Today we begin our three day diocesan clergy conference. The entire presbyterate gathers together at the Pheasant Run resort in St. Charles, Il. for a conference and fraternity. This year we will study and reflect on Evangelization in the Church. Of course more importnatly in the parish. For many years the Church relied on its membership to procreate new members. We baptize parishioners kids, marry them, and baptize their kids. If folks tripped into our Church, well that would be nice too.
Yesterday I spent part of the afternoon at the hospital with two dying people, and their families. Now I do well at health care ministry, but I am exhausted afterwards. So anyway I was thinking about the family members there who might not be catholic, or maybe minimally so, and how important this moment is to be praying and anointing a dying loved one. It is one of the reasons I always go to the hospitals, nursing centers, and the homebound. There is a lot of healing going on there.
Then last night I watched the Super-Bowl with some Genoa parishioners. I really was expecting the Colts to win something like 20-6, or somewhere in that neighborhood. But that is another entry. Here we are, my good friend Fr. Tim Seigel, adults, and kids of various ages, celebrating being together. But I thought how neat is this, non-clergy type people watching their priests enjoying the company of each other, and others.
I mention these two situations to ponder that this is evangelization. The idea that Father, and really the Church, can hold a motehr's hand as she is dying, and relax for an evening of football, speaks volumes of the mission and ministry of the Church. There is no way that we can wait for people to come to us. It is what I used to like about Theology on Tap. Speaking about theology with young people, where they gather.
So, this is an important topic and I am looking forward to it. I will be blogging from St Charles, Il this week.
No comments:
Post a Comment