Commissioned

My wife and I had been thinking about the need for a young & marrieds ministry for a while. Then, our local bishop formed a task force to address, among other things, future parish closures. Our parish's task force meeting turned into a brainstorming session. Amazingly, all of us had never really sat down together like this. We we're buzzing for days afterwards. It was like a local Council of Trent. 

 

My main takeaway was the need for two things: (1) a young & marrieds ministry, and (2) more adult catechesis. These two goals would intertwine, of course. I had already been teaching classes on various subjects (Mary, the Eucharist, the Pentateuch) sporadically. I called the program "ACE" for Adult Catechism and Evangelization, but it had yet to really get off the ground with other teachers and programs. 

In the days following the task force meeting, I met with other people from our parish and pieced together a plan for these two things. My wife, for her part, knew that look in my eye when a new project was afoot. She gave me the green light, so I pushed the throttle forward.

Having my wife on board was critical. And, like I said, we'd been feeling the need for such a ministry in our parish for years. We knew we were in a critical period, as well, because all our old friends from youth group were getting married and starting new lives, sometimes elsewhere. Louisiana is very prone to the brain drain. So many young people graduate from high school or college and move away to places where jobs are more plentiful. It's our diaspora. We need to create a reason for people to stay. We can't have a community without people. 

We knew also that we'd especially need the help, grace, and support of Mother Church to do all this. 

I work in downtown Baton Rouge, so I'm not usually in town during the day. But the Friday following the parish task force meeting, I happened to be passing through New Roads after a court hearing in a neighboring parish. I had written our parish priest, Monsignor Berggreen, the day before asking if he would be free for lunch. Unfortunately, I had emailed him on my work email, which I couldn't check until back at work in faraway Baton Rouge. 

So, I stopped by the parish office and rudely begged for Monsignor to see me. I had a plan all written out for the new ministry, but I knew I couldn't go much further without our priest's blessing. 

Monsignor did, of course, see me. The man's a living saint. He probably bi-located from the confessional to visit with me. He read over my proposal, which will be spelled out more fully in subsequent posts, and which also included him -- a 70-something-year-old man -- getting a Twitter handle. Rubbing his substantial brow with his long fingers, he nodded and smiled. "So what do you need from me?" He asked. 

I had told him we weren't asking for any funding, and we would do all our own fundraising. "Besides letting us use the rooms and facilities of the parish," I said, "all we need is your blessing, Monsignor. I was thinking you could commission me and my wife to this ministry?" 
 

Monsignor nodded and spread out his long fingers and wide palms in an open gesture -- "You're commissioned," he said, laughing. I probably blushed, then, expecting something more elaborate. I babbled on a bit more and took Monsignor on a brief tour of Twitter, extolling its virtues and the fact that the Pope also has a Twitter. But that was it, we were off to the races!