Hope Springs Anew this Winter

Amidst the dark winter nights, the cold rain, snow and ice, our souls are searching for a glimmer of light, warmth, and hope! Even while the Christmas celebrations were still approaching, our volunteer leaders and the Pastoral Team were working on getting plans
started for a fruitful new year in the Plainville Wrentham Collaborative.

In addition to Cursillo retreats, in which we continue to encourage your participation, the ChristLife programs have become a centerpiece of our faith formation for adults. These evening series have been embraced with resounding enthusiasm from participants, and almost sixty people have already participated in all three programs! As Lent approaches, we will start fresh by offering the first program, “Discovering Christ” - this time on Tuesdays starting February 26th at St. Mary’s. Some of us are well along on our journey of faith with Jesus and the Church, and others of us might be still searching for meaning in our faith as it relates to our daily lives. This seven-week experience is for both of these groups of adults. In a casual, relaxed atmosphere over supper and a video, the program encourages us to ask life’s funda mental questions, and to (re-)discover how Jesus and our Catholic Christian faith can help us with them. Far from being an antiquated, out of touch institution, our Church is the extended family of faith that helps us find stability and hope in a tumultuous world. Please read the Discovering Christ article on the last page for more infor mation, and invite your friends to register with you!

With such success in our “Faith Formation For Adults and Families” priority from our local pastoral plan, we have shifted our focus to the other two priorities. In addition to various individual steps we have taken in “Strengthening the Sunday Experience”, we have almost completed the first goal under this priority: forming and training a Sunday Experience Team (SET).  Made up of members of both parishes, this team has begun learning about Catholic liturgy and what makes for a meaningful experience of Catholic community as we gather to worship and be nourished each weekend. I am co-chairing the team with Sally Winslow (member of the Collaborative Pastoral Council and music minister).  The SET will consider recommendations to enhance our Lord’s Day Masses in both parishes and to foster other activities around the Masses that build our sense of be-
ing parish families. The Collaborative Vocations Team is being formed now to guide our ongoing implementation of the “Fostering Discernment and Vocations” priority, with a focus on promoting diocesan priesthood so our parishes will have priests to serve them in the future.  If you are interested in helping with this priority, please contact Steve Rolfe, Deacon Joe Flocco, or myself.

The above plans are coming together well, but regrettably one thing we will have to postpone this year is our Lenten Mission.  

Despite multiple efforts, neither Fr. Bill nor I were able to get a commitment from a mission preacher for this year. Since the mission involves significant planning and coordination among various ministries, we don’t have enough time left to schedule it and make it the positive spiritual experience we have become accustomed to in our collaborative parishes. With the support of the Collaborative Pastoral Council, we will work ahead on plans to resume the mission next Lent. Meanwhile, we have many reasons to look forward to an early start to the season with Discovering Christ and other opportunities for spiritual growth - both personally and in our parish communities!

P.S. - If you are wondering about the new altar furnishings we obtained for each of our parishes, please go to our website to see last week’s column entitled “Blessings
from St. Chretienne.”