Dear Fellow Parishioners,

Last weekend, I announced the retirement of Deacon Jim Carr after nearly a quarter-century of ordained service to our parish. This Sunday, from 11:30 a.m. to 2:30 p.m., there will be a reception for Deacon Jim, with his children who have been kind enough to “share” him with us all these many years, as our special guests.

The Second Vatican Council taught at the highest level of authority that the Eucharist is the “source and summit of the Christian life.” The primary setting for the Eucharist is the eucharistic liturgy, i.e., the Mass. We have been gifted with a uniquely beautiful church, and the liturgy, music and architecture should be mutually reinforcing in style and spirit, while retaining the distinctive spirit of each of our six weekend Masses.

Eucharistic Ministers. Deacon Jim’s retirement has created a huge vacancy in our Masses that will not quickly nor easily be filled. That, and the fact that we have not adequately rebuilt our liturgical team since COVID, will require special efforts going forward. Our team of Eucharistic Ministers has markedly shrunk. (However, since we no longer provide the Precious Blood at the Masses, this change has gone largely unnoticed.) We will now need 6 Eucharistic Ministers per weekend, rather than the two EMs per week we currently use.

Readers. We have some excellent readers, but need to add to the ranks, and standardize the training for the readers we have.

Servers. Our ranks of altar servers are once again growing, as we have been recruiting since the most recent First Communions and the beginning of this current school year. However, we need more. We need servers for all Sunday Masses, and Religious Education and school Masses, not only to “cover” regularly scheduled Masses, but also “super-servers” for service at the “big” liturgies, like Christmas, the Easter Vigil, First Communions, and Confirmation Masses when the bishop officiates.

Servers are generally recruited from the fourth grade and above, while the bare minimum requirement is that a young person has received First Communion and has a basic understanding of the meaning of the Eucharist. Once a young person is recruited, the most powerful part of being a server is to have a “front row seat” to the central mystery of our faith, the Eucharist, which is the “source and summit of the Christian life.” Over time, they learn responsibility, self-confidence and poise while serving before a large congregation, and internalize reverence for the Lord. We have already begun recruiting, and hope that more parents will encourage their children to serve at Masses.

Ushers. We are in need of ushers we can rely upon to be scheduled for at least one Mass per month, to help with the seating of congregants, taking up the collection, and directing the Communion lines.

In the coming weeks, we will formalize this call to ministry by sign-ups and training. I make a special appeal to the younger members of our congregation. Without putting too fine a point on it, your current pastor was the oldest, at the time of his appointment, of any pastor in the history of this parish. It is time to call upon the younger members of our parish to carry our parish and its ministries well into the 21st century. I will return to these matters in future editions of The Pastor’s Desk.

Blessings,
Fr. Bill Donahue