This morning I received a phone call from a man needed me to look into a particular record at the parish on his behalf, which I'll be happy to do later this morning.
The conversation ended somewhat awkwardly. He lives in the boundaries of both of my two parishes and asked how long I had been here. "Oh, seven months," I replied (it hasn't quite been seven months yet, but it's close enough). His response: "Oh."
With that I assured him I'd call him regarding what I find in the record he needs. Maybe when I do so I should invite him back to the sacraments.
At a parish in Kansas City, when we were visiting Jon's mom one Christmas, I noticed that they had postcards on the back of pews in with the hymnals. The postcards were specifically about welcoming people back to the Catholic Church and asking them, if the Holy Spirit so inclined them, to fill out the card and send it back to the parish. It asked for their name, address, phone number, as well as activities that they might like to be involved in, and if there was anyone they would like to talk with about why they no longer attended on a regular basis or ever. It struck me as a great idea (with some fine tuning) to do all year round, not just at Christmas. And I remember it being specifically geared to those who had fallen away from the Sacraments.
ReplyDeleteI think this should be taken up by one of Jon's departments, what do you think?
I agree, so long as there's an invitation to return to confession.
ReplyDelete