BE ALERT! BE FILLED! These are the first two statements to guide our Advent journey. I would like to thank our Liturgical Arts and Environment team for presenting these and several more key words for Advent so beautifully on the wall behind our altar.
BE ALERT still rings in our spiritual ears at the urging of Jesus from the Gospel of Luke proclaimed last week. This statement set a tone for all of Advent as we watch and heighten our awareness for the power of the Incarnation that is imminent. As I reflected on this message last week, I encouraged us to be alert to what can destroy us and to be alert for what can save us. Those struck me as the two prongs of the Gospel message.
BE FILLED is a unique way of looking at the challenge that we hear this week from John the Baptist. He echoes Isaiah’s classic preparatory challenge that, “…every mountain shall be laid low and every valley shall be filled.” We are encouraging you to fill the valleys of your life with the depth and beauty of the Advent/Christmas story. BE FILLED with the posture of being ALERT, of fundamental gratitude by being SATISFIED with the abundance of current blessings and not those that we prowl after with jealous eyes, and the wonder of being SURPRISED as Mary was by the Angel Gabriel’s miraculous announcement of her life-giving role in salvation history. BE FILLED with the wonder of God’s love for you and for us as this magical story unfolds.
Remember that we are offering the Sacrament of Reconciliation this coming Wednesday, December 12 beginning at 7:00pm. We will use the story of Our Lady of Guadalupe for reflection and to examine our consciences. This is a beautiful way to BE FORGIVEN and to open your heart to Advent and Christmas.
This past Tuesday, almost 300 women filled our church to listen to Mary McKeon talk about the Three Wise Women of the Nativity Story. This response was astounding and our “Advent by Candle Light” series will certainly continue each year at this time. Thanks to all in our Adult Faith Ministering Community who worked so hard to coordinate many details of prayer and hospitality. Thanks to our Knights of Columbus for helping to serve hors d’oeuvres and wine and providing a warm welcome in their formal attire.
A group of parishioners and staff from Holy Family met with Cardinal Cupich last Monday at St. Anne Parish in Barrington, along with representatives of the 11 parishes in our Deanery. These are the parishes in closest proximity to us. This was strictly a listening session for him to hear our feelings, concerns and raw comments regarding the church’s handling of the clergy sexual abuse scandal. I was very proud of Holy Family, because we presented concrete feedback from our recent survey. In a sense, we were able to speak for all of you who filled out the survey and shared your many candid feelings and suggestions. The Cardinal also wants to meet with us personally for a more detailed presentation of our results.
We will share a more detailed report on the survey with all of you through email this coming week, but some of the highlights include:
- A Survey Monkey survey was sent via email to 3500 of our parishioners (if we don’t have your correct email let us know) out of our 4200 families
- 1500 were opened
- 600 (39%) clicked all the way through
- Responses were prompted and for multiple choice questions with open ended boxes for verbatim comments, 45% gave open ended comments
- 61% of respondents were aged 55 and over, 29% aged 35-54
- 55% of respondents have been parishioners at HF from between 11 and 30 years, 15% since its inception
- 79% reported a lack of trust in the larger institutional Church
- 40% report that this issue has affected their worship habits
- Faith in God and the local parish community were overwhelming sources of hope
- There is a universal call for increased transparency, accountability and action from Church hierarchy
- 65% suggested creating LAY oversight roles for leadership at the highest levels of the Church.
Ginnie Blake West from Blake West and Company, who has consulted on some other significant Holy Family promotion and marketing issues, provided a thorough analysis of the data.
Once again, I thank you for your candid and heartfelt feedback.