From the Heart of the Shepherd

From the bulletin for Trinity Sunday (Jun 15)

Parish School of Prayer, Pt 19: Our (Sacred) Heart Monitor

I began my pastorate at St. Mark’s with a five-part bulletin series in which was laid out a vision for the parish in the years ahead. Those 3,965 ensuing words are summarized by these: “I think that God is calling St. Mark’s to evangelize the neighborhood and become saints in the process. Or, if you prefer, I sense that God wants us to become saints and convert Merriam Park in the process. Until all the neighborhood is known as the Church of Saint Mark, and a parishioner sits on City Council for Ward 4!”

Two years have proven insufficient for that last stated goal. As for the rest of it, I identified three pastoral priorities through which we were to conquer the neighborhood for Christ. To wit: 

“…to fulfill the vision of not losing any of those entrusted to our care, it follows that we will need to grow in three areas: parishioner engagement with the Lord, with one another, and with the mission of the parish; facility improvements to furnish our parish with adequate spaces to receive the 8,900 souls that live in Merriam Park; and outreach to the unchurched on a broader scale and with greater degree of intentionality. I might not live to see the vision’s fulfillment. But if God grants the time I hope to explain it a little more in the weeks to come!”

“Living to see the vision’s fulfillment” remains doubtful. But time enough to explain I had indeed. If back then I felt I owed the parish an articulation of the vision that would inform my unworthy steering of that ship, at the present juncture I suppose something of a retrospective is in order. Certainly not in the spirit of those big-city mayors who plaster their name all over very public work in order to emphasize “Look at all I have done for you!” There is precious little for me to point to, anyway. Nor even as that steward who must give an accounting before he is thrust from the office. Rather, as an acknowledgement that though much remains to be done, there has indeed been a “small beginning” (Zech 4:10) in which we can trust the Lord rejoices, and which He will continue to bring to a greater fruition. 

In the parishioner engagement category, it’s only fair to acknowledge that we were already off the charts. But not yet saints. So the goal was to get everyone to more fully commit to striving for holiness in our personal lives and as a parish. Two years later, I look back on the tremendous response we saw to some new initiatives (MercyMorning, PECS groups, St. Mark’s in the Parks), the great turn-out witnessed at key community-building events (the Picnic, the Soiree, the Feast of St. Mark, and the Soup Supper series), and the generous outpouring to our first two Rebuild My Church appeals as ample evidence that, somehow, this uber-committed parish became even more united and engaged in this short span of months. 

Regarding our facilities. We haven’t exactly gotten around to those new bathrooms in the Church basement I dreamed about, much less a lower church renovation. The bell tower roof and brickwork remains To Be Done. But we got that west wall of the Church repaired; the window project is at long-last accomplished. We have a design in the works for a new floor in the Church nave and sanctuary. The Adoration Chapel shines. Carolyn Hall had her facelift. And, most crucially, the work of the Campus Master Plan Committee is well underway, and might bear fruit in short order. It’s the living stones that count, to be sure, but our stony-stones proclaim all the louder now that St. Mark’s is not a dying but fully alive, because at its center is the Living God, our Rock, who makes all things new. 

Lastly, outreach. We are still a long way from living in “Miriam Park.” But it’s not an exaggeration to say that the effort to evanglize has begun. More holy marketing to our neighbors, greater PES and parish integration with the Preschool, the nascent Parish Ambassador team, and, of course, that incredible Lenten mission to the “nations” in which so many of you participated, all witness. And in the recent bumper crop of OCIA initiatates (a harvest which has not ended), I see God blessing your humble efforts to actually share Christ with others… something we Catholics had forgotten was possible! 

All baby steps here, in relation to our parish’s potential. Much remains to be done. But the God who has accomplished everything we have done (Is 26:12) will surely not fail to do even greater things at this parish, if we but remain faithful to His call.

From the Heart of the Shepherd: Pentecost