate which we think is most important.)

Each of the draft statements has a common format: each begins, “A priority of Our Lady of Grace is to…”  That statement tells us what sort of goal we’re setting, the final outcome we hope for.  It’s followed by a statement that begins, “By means of…”  That says how we intend to reach our goal.  It’s not so detailed as program planning might be, but it gives direction; it includes some approaches and excludes others.  Finally there’s a statement that begins, “In order that…” which describes what we hope to be able to observe so that we’ll know that we’re reaching our goal.

The purpose of the exercise is to give direction for parish planning.  Just as in your household you probably have a lot of dreams of what you’d like to do, but the realities of time and money and energy you have available mean that you have to say “yes” to some things and “no” to others, we as a parish have the same sorts of limits and the same need to do what’s most important. 

But before we take any planning steps, the Council and staff want to bring these to you and to hear your comments.  There may be things that we’ve overlooked or not said clearly.  If so, we’d like you to tell us.  You can use a form that will appear in next week’s Bulletin, or (preferably) e-mail your comments to the address at the bottom of this page.  The Pastoral Council and staff will review everything you have to say, and prepare a final statement of parish priorities by this June.  That, in turn, will give direction for the future.  (Note that we’re not inviting anyone to try to reshape the priorities as a whole: We’ve taken what the survey and groups told us as our foundation, and the parish leadership is committed to those.  We know everyone won’t be pleased, and some people’s idiosyncratic preferences will be excluded. Again, we can’t do everything.)

So here’s one of the six statements:

A priority of Our Lady of Grace  is to help parishioners understand and integrate what we do at the Eucharist.

By means of fostering full, conscious, and active participation of all parishioners in the Sunday Eucharist and in other sacraments.  By investing in good music, liturgical environment, ministerial formation, and preaching; and by educating parishioners in how to pray liturgically.

In order that parishioners may better understand and embody the full meaning/message of the Eucharist and so become more like Christ in our daily lives.

If you’d like to comment or to suggest a rewrite, please do so briefly, and preferably by suggesting how a line should be rewritten.  Give us your preferred wording.  You can send comments by e-mail to priorities@ourladyofgrace.net, or use the form on the next page.

Our Lent / Easter parish renewal grew directly out of what we heard from you in the survey and the groups.  Parish leaders know that we have more to learn about what will help you to grow closer to Christ, and about how to do that effectively.  This effort to set priorities for our parish is another way we hope to serve Christ, and all of you, better.  More next week.  Until then, peace.