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December 21, 2022
December 2022
A year ago, the Pastoral Services team set out to serve our pastoral teams better through consistent communication. So we began this monthly newsletter, Good News Notes. Our goal was to share stories, articles, and resources that are uplifting, empowering, and relevant. Hopefully, you have found something to help fill you up and support your work.
Next most opened editions:
Light the Candle but Don’t Choke on the Smoke
- Write out your lists – Waking up in the middle of the night to review what you need to do in the next week isn’t helpful. Getting those things down on paper puts them in a whole new perspective and allows you to see what you have accomplished when you check them off the list.
- Let ‘good enough’ be enough – whether it’s at home, or in the church, don’t shoot for perfection. If we have learned anything in the past year it is that going to Christmas mass and family gatherings are more important than how many decorations are on each of the trees.
- Say ‘No” – it is okay to set boundaries for your personal and professional life. There are some things we ‘have’ to do to ensure our parishes and families can celebrate well, but that may mean we have to say no to other things, and that is okay!
- Be Present – do your best to arrange things so you can be fully present to the time and place you are at. If you are in the Narthex greeting parishioners, be fully present to them! If you are home with your family, put down the phone and stop checking messages, give them all of you!
- Don’t take on extra problems – the empaths among us will find it easy to get drawn in to other people’s problems, especially if they reach out to us in our role in the Church. But you owe it to your family to let those things go. Recognize the things you can change and those you cannot and then give those individuals and situations over to our Heavenly Father!
- Drop high stress rituals – This year is different and it creates the perfect opportunity to review the traditions we have created in our parishes (and homes) that need to be adjusted. We don’t always need to find a way to adapt our old ways; for some, it’s time to just let them go.
- Accept help – One of the hardest lessons I ever learned was that there are people out there who like to do the things I don’t. The tasks that hurt my heart actually bring life to others. Let people help decorate, or set up chairs, or clean your house, or wrap your gifts, or bring food for dinner! This helps empower others while making your life a little more manageable.
- Maintain your daily rituals – it is important to make time for those things that are really important: daily prayer, mass, journaling, exercise, bedtime routines with your kids. Even in the midst of chaos, these are the things that will keep you grounded.
We can see the challenges placed on us this year as a burden or a gift. Either way, your task list isn’t going away, so choose the attitude with which you will enter into the last weeks of Advent and the Christmas Octave. Determine the ways that you can minimize stress for you and your parish team so that every candle you light is a reminder of the great gift brought to us all by the birth of a small babe who became the Light of the World.
Claire Bondy - Director of Ongoing Formation & Lay Ecclesial Ministry
Chrisandra Skipper - Pastoral Services Coordinator
Christine Coyle - Family and Youth Ministry Specialist
Olwyn Supeene - Administrative Assistant
Outreach Ministries: Refugee Office
Migrant Ministry
Ministry for the Deaf and Hard of Hearing
Holy Family Retreat House
Diocese of London Pastoral Services:
1070 Waterloo St
London, ON N6A 3Y2
Canada
