Take A Deep Breath

“Take a deep breath… now do a real one.” This is the advice from a bride’s little sister when I asked her and members of the wedding party “Do you have any advice for the bride and groom?” This past weekend, I celebrated my sixth of eight weddings this wedding season. And the line “Take a deep breath… now do a real one” was advice I took before writing this bulletin article.

Early in the week I got a text message from Fr. Jude asking me to write an article this week for the bulletin, explaining lay ministry, and congratulating Jenny Greene! I thought writing an article congratulating Jenny? Sure! I can do that. But writing about lay ministry, not so much. Then I remembered “Take a deep breath… now do a real one.”

So that is what I did, I took a deep breath and then took a real one. Today’s Gospel does not shine a good light on lay ministry, the first disciples were the Church’s first lay ministers who had no formal training. We hear in the Gospel that on the way to Capernaum, right after Jesus predicted his death for the second time, “They had been discussing among themselves on the way who was the greatest.” I love it! The disciples were so human. They were skipping the suffering of Good Friday and jumped right into Easter Sunday wondering where they would fit in the glory of God.

Jenny Greene, who I mentioned earlier, has completed the Formation for Ministry Program run by the Diocese, which provides education, ministerial training, field experience, and spiritual preparation for adult Catholics over a two year period. She has been on a journey living through blessings and sufferings and gifts and challenges, leading to certification and commissioning by the bishop, which happen this weekend on Sunday afternoon at the Cathedral.

Jenny felt welcomed here at Assumption on the first day she attended Mass here. She once said, “It was pretty simple, I just walked in, and someone stopped the conversation they were having to make eye-contact with me and say ‘Hello!’ This is the first church I visited that this ever happened to me and I have been coming back ever since.” She could not even tell me who the person was today, but as she told me “that doesn’t matter, the very fact that I felt acknowledged was enough.” Jenny continues to do the same: acknowledge people, being a parishioner of the parish, a lector, and a volunteer at our Food Pantry and Soup Kitchen. She will continue to acknowledge people in a different way, by helping to visit with and bring communion to our sick and homebound parishioners.

Congratulations Jenny! Thank you for all of the prayer, hard work, and dedication to the Formation for Ministry Program and to Assumption. May you continue to be real and human. May you continue to receive Christ in the people you serve. May you remember if things get overwhelming, “Take a deep breath… now do a real one.”