I get called to do crazy things a lot. More and more lately. Trust me when I say that my natural inclination is to stay at home and not get involved. Certainly it isn’t to talk to people. I’ll bet some of you might be able to relate to this. So in spite of what you might start thinking about me and my constant crazy plans, these things we are doing or suggesting are not really my idea. You can blame God. He can take it. I’ll be sitting there mining my own business, at mass, watching hockey, driving to work or working in the yard and out of the blue, whammo. Big idea. Not related to anything that was currently on my mind. Just a driveby inspiration. And I can ignore it but it just keeps coming up over and over until I find a way to share it or get it out there. My daughter suggested that sometimes God calls you and in my case it seems the Holy Spirit invites me through a door to a room full of labours that I probably wasn’t looking for, then slams it behind me and holds it shut while laughing uncontrollably and telling me not to worry. I think the Holy Spirit might be a little crazy too. That about sums it up lately. So when I say that “I think” “I want” or “I’m planning for” take that with a grain of salt. While I really believe God is pushing me, or us, in this or that direction, I don’t want to imply that I’m getting it right. He still uses flawed and imperfect people who make mistakes. Having said all that, here is the latest gem for you.
We are going to try to host a weekend set of masses at the parish where the men of the parish fill all of the supporting roles at mass. That includes Usher, commentator, readers, Eucharistic ministers and alter servers. I even would welcome a mens music group of any kind to do the music ministry at the masses. I personally find music exceedingly challenging though. So in my mind that one may be too much of a hill to climb. However that is only because of my aversion to performing or singing. I could be wrong and there may be a group of men who would be willing to take this and run. I think it would be amazing if it were to happen. If we are under the belief that this plan is coming from God and not me, then anything is possible. He may have plans for some of you that just isn’t apparent to us yet. So if you feel called to sing, don’t hold it back. Just don’t ask me to sing too. He FOR SURE is not calling me to do that. I think I would have to be swallowed by a whale for three days and spit up on the doorstep of a choir practice before I would be able to sing (Lord, that is not a dare. Please don’t send a whale to eat me. I live in the middle of Alberta so that would be a real miracle, but you can do anything so I want to be clear that you don’t have to do that).
The objective here will be to show the parish the strength and support of the men in the community. To show the men standing up and proclaiming faith and love. I’m hoping to inject a little testosterone into the mass and the community. It seems like as men we are content to sit back in many cases and let the women lead or do the work. Not that they can’t or shouldn’t do that. They are amazing. It’s just to say that they should not have to do that without us. I don’t know if our reserved nature is based on a fear of committing or a lack of desire. Maybe its due to a lack of a need for the men to participate? Maybe we are generally just too tired to tackle something that doesn’t specifically require us. I think that misses the point though. We each individually benefit from the labour we do in the church. You see it in the guys who quietly work behind the scenes to keep things running or show up for every single mass and do the leg work. This program isn’t meant to twist anyones arm into full-time service. It’s just an opportunity to unite with the other men and do some very visible, very impactful support of the parish community. And I hope we make some noise while doing it.
We haven’t picked a date yet but it will hopefully be sometime between Sept-Jan next Columbian year. That gives us time to get a bunch of men trained up for the various ministries in the meantime. Ireland Kowal is the volunteer coordinator for the parish now and she will be working out some dates for training sessions. The first set for Eucharistic and Liturgy training will be on May 16-17. Feel free to email her to register and keep up on when other training dates may be offered. It would be very very good for you to get trained up on more than one ministry, but even if its just for one, you will have time between now and September to sign up and practice your ministry in the meantime.
This will be open to more than just Knights too. Once we get organized we will open the invitation up to any of the men of the parish to join in and remove the “risk” of having to join the Knights to do so. Just fellow parishioners working together. I will be sending the invitation out to the men of the parish before summer, but you can feel free to invite anyone you already know that might fall outside of the KC membership but might be interested.
Here is a breakdown of the positions we should be prepared as a group to fill at all three masses on whichever weekend we determine to do this. I have included my best guess at extra Eucharistic ministers simply because I have heard whispers that we might introduce the cup again at some point. So we may need to load up on help there if that is the case. This is just a general idea of what we are proposing. I’m not ready yet to start filling in a schedule. However it would be really helpful if you could let me know if A). you are already qualified in one or more of these ministerial positions or plan to get certified, and B). if you want to be part of this set of masses in some way. The sooner we can start taking names and building the better.
