Pulpit Pitch

 If you were in the pews at my parish, you'd have to listen to me give this announcement at every Mass (unless you were at the 9:00 mass, at which Deacon didn't see me frantically waving my paper at him from the front pew). But maybe your parish needs volunteers too! Consider this your invitation.

Hi! I'm Cat Hodge, and this time I'm not here to talk to you about the choir. I'm up here (again) to beg you to place the gifts God has given you at the service of our parish. A parish -- St. Mary's itself -- is not something that is done to us. It's not something that's done at us. St. Mary's is us. And God has granted every person here a share of his gifts. I'm using one right now: the gift of being able to talk in front of people without being nervous. But every ministry in our parish relies on our parishioners -- on YOU -- using these God-given gifts, whether of hospitality, or of cleaning, or artistic ability, or organization (which is not a gift God has given me, so someone else is going to have to step up there). Without those gifts, we languish, because God often chooses to act through human hands. Remember Matthew, chapter 25? At the last judgment, God says, "What you did for the least of these, you did to me."

I'm here today to ask for your help for the least of these -- the children of our parish. The PSR program -- the Parish School of Religion -- is in need of volunteers to teach and to chaperone in order to have in-person classes this year. We're almost there! We have an amazing program, Catechesis of the Good Shepherd, for 3-to 6-year olds and for first through third grade, and in future years we're excited to expand Catechesis of the Good Shepherd all the way through age 12. We have a separate First Communion class for students who can't make the Catechesis of the Good Shepherd time. We have fifth and sixth grade combined, a Bible study for the seventh grade, and Confirmation this year will be a youth-group style program run by the Missionaries from Damascus, the Catholic Youth Summer Camp in our diocese. If we could get teachers for a combined third and fourth grade class, we'd have in-person programs for all our kids. We still do have online options for PSR, but after this past year, you tell me how excited kids are for another Zoom session.

I'm teaching the seventh grade Bible study. We're meeting in the Pastor's Pad on the third floor of the parish office -- not in a stuffy classroom -- and instead of textbooks, we're simply going to be reading the book of Matthew, chapter by chapter. Maybe you're thinking, "I wish I could get in on some of that Matthew action." And you can! Perhaps you don't feel like you have the gift of teaching, or of talking in front of people. Perhaps you don't even know what your gifts are. But you yourself are a gift, and your very presence would be a gift to me, and to the other PSR teachers. Unless we meet the diocesan Protecting God's Children standards for adult-to-child ratios, we can't have in-person classes. We had to cancel VBS this summer for this very reason, so this is a very real and immediate need in our parish.

And the reason I'm talking to you this weekend is because PSR classes start on Sept. 7, and in order to work with children, all of our adult volunteers are required by the diocese to attend a one-time Protecting God's Children training. Many of you already have this certification, or are signed up for our upcoming session. Thank you! We need you! Registration for our parish session is now closed, but St. Michael's in Worthington has openings for this coming Tuesday evening, August 17, at 6:00. Information about that session should be posted on the bulletin boards in the vestibule. You can sign up at virtusonline.org, or contact the parish office for help. And if you want to volunteer, but can't make that session, please let the office know. If we have a strong enough demand, there's a possibility that the Diocese will open another session for our parish. 

Thank you for being a gift to St. Mary's.