My God, it’s been quite awhile since my last posting, almost a month, though I have not forgotten you, dear readers. Since I last wrote, I have moved my place of residence just a mile up the road to one of our parish communities, St. Mary’s Church in Fairhaven, Massachusetts. This move reflected my spiritual longing for greater contact with a living community of Catholic faithful. Now that I’m here, I’m giving thanks to God more often, which is a good sign that I made the right choice.

So I go every day to this parish’s beautiful worshipping space, sitting between the tabernacle and an amazing statue of the Sacred Heart of Jesus. The statue, some say, goes back to the time of the revival of the devotion to the Sacred Heart in France after the revelations of the Sacred Heart to St. Margaret Mary.

The statue evokes a presence of Jesus that affirms my consecration to His Sacred Heart as a foundation for my vocation as a religious and priest.

Another foundation is our brotherhood with a simple, hospitable family spirit. So I am happy to introduce you to my kindly and good-natured brother in the Sacred Hearts family, Father Patrick Killilea SSCC. Fr. Pat hails from what he says is the “best part of the Emerald Isle”, that is, Galway on Ireland’s West Coast. Having been a parish priest for 40 years and having served in the parish of St. Mary’s for 7 years, he has much to teach a relatively young priest like myself.

Fr. Pat Killilea

Several weeks ago, I was on my own here, filling in for Fr. Pat while he was away. One morning, after several weeks of living alone in the rectory, I came down the stairs the first thing in the morning and filled up a paper cup with drinking water. Then, for no reason, I dropped the cup and the water it contained onto the kitchen floor.

Marvelling at my own clumsiness, suddenly I “knew” that this was a sign that “It is not good for the man to be alone.” (Genesis 2:18) Isn’t that why the gift of fraternity and community is such an integral part of our lives as Sacred Hearts religious? It makes us not special, but human.

Everywhere I look, it is the same. Even the ducks I pass by in the park prefer to be together.

On some of the coldest nights of this winter, as I walked in prayer beside the Acushnet river, I heard the ducks honking at each other. Honk! Honk! Honk! Their persistence in communicating made me smile.

Many people were also smiling at the human communication that was a part of a local workshop given by our own unique and wonderful brother, Father Martin Gomes SSCC. at St. Joseph’s Church in Fairhaven.

Fr. Martin Gomes

Fr. Martin came from his parish of Saint Joseph’s Church in Nassau, Bahamas to share his expertise on the life-giving, life-sharing ministry of parish councils. In this time of priest shortages, many are lamenting a loss of the clarity and stability that our Catholic Church once possessed. I think of this powerful image often as I gaze across the Acushnet River at a Catholic church in New Bedford that towers over nearby edifices.

Yet Fr. Martin gave us all a reason to hope for and to dream about a new kind of Catholic Church that, despite our weaknesses, is starting to shine in a remarkable, unforeseen way.

The key, Fr. Martin told the parish councils and staff of St. Joseph’s and St. Mary’s Church, is to do the mission of Jesus Christ together with a common sense of mission. Laypeople, no less than clergy, are being empowered by baptism to do ministry that is a continuation of the mission of Jesus Christ in this world. Worshipping, listening, discussing, socializing, the parish councils of the two Sacred Hearts parishes in Fairhaven learned in this workshop what the People of God are called to do and can do as disciples of Jesus Christ on behalf of their parish communities.

Left to right: Robert Espindola, Deacon Doug Medeiros, Rhody Medeiros

Left to right: Lillian Desrosiers, Paula Viera, Janet Macomber

Marge Copeland and Roseanne Souza

Everyone I talked to who was present told me the same thing, that their experience in this workshop brought them joy, because they were learning to do ministry better and to do it together.

During and after the workshop, Margaret Copeland, the religious education director of St. Joseph’s Church, crackled with energy like a human sparkplug as she spoke of how the laypeople had been given a wake-up call on the possibility of making the parish “come alive” by “adjusting out ministries to meet the needs of the people of today.”

Marge Copeland

Even Fr. Gabriel Healy, one of our more senior priests, with over 50 years of varied pastoral experiences, learned, he told me, new ways of coordinating parish ministry at the workshop.

Fr. Gabriel Healy and Tracy Travers

Fr. Tom McElroy, pastor of St. Joseph’s Church and preacher of renewal for many Catholic parishes throughout our country, said that he loved the challenge that was presented to us to “change our structures” and “minister in new ways for the sake of a Gospel that utilizes the gifts of all.” Saying that, he laughed at the amazing truth that we can be “instruments of the Lord.”

Left to right: Fr. Tom McElroy, John Jannis, Marge Copeland

Yet, one thing more needs to be said. Besides this new, exciting vision of a Church in which ministry is communal, planned, and inspired by Jesus in the Spirit, we have another need. We need new brothers and sisters with an adventurous spirit who are ready to take a leap and go where they have never gone before. Could one of those potential ministers be you? Are you ready to take a leap forward with others close behind?