Fr. Bill is back! We rejoice! He will be writing next week’s column.
Thanks for your response to “Our Doors Are Open. Welcome!” Continue to be alert to helping anyone who may be interested. It might be helpful to review why some people leave and why some come back.
People give a variety of reasons. Some say they just drifted away, maybe when in college or when they left home. Others say when they moved to a different city, they didn’t start going to a new parish. For others it was issues involved with marriage, divorce or remarriage; being hurt by a priest, Sister, or lay staff person; disagreeing with Church teaching; not feeling spiritually fed by Mass or homilies; abortion or post abortion; losing interest in organized religion; no longer believing in God.
Returning to Church may be easy for some. For others who were deeply hurt or have a lot of questions a returning Catholic group may be helpful. In a group they will receive support from others and from hearing their stories.
People share many reasons why they returned to Church: miss the community and friends in the parish; want to give their children good example and be able to answer their questions about the Church; need to update their knowledge because their religious education was poor; want to receive Communion or go to Confession; want to have their marriage blessed by the Church; getting older and want to get right with God.
We know the Holy Spirit is working within each person. The Spirit is the mover of hearts. Our prayers for those away from Church are also important. Let anyone who is interested know that at Transfiguration our doors are always open. Fr. Bill and I, Deacon Tom and Mike Dillon are always willing to listen. On our website transfigsfld.com we will be putting more information. Peace!
Fr. Jeremy
[frjeremyh@gmail.com , mjdillon@comcast.net]