In my late teens I was part of a ‘Catholics Returning Home’ program that was run out of my parish. The program is specifically designed to successfully reintroduce lapsed Catholics back into the fold. It is a five week program that helps guide their faith journey and prepares them by explaining important truths about the Catholic faith and the sacraments.
There were about six of us on the team and each week a different priest was asked to come and speak about a particular aspect of the faith. Over the course of five weeks we learned a lot about our faith, about the reasons why these people had left the Church, and a lot about ourselves. I gained so much, personally, from the whole experience in little ways but I was also heartened by hearing the stories of others’ journeys to the faith including a married deacon and his wife, whom I had known for years, who converted from the Anglican Church and who are very inspiring people.
But one thing united all of the stories of those who had left the Church and especially those who had tried to come back. And it was simply this: they did not feel welcome.
Sadly, our Catholic parishes are not known for their welcome. In fact, the reverse is more generally the case. Other Christian denominations are committed to being welcoming and to the idea of a communion of persons. We, generally speaking, seem to be a lot more focused on the Sacrament itself, and in our reverent approach to Mass we admonish our children from speaking in the Church and refrain from speaking in the Church which is a great demonstration of respect for Our Lord. But we can still smile in welcome at new faces, or whisper quiet words of welcome and invite them to come outside and chat.
Outside, we should be exhibiting Jesus’ love and acceptance of everyone but how quickly we fall into a routine. We might race out after Mass, straight to the car so that dad can get back home and watch the footy; as parents we might be preoccupied with watching our children and making sure they are not going out towards the road or causing mischief; we might stay for a while after Mass and chat to the same people we see very regularly, including our family; we might see new people but it’s someone else’s responsibility to welcome them.
This might be a confronting question, but when was the last time you spoke to someone different, some one new at Mass? Yeah, it’s been a little while for me too.
We’ve just moved house and as such, we’re also changing parishes at the moment. The closest parish to us I recently described to my husband as ‘not being all that welcoming’ and I thought that was sad. We might not be new to the Catholic faith, but we are new to the parish and one word of welcome or ‘hello, we haven’t seen you before’ and an introduction would have made us feel a little bit easier about becoming part of the parish. We don’t want to just rock up on Sundays and celebrate Mass, we want to be part of the parish community and contribute in a myriad of ways.
So how can we be more welcoming? Here are a few ideas:
- Resolve to speak to one new person at your parish after Mass each Sunday (new can mean someone you recognise but haven’t actually met yet).
- Help your parish run a morning tea after Mass. Some parishes do this already but if your parish doesn’t, maybe you could raise the concept and help organise something in future.
- Be proactive. We can all read about upcoming activities in a bulletin but it’s often that personal invitation that’s more likely to see us attending.
As a parish priest used to say: ‘The devil doesn’t want you to hang around after Mass and socialise with each other.’ He doesn’t want your faith strengthened by your relationships with other like-minded people, but Jesus does, and He wants you to help welcome sinners to Him.
We’re mothers, we’ve welcomed life into the world. I think we can manage to welcome new faces to our parishes!
Originally posted 2015-02-24 12:00:57.