St. Teresa’s Nov. 8 bazaar illuminates and supports the little things that a successful parish needs every day to thrive
By Jay Sorgi
for the Register
Sometimes, living Saint Teresa’s “Little Way” as a Catholic parish involves the unexpected –making and selling pies to fund parking lot pavement.
St. Teresa Catholic Church in Lincoln, named for Saint Thérèse of Lisieux, is empowering that life of the Little Way and celebrating 100 years of the parish through the annual St. Teresa Bazaar, an event that infuses funds into three of the parish’s major organizations.
“We have many different ways that our parish thrives, and we have a thriving community life, and the annual bazaar is always a great way for parishioners to spend time with each other. We can invite the greater neighborhood and people outside of the parish to get a sense of what the St. Teresa Parish family is all about,” said Father Nicholas Kipper, St. Teresa’s pastor.
He has witnessed what the parish family is about in many ways.
“I knew that people understood that idea of doing little things with great love, which is really the little way of St. Teresa. And this community here is one of great fidelity to the Lord in those little things.”
As people encounter the Blessed Sacrament in adoration for 12 hours most days of the week at the church, they also experience the little things that parish groups like the St. Teresa Catholic School Family Association, the parish’s Men’s Club and the Parish Council for Catholic Women (PCCW) do to make parish life thrive.
“It’s an opportunity for the overlap of all these missions to come together into a singular event for the benefit of these organizations,” said Bob Swanson, co-chair of the bazaar.
They are each helping to put the day together, which will include plenty of food between the roast beef and pork and the pies for sale, the games and raffle along with live music. Every ticket benefits those three groups’ yearly ministry.
“When the parking lot needs to be paved, the Men’s Club rises up and says, ‘Okay, how are we going to get this done?’ The Men’s Club goes so far as to help support our Boy Scout troop. They support our parish picnic that we have on ... the Sunday closest to the feast of St. Teresa,” said Swanson of the parish’s “Little Way” activities.
“The PCCW benefits the parish through some of the traditional ways that we think of, helping to make sure that the church is beautiful while taking care of things that are necessary for the functionality of Mass. Things have to be prepped, things have to be taken care of.”
St. Teresa’s “Little Way” comes to life at St. Teresa Catholic Church in ways that reflect one of the pastoral principles of Bishop James Conley’s One Heart in Christ pastoral plan for the Catholic Diocese of Lincoln, striving for healthy parishes through “an engaging and relational parish culture.”
“Everybody’s got a place that they can belong. By virtue of being enrolled, they do belong, but there’s that opportunity to be a vibrant part of that and to participate,” Swanson said.
“When you have something that you can do for the parish, whether it’s your music ministry, maybe you’re an acolyte or a lector, or you’re participating in one of these three groups, [with] St. Teresa’s, I’m going to vouch for the fact that the little way is a mentality that is woven into that 100 percent.”
Father Kipper said his own move to the parish – he was appointed pastor in 2022 – felt providential, due to his own love of the Little Flower and the Little Way. He said events like the bazaar help make the Little Way happen on a daily basis.
“I’ve always loved St. Teresa. I’ve always loved the Little Way,” he said. “St. Teresa thought of herself as not able to be a great saint. She thought her soul was a little bit too small, so she just wanted to be this little flower in the garden of God. And yet, of course, in her smallness, that’s what made her great.”
He said the parish’s 100th anniversary celebrates a lot of Little Way actions that overcame the Great Depression, the kind of movement that reflects what the bazaar and other actions reflect.
“That’s something we reflect upon a lot in this centennial year, that we are the recipients of these sacrifices and the faith of the people that have gone before us at St. Teresa’s,” he said.
“Part of the Little Way is the reality of humility, and humility is seeing things as they really are, and we as current parishioners of St. Teresa’s need to know where we came from.”
The St. Teresa Bazaar will be held Sunday, Nov. 8, from 11 a.m. until 3 p.m. in Kaczmarek Hall at St. Teresa Church, 36th and Randolph in Lincoln. It includes a roast beef and roast pork dinner, raffle, games, and craft and dessert booths. The price is $15 for adults, $8 for youth 5 to 12 years old, free for youth 4 years old and under. The event benefits the St. Teresa School Family Association, the parish’s Men’s Club and the Parish Council of Catholic Women. For more information, visit the parish website.
