A few years back a parishioner, on his own, looked around for an outreach project to involve our youth and has since established a relationship with an inner city mission that serves meals to homeless folks in Boston. Under his leadership and with the help of many parents, he and our young people maintain a monthly commitment to feeding the poor.
A few days ago, in the week we call Holy, a few families involved in this outreach banded together with our organizer (beyond the student's monthly schedule) to provide Easter dinner for the mission. So this afternoon, 5 families made the trip into Boston with food they had prepared to serve Easter dinner to... well, with just the folks Jesus used to hang out with.
The Easter lesson? So often (and more often than I could ever know), the work of the gospel is lived and exercised by our parishioners in moments and in ways that have no connection to parish structures or committees. I hope and trust that life and prayer in our parish provide a fertile context for such efforts. I thank God for the many and quiet, unheralded ways the Spirit moves among us.
A parish is a tree with many branches and some of the tree's fruit is hidden in leafy bough, nourishing others in ways unseen. I pray that the Spirit of the Risen Christ will move more hearts among us to look for ways to serve and that the harvest of our parish will increase a hundred fold.
As helpful and important and fruitful as parish structures are, I pray:
Lord, deliver us from the temptation
to think that you only work through committees and councils!
to think that you only work through committees and councils!
-ConcordPastor
A parish is a tree with many branches and some of the tree's fruit is hidden in leafy bough, nourishing others in ways unseen. I pray that the Spirit of the Risen Christ will move more hearts among us to look for ways to serve and that the harvest of our parish will increase a hundred fold.
ReplyDeleteWOW.. the power of words! Love it.