The Reason for Our Hope

by Fr. Vin

“Always be ready to give an explanation to anyone

who asks you for a reason for your hope.”

-- First Letter of St. Peter, 3:15

The Path Forward

When it became clear that we’d have a smaller staff come September, my time filled with meetings.  The priests and deacons met to decide how to cover what had been Deacon Peter’s pastoral responsibilities.  The ministry directors met to plan how other ministries would be affected.  I met with particular staff to talk about their accepting new responsibilities and different job descriptions.  But the most significant meeting was with the Pastoral Council.  Not only did they advise me to write this series of columns you’ve been reading over the summer, but they insisted that simply reallocating responsibilities didn’t get to the heart of the matter: We needed to think bigger, about reorganizing the way parish ministries are conducted, and even raise the question of what the parish is all about – our vision.  You’ll be hearing a lot more about that.

Fortunately, we have good data at our disposal for planning.  The Gallup Member Engagement Survey (ME²⁵) we did last March tells us a good deal about demographics, about the spiritual commitment of our members, and about engagement in parish life.  In late June six parish leaders and I met with a consultant from Gallup, the Rev. Dr. Al Winseman (who directs Gallup’s Faith Division internationally), to study the survey’s results and implications under his expert guidance.  (There were three ministry directors and three Pastoral Council members with me in that group: Betty Duffy, Sue Martin, and Barbara McGrellis from staff, and Lillian Nash, Mary Ellen Ramos, and Haydee Santini from the Council.  All are pictured at right with Dr. Winseman.)  Our goal was to create practical plans to deepen parishioners’ engagement in the work of Our Lady of Grace, given our new situation.

Our focus is going to be on the very foundation of our lives together: Our spiritual needs, and the ways in which our parish life together can help us to fill the “God-shaped hole” that exists in every human heart.  God always does the work; but we have to prepare the soil for the seed that God wants to plant and to nourish.  In September I’ll be talking to the whole parish about this; but I invite you to start thinking now: What are your key spiritual needs, and how does your participation in Our Lady of Grace help you to meet them?  Until next week, Peace.

(Since parishioners are often on vacation and away from some summer masses, this column will appear twice: July 1 and July 8.  Each subsequent column in this series will also appear for two consecutive weeks.)