Do you love your parish?

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whatevergirl

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After attending mass at this parish for the past 4 months (we attended a different parish when we first moved to FL for about 2 months) we have found our parish home.🙂 We walked out of mass this evening, saying…‘we have found our parish home.’ It took a little getting used to some minor differences from our parish back in PA, but you know what makes an awesome parish? When you see smiles on the priests’ faces…when you see smiles on the parishioners’ faces…when you hear everyone (well nearly) singing with the choir…when you look over at your 15 year old son, and he is praying fervently, and is enjoying mass.:o I can’t explain it, but the priest that heads up this parish, just exudes with the Holy Spirit. The younger priest, Fr Tim–is just such a refreshing person, and his youth makes him very relateable to the parish teens. Tonight, because of the Epiphany…they had three K of C members dressed up like the wise men, and the priest told a story at the end of mass…and they each had an ornament for all the kids! We found that to be special. My son has a smile on his face at mass! Praise be to God! Not that he frowned before, and truthfully–he might be maturing as well in his own faith–but, I remember when he would just stare down at his shoes at mass in PA…and now, he seems a little more eager to get ready for mass. (although he still questions the validity of if Adam and Eve really existed–that’s another thread:D ) My dd has always loved mass…Oh, and my husband really likes this priest. He can be a little critical, if he does not see ‘happy’ priests exuding joy, he does not like the parish. Everyone’s different, I suppose.🤷 It is a larger parish, so perhaps the chatter that goes on, is just a byproduct of a larger parish. It’s nice to see so many families with young children at mass, too…

So…we have found our parish home!👍 I am going to join the women’s club, too…they do a lot of charity work, etc…and now that I feel ‘home’ here, I am excited to become part of one of the ministries. My husband was a K of C in PA-and wants to join at this one too! Praise be to God, you guys.🙂

So–do you LOVE your parish? If not, what would you like to see different about it? Is it the clergy? Is it the lack of progams? Is it something else?

Look forward to your replies.

Blessings,
WG:)
 
I belong to a parish where you want to be part of the parish not because you live close to it. No one that I know of lives close (it ain’t in the best part of Detroit) to the parish.
 
Absolutely I do. And I also love my diocese. One thing to be careful of though is that priests get moved and a parish’s “atmosphere” can change. The important thing is to love God and your faith and the Church.
 
WanderAimlessly said:
I belong to a parish where you want to be part of the parish not because you live close to it. No one that I know of lives close (it ain’t in the best part of Detroit) to the parish.
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YES YES YES! Perfectly said! This parish is further by about 5 miles, than our first parish…it’s not too too far, but not as close as the first one. Yes, we are willing to make that drive because we really feel ‘fed’ here, and just love the mass. It is so moving and uplifting…at the same time, solemn and reverent…although, the chatter at the beginning of mass is a little odd. Can’t be perfect! ha

I also LOVE their reverence to Mary. They have a decent sized section of the church, where you can light candles for whatever intention, and pray before a statue of Mary and Jesus as an infant. It is such a beautiful area of the church. The stations are outside of the church, I’m not used to that, but in my humble opinion–the priests are so beautiful at this parish. They just have love in their eyes.:o I also cry nearly at every mass…that never happened to me before. Not that that is what it takes to get me to join a parish–I must cry or I won’t join. ha No. I just feel deeply moved…the singers in the choir sound like angels.:o
 
Sr_Sally said:
Absolutely I do. And I also love my diocese. One thing to be careful of though is that priests get moved and a parish’s “atmosphere” can change. The important thing is to love God and your faith and the Church.
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Yes–agreed. The Eucharist…and being invited by Christ to sit at His table, is what mass is about. But, to see Christ moving through this parish, is so wonderful.

My dd used to serve as an altar server at our parish in PA. She is a bit initimidated here, as it’s a larger parish…but she may change her mind. That being said…this parish has more altar boys serving…older ones. I think that is so cool. I am for both genders serving, but it’s beautiful to see older boys (13+) serving as altar boys. I dunno, reminds me of my youth.
 
My parish is the same way. I travel past 3 other parishes to get to mine, and I know plenty of others who do the same.

Our parish is one of the oldest in the city, the biggest (as far as registered families go) in the diocese. It’s a little more orthodox than some of the other city parishes - I think that’s one of the major draws. Our wonderful pastor has been with us for the past 5 years so far, and it is considered a “training ground” of sorts for newly-ordained priests. He has brought back and supported many devotionals to our parish, along with revamping the spirit and enthusiasm within the community.

I’ve been with this parish since I was a child - it’s going to be hard to go somewhere else if we move out of the city.
 
Tonks40 said:
My parish is the same way. I travel past 3 other parishes to get to mine, and I know plenty of others who do the same.

Our parish is one of the oldest in the city, the biggest (as far as registered families go) in the diocese. It’s a little more orthodox than some of the other city parishes - I think that’s one of the major draws. Our wonderful pastor has been with us for the past 5 years so far, and it is considered a “training ground” of sorts for newly-ordained priests. He has brought back and supported many devotionals to our parish, along with revamping the spirit and enthusiasm within the community.

I’ve been with this parish since I was a child - it’s going to be hard to go somewhere else if we move out of the city.
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Oh, I hope you never have to move!:o I know how hard it can be…we literally became attached to our blessed parish back in PA. But, we are so excited and blessed to have found this new one here. Thank you for sharing…I am so glad you feel that way about your church–and that is cool that it’s a training ground, so to speak, for newly ordained priest. What a God send!
 
