An odd comment...

A group of us has started to pray the Rosary prior to Mass... in an attempt to enliven the spiritual prayer life and community at our parish. There are a lot of factions, divisions, and long-standing "issues" at our parish, and so it is part of our humble attempt to actively do something to glorify God in our parish and create community.

We have done this for about a month, and recently Mass times have changed at our parish so some folks who hadn't necessarily seen this before this past Sunday noticed our group.

After Mass, someone came up and asked how they could "join" our group. I simply said, show up. Then came the odd comment. They then inquired whether they had to sign up or if there was a fee involved. This rattled me a little bit. I don't blame the person, in fact, I applaud their desire considering that they in fact assumed there was a process and a fee to "join our group."

I realized that many parishes have really gotten to the point where everything is a "group" or there is some process involved in "doing things" in our parishes. In fact, our group has regularly been doing this devotion for over a month, and there has been no listing of it in the bulletin, nor will there be I suspect. There is this weird notion in American parishes about "sponsorship." I think that is why the question was posed to me the way that it was. As American Catholics, we are under some misguided understanding that everything that occurs in our Church is some "corporate" undertaking. What I mean by that, is that events must be sponsored and "controlled" by the Church or some group. For the most part, this is unfortunately true. I know our parish and Archdiocese have a very strict policy on who can and can't speak, present, or advertise. This is a good policy in some ways... and horrible in others. It can clearly keep a firm wrap on the proper teachings of the Church, but also discourages community and organic fellowship and apostolates, especially in small communities.

Regardless, it was good to see that our presence was being felt by others. In fact, we have received many comments from various parishioners. I know I personally was approached by 5 new people this week, and in a small parish that is a big show of support. It was odd coming to a parish that didn't have a Rosary prior to Mass, and now that it has started, it will be interesting to see if it can grow. In the spiritual battle that we are all in... we need as many warriors as we can get.