I was lying in bed recently asking myself, “So, how do think your Lenten season is going so far?” Well, it’s been kind of interesting, and reflective in a way I wasn’t expecting. I received my first dose of the Covid vaccine on Valentine Day’s, at 9:30PM on a Sunday night! Instead, being pierced by Cupid’s arrow, I was jabbed by Moderna’s injection needle…very romantic! I commuted into New York City for the first time in over six months to arrive at a sleepy Grand Central Terminal. I had my temperature taken at three different times in one day in three different venues. Additionally, after 46 years in the professional work force, I finally announced my retirement from current employer of 19 years. I know, I know you might be thinking, “He couldn’t stick around one more year and make it an even 20?” But given the pandemic I’m thinking I may have inadvertently hung around one year too long.
Regardless, the announcement was a great weight off my shoulders. I no longer had to make up excuses as to why I couldn’t commit to a meeting invitation scheduled for May or June. I could now turn it down with impunity and not feel guilty. And, as you would expect from nearly two decades of service, I received a bunch of E-Mails congratulating me on my retirement and inquiries as to what I was going to do with myself now that I would have all this “free time” on my hands? And frankly, without missing a beat, I began to recite a litany of ministries at St. Catherine of Siena and St. Agnes that need volunteer support. I talked about the touch-free donations that our wonderful parishioners make each Tuesday morning in the parking lot across the street from the O’Connor center to Neighbor-to-Neighbor to benefit those locals in need of food stuffs. I told them how the Covenant House Hospitality Center in Stamford is a place where St. Catherine of Siena and St. Agnes have about 5 volunteer teams who donate their time, their cooking and their service to help those who may live pay-check to pay-check by providing a hot meal so they need not decide whether to feed themselves or pay for medicine, or for baby formula or set aside money for rent or whatever may be the most pressing need at that time. I also spoke about the wonderful work of Betsy Parker’s Social Justice Ministry that runs the gamut from collecting funds to provide clean water in Central and South America, to the Undies Project an initiative that collects and provides clean, unopened packages of underwear to people who live so close to the edge that clean underwear is a luxury most of us would never give a second thought about. I said I could try to do something in my retirement to help the St. Catherine Support Circle. Originally founded to support job seekers who were casualties of the economic downturn in 2009, this ministry has taken on new meaning in our current jobless environment ravaged by the global pandemic. I also mentioned taking on some added responsibility with the Parish Partners Ministry founded by Jeannemarie Baker and Carolyn Killian-O’Connor whose mission is to support and accompany people through their faith journey as they experience the joy, the pain and the grief that life can throw our way in so many different forms.
When I stop to take a breath, people often say to me, “Wow, your church seems pretty active. I guess you won’t have a shortage of things to choose from.” To which I reply, “Yeah, but it’s all I’ve known for the last 37 years.” And that’s when it hit me, well, actually it hit me while I was on my most recent Fratelli Tutti Zoom call (a group that virtually meets online semi-monthly to read and discuss Pope Francis’ latest encyclical). To quote the Pope, “Kindness helps to build civility.” And I thought, that is what Jesus teaches us. That is what our faith teaches us and that is what the various ministries at St. Catherine of Siena and St. Agnes teach us to do…provide service to others, through kindness. And when we do it through kindness, we promote civility because, to paraphrase Francis, it is a star “shining in the midst of darkness” and “frees us from the cruelty ... the anxiety ... the frantic flurry of activity” that prevail in the contemporary era. Which is what St. Catherine of Siena and St. Agnes attempts to embody in so many of their ministries, a kindness that is supportive of one another through living the message of the Gospel. And when you look at the breadth and depth of what is available in the way of help and support from so many loving and interested parishioners, it is more than just heartening, that underlying kindness is the road map they all try to traverse toward the noble goal that Pope Francis espouses as consensus and civility.
And this theme of kindness was brought home to me yet again this past week when Parish Partners sent me a quote from St. Teresa of Calcutta who said, “Love is not patronizing and charity isn’t about pity, it is about love. Charity and love are the same – with charity you give love, so don’t just give money, reach out your hand instead.” I think someone is trying to tell me something!
