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May 31, 2023
Active hospitality in a church could look like:
- A kind and simple greeting at the door
- People in the pews, not just greeters, noticing new people and saying hello
- Helping people find the washrooms or accessible entrances
- Welcoming children and families
Want to share this with your whole Family of Parishes? This is available as a downloadable PDF that could be added to your bulletin. Get it here: dol.ca/phase-two-ignite-resources (Click on Bulletin Insert - Make Room at the Table.)
Great Things We Found On The Internet This Month:
- Solemnities are not for being solemn - Catholic All Year (There's a lot of solemnities in June!)
- Heal the Wounds: Best Practices for the Church as Field Hospital - America Magazine
- Liturgical Living in the Time After Pentecost - Blessed is She
- St. Joseph as a Mentor for Fathers - Unleash the Gospel
Important Dates in June 2023
Click the links for more information about the saint or occasion.
1 - St. Justin 3 - St. Charles Lwanga
4 - Most Holy Trinity (S)
11 - Most Holy Body and Blood of Christ (S)
13 - St. Anthony of Padua
16 - Most Sacred Heart of Jesus (S)
18 - Father's Day
24 - Nativity of St. John the Baptist (S)
28 - St Irenaeus
29 - Sts Peter and Paul (S)
“I see clearly that the thing the church needs most today is the ability to heal wounds and to warm the hearts of the faithful; it needs nearness, proximity.” Pope Francis shared this in an interview 10 years ago. If anything, this has become more true.
He continued, “I see the church as a field hospital after battle. It is useless to ask a seriously injured person if he has high cholesterol and about the level of his blood sugars! You have to heal his wounds. Then we can talk about everything else. Heal the wounds, heal the wounds.... And you have to start from the ground up.”
To do this, we need treat people as God wants us to. Pope Francis asks, “How are we treating the people of God? I dream of a church that is a mother and shepherdess. The church’s ministers must be merciful, take responsibility for the people and accompany them like the good Samaritan, who washes, cleans and raises up his neighbor. This is pure Gospel. God is greater than sin.”
What does that mean for those of us who work, paid or unpaid, in the Church?
According to Pope Francis, we, as ministers of the Gospel must:
- Be people who can warm the hearts of the people,
- Be people who walk through the dark night with them,
- Be people who know how to dialogue,
- Be able be with people in their darkness, but without getting lost.
- Support the movements of God among their people with patience, so that no one is left behind.
So, “Instead of being just a church that welcomes and receives by keeping the doors open, let us try also to be a church that finds new roads, that is able to step outside itself and go to those who do not attend Mass, to those who have quit or are indifferent.” (Pope Francis)
How can you strive to be more merciful as a minister this month?
Find this whole interview here: A Big Heart Open to God – America Magazine
Joe Bezzina - Director of Pastoral Services
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 Worker Ministry
Ministry for the Deaf and Hard of Hearing
Holy Family Retreat House
If you have a Good News Story from your Family of Parishes, please share it with us! We have an online form available for staff, volunteers, and parishioners to share the Good News happening in their communities!
Diocese of London Pastoral Services:
1070 Waterloo St
London, ON N6A 3Y2
Canada
