St. Gertrude Catholic Parish

Now that the Institute II is over we have some time to consider what we learned from the experience. We had over 300 people participating in the sessions, some from outside the parish, but 90% from your favorite community. The variety of courses provided a real choice for those who were able to come out on Wednesday evenings. Coupling the courses with Taizé prayer was a blockbuster idea. Peter Steinfels has written that people in the parishes are thirsting for Adult Education and rich prayer. We aim to please.We hope to have two sessions each year, probably Spring and Fall. There is plenty of home grown talent in the parish so we can continue to pluck from our own orchard. We have to find ways to get to people who cannot come out at night (parents with small children, the very elderly, etc.) and we need to find the avenues to special interest groups (young adults, rich widows, etc.) I was just kidding about the rich widows to see if you were paying attention.

Wouldn’t it be great if we could find the right place and time to have Sunday afternoon sessions in which the whole family could be together and we would have someone giving a talk about religion and the family while we interacted with each other picnic style? Or what about single parishioners doing a tour of French cathedrals and learning a lot of European history? The possibilities are endless.

Meanwhile, we are still working hard trying to find the right formula for teens. My dream is that we have a whole one hundred teens who find companionship, a mission, a sense of religion, and a real good time belonging to W.O.W. (Walk on Water) so that they become the envy of their fellow students in their high school. The retreats would be standing room only!

WK

Filed under: Dear Saint Gertrude