Celebrating Lay Ministry!

During this season of Easter, which lasts until Pentecost Sunday when we celebrate the coming of the Holy Spirit, we hear accounts from the Acts of the Apostles each day. This book in the Bible gives account of the life of the first Christians after the time of Jesus death and resurrection. The first Christians are revealed as being very human, struggling with the best and the worst of human dynamics while striving to live the message of Jesus Christ anew. They doubt, they fear, they argue and try to figure out how best to live together and to serve those who choose the path of Jesus. In the death and resurrection of Jesus, the rug was pulled from under them so that they had to weave a new way, relevant for where they found themselves.

As they lived the most human of lives on their journey of Christianity, the first Christians dedicated themselves to prayer and ministry enlivening their local communities in every encounter. They gathered to break bread together, sharing in the Eucharist, engaging in the ongoing celebration of the Last Supper where Christ as head was always present. They were inspired by those who lived life well.

We do the same today in every parish community. Our times are uncertain and ever changing. However, uncertainty and change is a constant - we are sometimes stuck on the path as the pace of change is possibly occurring faster than that with which we feel we can keep up!

We have a parish community where most of our services to one another, are provided by people who minister voluntarily. Living as a community takes organisation: the matters of administration, organisation of readers, choirs, cleaning, maintenance, etc is core to having a place and a way of being together and serving one another in a manner similar to how the first Christians did!

Every person who volunteers their services in the parish community, every person who arrives to pray, every person who looks at another with a smile or a welcome word, every person who shares a skill .... contributes to building and maintaining our parish communities as places where the hope and love of Christ may be found and shared. Christ is truly alive among us using our hands, feet, hearts and minds to connect us together and to reach out as an ever-missionary people, right where we are.

Together we are church, as we see in the lives of the first Christians! We celebrate all who minister in our own parishes. Let us take note of what is possible in our parish because of the generosity of so many. If anyone has a skill or time that they might wish to offer to the community, the door is always open!

Cathy Burke
Catechist in the Lucan Partnership of Parishes