Pastoral Plan
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CELEBRATING OUR FAITH,

ENRICHING OUR COMMUNITY,

SHARING OUR GIFTS

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Goal #1 of St. Perpetua Pastoral Plan:

CREATE AN INCLUSIVE AND WELCOMING COMMUNITY 

                  Today I’d like to conclude our reflections on the six goals of our Pastoral Plan. We’re actually ending with the first of the six Goals: Create an inclusive and welcoming community. Let me begin with a story from the Irish tradition.

                  “There once was a Peddler who made his living on the road, and never rested his head in the same place for two nights in a row. Since he was too poor to own a horse or a donkey, he carried his goods in a sack on his back. He wandered down the narrow twisting backroads of Ireland, walking from one market town to the next in time to sell his wares at the morning market. One night the peddler lost his way in the heavy rain, and wandered down a boreen (“little dirt road”) until he saw a light in the distance. “Where there’s Light, there’s Life” he mumbled to himself, and made his way to the door. Though the rain was pouring down, the door to the little cottage was wide open. And through the door the Peddler could see a roaring fire in the fireplace. “If I only had a home,” he yearned. “If I had a place with a warm fire and a friend to welcome me home at the end of the day!

                  The Peddler saw a man sitting near the fire and puffing on a pipe. The man motioned him in, and greeted him by saying, “Welcome you are, Rory. Would you like to warm and dry yourself by the fire?” Well, Rory wondered: How did the Cottage Keeper know his name? But he came to the fireplace, only to see a chair prepared for him there. He sat down and pulled off his soaked boots. With that the Cottage Keeper clapped his hands and said, “Some soft slippers for Rory!” and out of the shadows floated two slippers that slipped over his feet. “Are you hungry now, Rory?” asked the man. And before Rory could answer, there was a clap of the hands and a great kettle filled with water floated across the room, hooked itself above the fire and quickly came to a fast boil. Potatoes rolled across the floor, peeling themselves naked before they jumped in the kettle. Onions and carrots jumped in as well. And a smoked ham fell out of the rafters and into the pot.

                  The stew was done in just a few minutes. A tablecloth came out of a drawer and floated to the table where it unfolded and spread itself out. Soup bowls and spoons appeared and Rory found himself sitting at the table with his mysterious host. After eating well, the Cottage Keeper spoke: “You’ve taken the warmth from my fire and the food from my table, what can you give my house in return? Can you get up and dance a jig for me?” Rory shook his head, “No” for he had no dancing in his feet. “Well, can you sing a song?” Rory shook his head “No” for he had no song in his heart. The Cottage Keeper frowned. “Well can you at least tell me a story?” Again, Rory shook his head for he had no story on his tongue. And with that the mysterious man shouted, “Out with you now, out with you. For my House does not welcome anyone who takes my food and my drink, and the warmth from my fire, without sharing himself in return. If you cannot dance, or sing, or tell me a story, then you have locked the treasure of your heart and deserve the loneliness of the road!”

                  And, with that, the Peddler -- Rory by name -- found himself in the cold dark night with the rain pouring down upon him. He lifted his sack over his shoulder, he hardened his heart, and he walked away from the house where he had been blessed and welcomed.”

              Each week you and I are blessed and welcomed by our God at this table as we gather for the Mass. The Word of God which nourishes us is warmly and insightfully proclaimed. The prayers that speak our intentions and the needs of a broken world are lifted up to God in hope and trust. The Eucharistic meal we share forms us into the very Body of Christ that we receive with open hands and hearts. Like the peddler in the story, a feast for the soul is set before us – young and old, newcomer or longtime member, married or single, healthy or hurting. Like the refrain of the gathering hymn we often sing: All are welcome in this place! That’s one of the beautiful aspects of the Church. It’s a one-story building and we’re all equals in God’s eyes. Unlike the peddler in the story, hopefully, we each have a song to sing, a dance in our feet and a story to tell. By being fully present to God and to one another when we are here in church, we show our gratitude for the gifts and blessings we have received from the hands of a generous God.

              The first goal of our Pastoral Plan invites us to take the role of hospitality at Mass very seriously. Long gone are the days of “slipping in and out of Church” to meet an obligation. Participation in the Mass is a decision we make out of love, not out of fear or guilt. The liturgy requires of each of us a full, active and conscious participation… and for very good reason! While it’s important to build up our faith community of St. Perpetua’s, it’s even more critical that the Mass be a sort of “dress rehearsal” for the way we conduct our lives when we leave here. The Gospel calls us to be salt and light for the world, leaven for the society in which we live. We believe in God who is Creator and Father of all, and we treat one another as brothers and sisters of the Lord, so that the Spirit which animates us and draws us together will inspire us to share faith, hope and love with everyone we encounter.

              Today’s scriptures, once again, give us great insight into our Pastoral Plan. The nationalities of the men who were cured are not insignificant to the stories of their healings. The author of the Book of Kings and the evangelist Luke wanted to make an important theological point about ‘outsiders.’ You would presume that members of the chosen people would be grateful for God’s special care, but you wouldn’t expect the same gratitude from nonbelievers. Yet, both Naaman, the foreign ruler, and the Samaritan, the despised outsider, returned to give praise to God. God’s love is universal. No one is excluded. God’s grace and salvation unfold in the lives of people of integrity regardless of their ethnic or religious background.

                  We’re asked to allow our love to be a reflection of God’s love – here in church as well as in the streets, at our places of work, in our neighborhoods and homes.  The strategy for this first goal states: Find creative ways to support our Welcoming Committee in reaching out to new and potential members. Our welcoming committee does a terrific job when newcomers register. New parishioners are personally contacted by a committee member and asked if they’d like a home visit to inform them about the community. They’ve prepared an informative welcome packet. One Sunday each month they have a welcome table set up outside for registration and information. The welcoming committee was one of the first to respond to the Pastoral Plan. At our town hall meeting, however, one of the parish participants wisely noted: “This is a parish effort, not just something a welcoming committee should do.”  I think that our parish is a welcoming community. In our initial survey of 2005 there were many comments like this parishioner’s in response to the question: “What do you like most about St. Perpetua’s?  A sense of belonging. I moved away from the parish and would come back from time to time. I always felt welcome. People are friendly. On the other hand, not everyone has had the same experience. In response to our online town hall questionnaire one member responded: I felt very unwelcome when I joined the church.  No one introduced themselves when we first joined unlike our previous parish. So we still have work to do to fulfill the goal of “creating an inclusive and welcoming community.”

              This goal of hospitality rests on the shoulders of each of you. So let’s commit ourselves to go beyond our initial hesitation and reach out in welcome to those you don’t know. Let’s get beyond our guarded sense of privacy and individualism. It shouldn’t take a lot of effort for any of us to approach someone before or after Mass, extend our hand and say: “Hi. We’ve never met. My name is…” Try doing that today or next week. If we can’t do that here within our own parish family, how can we expect that our leaders and our citizens and people of all nations, races and religions will ever be able to move beyond the boundaries that separate us and begin to live as the one human family that God created in love and for love?

[based on Sunday Scriptures:              2 Kings 5:14-17; Lk 17:11-19]

                                                                                                                Father John Kasper, OSFS