Have you ever wondered what exactly people do within our parish? Throughout the next year, we are going to share stories from the staff about what a typical day looks like for them. We will also share stories from parishioners about their experience on a committee or being involved with an activity in our parish. Today we will hear from Kate Tyler our Pastoral Associate: "The joy and challenge of being a Pastoral Associate is how different each day looks. The only tasks that are ever the same each day is taking care of emails and phone calls. It is a blessing to be able to have a job that is as unique as the people in the parish. It is truly a pleasure to serve God and his children. Here is a just a brief summary of one Monday in the life of the Pastoral Associate: I begin & end each week by walking throughout the Church to straighten up the materials by all the doors. I collected the Liturgical Ministers sign in sheet to contact any ministers who did not check in or did not get a sub to assist with Mass that weekend. I made copies & scans of the scripture readings for our Lectors and emailed them out or left them to pick up in the sacristy so they can prepare to proclaim the Word of God for the coming weekend. I checked out a few Catholic youtube pages to find a new worth watching video to share on the parish website as well as the parish facebook page. I tweeted information on our parish twitter page. I touched base with Emily about our plan for the Becoming Catholic Gathering & we finalized any details that we still needed to work on. As part of the Pastoral Care Team, I went to St. Luke's/Unitypoint and Mercy Hospital to visit parishioners. Our pastoral care team has coordinated at least one St. Matthew's member to visit those in the hospital each day of the week. It is a great pleasure to pray and talk with parishioners no matter what is happening in their life. I started working on the planning details for the Mass of Remembrance on Thursday November 2 which is All Souls' Day. I left work for a bit of family time & dinner together before returning to set up for our Becoming Catholic Gathering. Each Monday night Emily & I work together to lead a group of individuals who are interested in learning more about the Catholic faith. We coordinate all the details but the night is truly lead by the Holy Spirit. We spend much of the time in prayer & having small group discussions. At the end of the night I turn off all the lights and lock the doors. Each day of the week and each week may have similar tasks to get done but there is always different needs that I am responsible for taking care of. I have the great blessing of working together with every staff member at the Parish which includes the School & ECC. If I had to pick one word to describe a day in the life of a pastoral associate, it would be Grace. God blesses me with the gifts I need to serve Him each day and I get to bring His Love & Grace to all those I journey with each day.
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |
Archives
November 2018
Categories
All
|