From the Heart of the Shepherd

From the bulletin for The Feast of The Holy Family of Jesus, Mary, and Joseph (2025 December 28)

Dec 28 - Holy Family

The Feast of the Holy Family is a special one for me and my vocational story. It was on this day in 2011 that I had a fateful session of spiritual direction at the St. Mark’s rectory. I came armed with what I thought were very good arguments to defeat any suggestion of the priesthood for me (which I intuited the then-pastor was going to make… it was our second or third meeting, after all!). I left with a standing invitation to move into the rectory and discern my vocation with the PES (who?) community there at St. Mark’s… an invitation I knew in my bones I could not reasonably refuse. 

Now of course I am presiding over the parish’s celebration of the Feast as pastor and member of that (now a little less) Peruvian congregation. Oh, ‘very good arguments’, how quickly doth thy ruin come upon the rocks of God’s stern and tender grace! 

My great “argument” was that I was “called to marriage” because I felt called to establish some kind of association of families (“the Society of the Holy Family!”) that would help to rebuild the Church from the ground up. Though mistaken as to what state in life would best enable me to do that, ironically that is a good description now of my role as pastor: to shepherd this “association of families” and households that is the parish, rebuilding the Church from the ground of Merriam Park outward and upwards. 

Today’s is a good reminder, therefore, that it is God who has established this “association” or rather communion that is the Holy Family of God, the Church. He calls us into it. It is He who builds and rebuilds it in every age. And in His mercy He has called each of us reading this (all seven!) into that family, to contribute according to our unique gifts, limitations, and state in life. 

One fruit of the emphasis on family at St. Mark’s is that–as in a well-functioning family–the “older children” contribute to the life of the parish in just that way. Some in ways that are quite conspicuous. Others in ways totally hidden. As pastor, I get to see more than most, but far from all that each of you are doing for this called-to-be Holy Family that is St. Mark’s. At year’s end, I want to offer anonymous tribute to just a sampling of those contributions, so that the rest of the family can be grateful and edified with me, and perhaps stimulated to similar splendid acts of family-building. This past year, members of the Family provided the following:

• The installation of new lighting in Carolyn Hall (completing a project years in the making) and new light fixtures to better illuminate the north stairwells on both sides of the church; 

• Many hours of volunteer snow removal (by shovel and Bobcat), allowing the parish to cancel its costly service contract with the professional service provider;

• The re-construction of the decaying bay-window in the parish center front office; 

• The undergirding of the stairs up to the Preschool main entrance, in which structural cracks had emerged;

• Many hours of gardening, keeping our parish grounds and gardens in the best condition throughout the summer in the pastor’s memory, and seasonal potted arrangements for the rectory and parish entrances; 

• New Toto toilets in the church; 

• The purchase of 1970 Dayton (house next to the parish center), enabling St. Mark’s to control its future disposition and use; 

• Beer and wine for the Swing Dances;

• The funds necessary to repair St. Paul’s sword in front of the Parish Center (work scheduled for after the spring thaw);

• Hours of sifting through the parish archives to organize and curate the contents for eventual display; 

• Many hours (though never more than necessary) at the ever-multiplying number of parish councils, committees, task forces, and working groups (new additions this year include Parish Expanded Board of Directors, Campus Master Plan Committee Sub-Committee for the Lower Church, and Church Floor Design Committee); 

• Funding for two paid section leaders in the choir; 

• A hog, for roasting; flowers for altar arrangements; new handmade altar linens; a very precious chalice-pall; IT troubleshooting; administrative help around the office; hours spent straightening books in the pews and dusting the doorways; a much-tidier lower church; and a truck-load of mulch (from different individuals, of course).

Add to these countless other monetary and in-kind contributions, including the extraordinary and the ordinary to keep this “One Strong Family United in Christ” busy with the Father’s business (at Rummage Sales, Picnic, Soiree, money counting, Job Squad projects, decorating the church, adoring Jesus, etc., etc. ). AND all the other contributions that the Holy Spirit has kept the pastor from knowing about or remembering (lest the left hand know what the right has done!) and all the spiritual works (of even greater weight and number) you all pour into our parish’s economy of grace. The sum is a spiritual family GDP that has to rival that of the heavyweights in the Archdiocese… not that this is a competition!

For all of it, I give you and God great thanks. I am so blessed to (still) be a member of this holy family.

From the Heart of the Shepherd: The Solemnity of Christ the King of the Universe