By Bishop James Conley
I think of our parishes in the Lincoln Diocese as the heartbeat of our relationship with God. A healthy heart is a vital part of being a healthy person. Parishes that are thriving and engaging are a sign of spiritual health and lead us closer to Jesus Christ our Lord and Savior.
There are 133 parishes in our diocese, each one unique in its own way. Whether a parish is large or small, rural or urban, worshipping in a new church or an older one, a parish is created to bring its people closer to God. The Catechism of the Catholic Church describes it this way: “The parish initiates the Christian people into the ordinary expression of the liturgical life: it gathers them together in this celebration (of the Eucharist); it teaches Christ’s saving doctrine; it practices the charity of the Lord in good works and brotherly love” (CCC 2179).
So why can’t we worship God from the comfort of our home? Why do we have to travel to church, sit beside people we may not know and join them in praising God? The Catechism turns to a Church Father and Doctor of the Church, St. John Chrysostom (whose name means “golden-mouthed”) to provide an answer I love as to why we need parish life: “You cannot pray at home as at church, where there is a great multitude, where exclamations are cried out to God as from one great heart, and where there is something more: the union of minds, the accord of souls, the bond of charity, the prayers of the priests (CCC 2179).”
A great multitude of people, exclamations to God as from one heart, the union of minds and the accord of souls, charity and prayers – a place “where there is something more.” I pray that describes your parish! That’s what we want and why we made “Healthy Parishes” one of our four pastoral principles in our One Heart in Christ pastoral plan. The stated goal of that principle is to “nurture thriving parishes throughout the diocese by supporting an engaging and relational parish culture.”
It’s that culture I see in so many of our parishes I visit for confirmations and to mark special milestones. I recently celebrated Mass at Sacred Heart Church in Hebron to help them mark 150 years as a parish family. I couldn’t help but think of all the joys and struggles, baptisms, weddings and funerals that parish has been through in a century and a half. They did it all together, generation after generation, walking side by side, together with our loving God, who is always walking with us every step of the way. Now that’s a family history worth celebrating!
Providentially, Sacred Heart had its origins in Kansas, my home state. The first Mass in Hebron was offered by Father John Pichler, pastor of St. John parish in Hanover, Kan. Beginning in 1876, Father Pilcher would travel 55 miles each week by horseback from Hanover to Hebron to celebrate Holy Mass in the courthouse and administer the sacraments. Father Pilcher continued to make regular visits to Hebron for about two years. He did this in addition to caring for his own parish in Hanover, and the eight missions in Kansas that were attached to his parish of St. John.
We have set forth some ambitious goals under our “Healthy Parishes” pastoral principle. We want to strive for increased evangelization to grow the number of people attending Mass and parish events.
We also strive to engender active participation in the sacred liturgy. We want our parishes to be places where our faith is lived, so others who see that will want what we have. We want to grow our faith formation and discipleship, to be missionary disciples just like the early Christians. To do all of this, we want to inspire and equip parishioners to become lay leaders invested in the health of our parishes.
We’re asking our parishes to look over all our principles and all our goals and choose one or two that are right for that parish to focus on in the coming months. As I mentioned previously, each parish is unique, but all parishes have something they can work on to make their parish more inviting, more faithful and more fruitful. Let’s make every parish a place “where there is something more!”
For example, when was the last time your parish conducted a parish census? Our pastoral planning committee can provide parish leaders with a template that has shown proven success. This a great way to invite new parishioners to the parish, bring back “fallen-aways,” and to evangelize those who are just waiting to be invited to encounter Christ in a new way.
As St. John Chrysostom said in his “golden-mouthed” way, our parishes should be places where everything we do together is an exclamation “cried out to God from one great heart.” That’s what One Heart in Christ is all about!
One Heart in Christ challenges each of us to be on mission for Christ. Just as we’re not called to only worship God at home but to come together as a parish and as a Church to praise and thank him, we’re also not called to keep the Good News of Christ within our parish. We need to share it with everyone. That’s the mission part of our call; we are being sent out to proclaim Christ to our neighbors.
We can do that by serving both one another and those who need our help – the suffering, the poor, the neglected, the lonely, the sick, the broken-hearted, and especially those who don’t yet know Jesus Christ. Just as the early Christians did, let us lead with love so there is no confusion about who we belong to – we belong to Christ. Let the world know we are Christian parishes by our love and our service.
In my One Heart in Christ pastoral letter, we named a saint as an intercessor for each of our main principles. For “Healthy Parishes,” we chose St. Teresa of Calcutta who we also know as Mother Teresa. We just celebrated her memorial earlier this month.
We chose her because her entire life was dedicated to service, especially serving the poor and dying in the slums of Calcutta. Mother Teresa showed us the importance of service, saying, “It is not what we do, but how much love we put into it.” Let us come together as One Heart in Christ to ask her to pray for our parishes, that we may evangelize one another through our service and our love.
St. Teresa of Calcutta, watch over the parishes in the Diocese of Lincoln. Pray that each one of us may look for opportunities to share God’s love, enthusiastically worship Him, and look for ways, even small ways, we can make a difference in our parishes. Let us have the heart of a servant just as you did. Let us be One Heart in Christ.
