Will There Be a Welcome?

Luke’s Gospel relates that Jesus was put in a manger “because there was no room for them in the inn” (Lk 1:7).  While it is our sense that the Holy Family was more than OK with the poor reception they received, a sign of the way some would receive Jesus throughout his life, we at Crescent Parishes want to do better than some!  I would like to challenge parishioners to be ready to welcome visitors among us during the coming Christmas season, not just because it is the hospitable thing to do, but also because visitors and strangers are Jesus’ very real presence among us!

A High Introvert
Even though I am a very high introvert according to the Meyers Briggs, there is one cause for which I am happy to be an extrovert:  Jesus.  Jesus’ love for me moves me to preside and preach in front of hundreds of people each weekend.  Even more, Jesus’ love and my desire for Crescent Parishes to be the most welcoming parishes around, moves me to seek out and welcome visitors.  

Of course, to do this I have to know current parishioners.  When I arrived here, parishioners will remember me declaring that “I will learn your names even if it takes me asking your name twelve times.”  I have never stopped working toward that goal and regret that I may have even asked some parishioners their names more than twelve times! How well do I know parishioners after two-and-a-half years of diligence?

You Know Everybody
On Thanksgiving Day at St. John, many greeters and I welcomed parishioners.  Doug Bosse, a St. John Parishioner and finance committee member and fellow greeter that day remarked to me “You know everybody.”  That was a generous compliment to make, and I thank Doug and praise the Lord Jesus for past work to know parishioners.  At the same time, I know I have more work to do!  For there are plenty of parishioners I don’t know by name.

All this is to say that I recognize a high percentage of Crescent parishioners, more than any other minister in our parishes, as well as a pastor should.  Even as I continue to work to know names, what hard work has yielded for me is that I can recognize visitors quite well.  When I find a visitor who lives in the area, I work to get their names, welcome them even more and try to connect them to Jesus through our parishes.

Therefore, next week my bulletin article will review some ways to recognize and welcome visitors so that we can focus some prayer and energy on being our best at hospitality…unlike some of those inn owners at Jesus’ birth.       

Apologies to St. Saviour’s 4:00 Mass Parishioners
To St. Saviour 4:00 Saturday Mass parishioners who had a difficult time finding a parking place last week, please accept my apology.  Let me explain what happened.

On the Friday after Thanksgiving, I received a call from a scout leader of the troop chartered by St. Saviour.  Scouts were setting up the Boy Scout Christmas tree sale.  He related that there were some church leaders from the church who bought the Bethel Baptist Church just down Plainfield Rd. from St. Saviour.  They were asking about the use of our parking lot for overflow parking for their first worship service the following day, Saturday.  Wonderfully, the scout leader encouraged helping them in any way we could in Jesus’ name.  

I met with them a couple of hours later.  Even as the details are sketchy, they were a group of Guatemalans who were having the first big gathering at the newly opened church, with several other similar churches invited.  They were expecting a very big crowd from roughly Noon to five.  

 It was a pleasure to welcome them into the warmth of St. Saviour Church as we sat down and talked.  I worked to speak my broken Spanish.  They spoke excellent English.  They related their need, and I expressed Crescent Parishes' desire to help, even as I related we needed a good percentage of the parking lot for our 4:00 PM Mass.  Their love for Jesus was clear and they were most respectful and appreciative.

At this point, I want to make sure parishioners know that these leaders of that new church and well over 90% of the people attending their service the next day are Catholic!  Recall, that the majority of our Spanish-speaking Catholics at Holy Trinity are also Guatemalan.  

After we talked, we went outside in the cold, and I showed them where not to park (the first four rows by St. Saviour) and where to park (the three rows to the north of the lot and around Linden Grove.   We prayed together, exchanged names and phone numbers and took a selfie in front of the newly renovated Holy Family Statue.            

On Saturday, I looked out in the parking lot around noon and was relieved to see that there were very few cars.  I reasoned that the new church must not have needed overflow parking after all, and my nagging intuition about impending disaster was mistaken.

However, when I looked out around 1 PM, the entire lot was full of cars.  I panicked…and I swung into action.  I called my contact at the new church, and he said that their parking lot ministers were told they could not park in the north spots that I asked them to use.  I went out to the scouts to discover that, in fact, scout leadership had waved them off the spaces I had designated.  The new church’s parking ministers understood that they were to use the spots I wanted saved for the 4:00 Mass.

At this point I realized that I ought to have communicated with the scout leadership that they were to allow our guests to use all available spaces on the north side of the lot, using scout ingenuity to figure out how to best serve those buying trees.  After all, duty to God is the first value of the Boy Scout oath.

I put out a plea to the new church’s leadership regarding my fear that the 4:00 Mass would not have enough parking.  In an incredible act of faith and love, the church’s leadership asked worshippers to come back to our campus and move their cars.   Many of them were able to make the walk in the cold and it was a pleasure to experience their love for Jesus and efforts to remedy my mistake.   

I am sorry to parishioners who were inconvenienced, which the cold weather made even more so.  Please accept my apology.  

Sincerely and with Love in Christ,
Fr. Pat