How often today one hears the phrase, “I don’t go to church anymore, because I don’t get anything out of it.” Well, I guess, as someone has said, a poor excuse is better than no excuse at all.
But that still begs the question. The real question we must all ask ourselves is how much do we put into the public exercise of our faith. With most things in life, “we only get out of it, what we put into it.” If we just go to church and make no effort whatsoever to participate then I guess we would all find that pretty boring.
But the public expression of our faith means that we must put forth some effort to make it meaningful to us. And all of us must honestly say that we certainly could put more effort into the practise of our faith. Just because it is Sunday and a long-standing traditional day of rest, doesn’t mean that we go to church to sleep or be entertained. We must approach our faith life with even more enthusiasm and vigor than we come to any other task in our lives.... that is if we feel that our faith is important.
We come together with our fellow Roman Catholics each week, because that is the responsibility to which God calls each one of us... to worship Him in prayer and song... to thank Him for the blessings of the past week; to beg His forgiveness for our failures of the past; to adore Him as our God and creator; to beg his help in the present trials and difficulties of life.
And one of our first calls as a Christian is to build community... to practice love towards one another. What better place in which to do that than in the house of God, where we come together with those of a common faith. But friendship and love in a parish community is a two-way street.. others must reach out and we must reach out to them. We should always feel among friends in our worship community... a community where love and concern constantly prevails.
And then in our weekly participation in worship do we really make an effort to PARTICIPATE? Do we join in the prayers, use our voices in praise of God in prayer and song? Become involved in the liturgy of your church and you’ll be surprised what a different feeling it brings to your life.
Our parish offers multiple opportunities to become involved in the life of the church community. There is something to engage the talents of every member of the community... but you must be prepared to step forward and become involved. In fact at St Mary's we always say "there is something for everyone". We beleive that an involved parish is a concerned parish, and a concerned parish is an alive and happy parish.
For example this week several members of our Neighbourhood Ministry who were called into action to check on a number of our shut in members and elderly. Our parish was able this week to deliver 25 cases of water to individual elders from our community during the heat we have been experiencing. One of our Neighbourhood Ministry members also helped install four window units in one day – these window units were bought by funds from the Lend a Hand (Canadian Tire) monies we collect through our Wize Guys – part of our Outreach Fund. Thank you to so many who have helped this week!
If you have been reluctant to step forward in the past, I say to you.. “be reluctant no longer.” Step out of yourself and become involved. Try it; you’ll like it. You are IMPORTANT; AND YOU ARE NEEDED.