I don’t know if I love my new parish yet. I keep waiting for the other shoe to drop. But I love the school attached to it, and I am mighty glad our pastor actually gives a cogent homily, and not a racing report, a martial arts demonstation, or brings up people who could not be considered Good Catholics as such. We are having a pot luck next week for all the new families. That NEVER happened in my old parish, and we were there for YEARS.
 
OutinChgoburbs said:
I don’t know if I love my new parish yet. I keep waiting for the other shoe to drop. But I love the school attached to it, and I am mighty glad our pastor actually gives a cogent homily, and not a racing report, a martial arts demonstation, or brings up people who could not be considered Good Catholics as such. We are having a pot luck next week for all the new families. That NEVER happened in my old parish, and we were there for YEARS.
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LOL–your post made me chuckle. What do you mean…a racing report or martial arts demo? hahaha I have to tell my dh this…he’ll roll on the floor.:rotfl:
 
whatevergirl said:
LOL–your post made me chuckle. What do you mean…a racing report or martial arts demo? hahaha I have to tell my dh this…he’ll roll on the floor.:rotfl:
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The priest in old parish actually owns a race car. So, we would all have to hear how a paritcular brand name of car was the best car, how people should pitch together and buy him a brand-name race engine for Christmas/ Easter/ his birthday/ the anniversary of his ordination, whether or not he won at the track that week, etc. He’s the one where our daughter Megs quoted his homily as, “St. Ghandi wants us to kill Hezzbollah and raise their children as our own. Oh- and make sure your back end is welded on, or you’ll lose the race in the first few mintues.”

He at one point earned a black belt in one of the martial arts. Instead of standing at the ambo, he paced the middle aisle and would suddenly let loose with a pose out of a kung fu movie, then give a kick of some sort.
 
My husband and I had a bad experience at the church close to our home. The priest at the time who is now a bishop said that my husband’s facial hair reminded him of the devil. This was during our prep for marriage. Well that was an interesting experience and after that experience we started bouncing from church to church. We got married at a different church almost 14 years ago and in those 14 years we have attended about 4 different Catholic churches until we found the right one. Again there is a church that is within walking distance but we are attending one that is a little bit of a drive away.

It really is a great community and our priest is truly understanding and passionate. We have really been embraced by community and we became party of a Youth Group and 8th grade CCD. We even helped in the church festival. I sort of pushed my husband into A.C.T.S and he attended his 1st and the 1st for our church Men’s A.C.T.S. retreat.

We love our church 🙂
 
OutinChgoburbs said:
Why don’t you?:confused:
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Not love my parish? Because nobody cares about anything, nobody wants to do anything and at the moment we have a priest who’d rather be a substitute teacher than a pastor.

Not have a choice? Because I live in the middle of nowhere with no other parish available.
 
Phemie said:
Not love my parish? Because nobody cares about anything, nobody wants to do anything and at the moment we have a priest who’d rather be a substitute teacher than a pastor.

Not have a choice? Because I live in the middle of nowhere with no other parish available.
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I was looking for the latter, then came upon your post about living 12 hours from the next parish. You should all purgatory time remitted for living with only one parish for that amount of space, in my opinion.

The former just makes it worse, poor dear.:console:
 
How about adding a link to your parish website (if it has one).

Even though I have moved across town this is still my registered parish. While I do have my criticisms I will keep them to myself right now and focus on the positives.

I absolutely love the people here. It is a pretty big parish with lots of faithful Catholics. I have been involved in the KofC, Bible Studies, and the youth Ministry program and have met the most amazing people.

It is a bit of a drive so I don’t tend to go to Mass here very often. But, I still volunteer with the youth ministry program.

This is the parish where I usually spend my Sundays. The thing I love best about this parish is the Mass. I leave feeling so uplifted and ready to face the week. It is literally like heaven on earth.

This will most likely become my new parish at some point. Really the biggest thing holding me back is that I have decided to stay involved in the youth ministry program at the first parish for the time being.

James
 
That is so great WG. We love our parish too. It has a lot of newborns up-to their grandparents and even some great-grandparents.😃
 
My children were Baptized in my parish and went to the parish school for 11 years each. I have grown as a catholic and person here. We have been here for over 14 years and know so many people. It really feels like my second home.
But…
With the new batch of priests here, including our pastor, things have changed dramatically. There are liturgical abuses, financial concerns, spiritual programs that have fallen away and so many other things that I just don’t understand.
When we decided to move to a bigger house a few years ago, my husband wanted to leave the parish. I just could not. As I said there is so much history here for us. So we are still here and try to help where we can and live through what is bad.
 
I love my parish. This is where I grew up and went to school. We moved away from our home town when my husband left the family business and went to work for a multi-national company. When he decided to retire early, we moved “back home”. This is not the parish where I should be going, but it is my parish. I see people weekly that I went to school with and some of their sisters and brothers. It is like old home week.
 
I love my parish. Our priests are wonderful, the Masses are reverent, and the parishoners are welcoming and compassionate. I feel so blessed to be part of our music ministry, as we have a truly gifted director who has stuck with us for 11 years now and with his help we have added so many talented and devoted parishoner-musicians. Our parish also has a strong emphasis on community service, which was sorely lacking in my childhood parish.

We’ll likely have to move elsewhere in 4 years or so when I’m done with school. As exciting as that will be, it will mean a new parish. 😦
 
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