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In
Search of the Spirit
A
monthly letter from the Glenmary Vocation Office
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December 2005
What Are You Waiting for This Advent?
By Father Steve Pawelk
Many of my readers are waiting for some sign, some insight as to what is God’s will in their life. Does God desire them to become a priest, a brother or get married? Are they being lead to change jobs or majors? Sometimes there is a deeper struggle they are trying to resolve with God’s help.
This December I find myself filling in at three mission churches that are waiting for a new pastor to complete his sabbatical and begin his service. Listening to the dreams and “waitings,” of the members of these missions has taken me beyond my normal personal introspection during Advent.
In one town, for instance, the congregation is waiting to build a larger church. They have architectural plans drawn up, but now they need to raise the money. Their constant question: When will the new pastor be here? Will he support our plans? In the meantime folks continues to overflow their present church building.
The sick and shut-in of this same mission parish are waiting for health to return or for death to come. Some are waiting in great peace, and others are waiting with anxiety. Yet all are glad to have a priest to offer the sacraments and give comfort during this time of waiting. They are also most grateful for the lay ministers who are providing great care during this extended transition time.
Another parish in the next county is waiting for a bilingual minister. Both their pastoral associate and a multicultural worker who spoke fluent Spanish had to leave due to health reasons. Now the Protestant churches are aggressively evangelizing the local Latinos during this transition time, and the local Catholic community is struggling to meet the many needs for religious education, housing, translations, and the like.
Maybe the most moving story of waiting comes from the outreach ministry in a small town located between the two established mission churches. In this town, once a charming community with a great sense of civic pride, most of the housing is now rental property for migrant workers employed by the local poultry plant. The commercial buildings in the once-proud business district are run down and falling down. This community waits for better days to return. The mayor is trying to figure out how she can attract businesses when there are no suitable buildings where they can locate. And the migrant workers are waiting for many, many things.
Among them is a respectable worshiping space. Most of these migrant workers do not have vehicles, so they cannot attend Mass in the mission churches in neighboring towns. Worship services are held in a mechanic’s shop that has a dirt floor, no electricity and no windows. The folks sit on wood planks slapped down over piled up tires, plastic pails and cement bricks. The local catechist carries in a folding table for an altar.
This same humble structure also serves as an outreach center—a place where many folks find a welcoming program to help them prepare for Baptism, First Communion and Confirmation. Many who have been away from the church or never had an opportunity to receive appropriate instruction for the sacraments in their native lands find it here. Right now, 17 men and women in this community are waiting for Confirmation.
They do not, however, find a worship space that can provide a sense of sacred space and that can accommodate the several hundred Catholics in this area. The previous pastor searched and searched for a location and was unable to find one. In the month that I am here, it is unlikely that I will do any better.
These are but the obvious spiritual needs that folks in this town have mentioned to me in my first week here. Yet, the material needs and the need for a deeper healing of emotional wounds that rise from poverty are very obvious to me.
As I try to offer these mission communities some brief comfort and missionary service, I am also thinking and praying for the people living in the over 400 counties in rural America that do not have a Catholic Church and for the hundreds more that have no priest, brother, sister or lay professional minister in residence.
Each of us is waiting this Advent for something that we are personally hoping for from our God. But I also invite you to pray with me for all those who are waiting for home missioners—priests, brothers, coworkers—to provide pastoral leadership, to offer healing through the sacraments and the Word, to assist in meeting the material needs of individuals and of mission communities for adequate physical spaces to gather and worship.
Many are waiting for Christ to fully enter their lives. They are searching, but they wait for someone to guide them to Christ and to the Catholic Church.
Will you be the answer to their waiting?
