"I am a Christian for my own sake, whereas I am a leader for your sake; the fact that I am a Christian is to my own advantage, but I am a leader for your advantage." St. Augustine - From the Beginning of His Sermon on Pastors.
A Pastoral Year is not required by all dioceses. It is
to the individual bishop to decide whether he wishes his seminarians to complete
a pastoral year. The Diocese of Rochester does require it. Some of the seminarians I have met from other
dioceses say they do not understand why we should have to do a pastoral
year. I respond that I was happy to do it. While we do spend summers
working in parishes and some time in parish assignments while taking classes in
the third and fourth year at the seminary, there is no substitute for working
full-time in a parish for a year. Things can slow down in parishes in the
summer so you do not get to see all that goes in a parish. The parish
assignments during the third and fourth year at the seminary are only around five
hours a week so again your involvement is limited.
There are actually two components to the pastoral year in the Diocese
of Rochester. We begin the fifteen month period with a unit of Clinical Pastoral
Education (CPE).
I completed my CPE training at Strong
Memorial Hospital in Rochester, NY . There are some
variations on the schedule of CPE depending on where and when you take it.
The summer unit at Strong
Memorial Hospital consists of eleven weeks of full-time work in
the hospital with on-call duties. The first week is orientation and class
time. Starting with the second week the time is split with twenty to
twenty-five hours a week spent on the units with the patients and staff.
The remainder of the time is an hour meeting with the supervisor and group
time. In group time, you present verbatims of your visits and discuss them with the group to
improve your skills for future visits. There are also times when the supervisor leads
lecture discussions on various issues that patients often face. Lastly,
about once a week you are responsible to spend a weeknight or a weekend day
shift in the hospital. You are the only chaplain (backup is available) in
the hospital and deal with emergency situations.
I freely admit I found my CPE
experience very tiring but also beneficial. There is little doubt
that full-time hospital ministry is not for me. However, I did learn
things about myself such as my tendency to take sides in disagreements without
even realizing it. As an introvert, meeting new people can be challenging
for me. It is a challenge that I will face regularly in the parish
environment. Through CPE, I have developed some skills on meeting new
people in ministerial settings.
The rest of the pastoral year is spent
working in a parish as a regular staff member. We are called to be
involved in some ministries for exposure while also being more deeply involved
in a few ministries and responsible for a couple. Each seminarian works
with his assigned supervising pastor to determine his duties at the
parish.
I was assigned to Church
of the Assumption Parish in Fairport,
NY with the pastor Rev. Edward L. Palumbos. I was assigned
there from August 25, 2004 to August 8, 2005. What follows is an outline of my ministerial duties there.
Ministries with Limited Involvement:
- RAIHN (Rochester Area Interfaith Hospitality Network - RAIHN is a coalition of
churches and temples who take turns providing housing for those seeking
housing. My involvement has been minimal in just spending a
little time with the people during their stay at Church
of the Assumption. I did not spend enough time with the
program to say much about it.
- Blessed Sacrament Supper Program -
Blessed Sacrament Church in Rochester hosts a dinner program for those in
need. Various churches provide volunteers to help serve the
meals. I went on one occasion with a group from Assumption. It was a slow night and I did not get
to talk to the people that much. I helped serve food and then helped
clean the tables and floor afterwards.
- Finance Council - I attended Finance
Council meetings mainly as an observer when the meetings do not conflict
with other meetings. I have no financial background so I need to
develop an understanding of the financial issues in running a parish.
- Sacramental Preparation - I attended the workshops for parents on preparing
for First Communion, First Penance, and Confirmation. The point of
observing the workshops is to help me see how the parish administers the
program to give me ideas for the future without requiring a high level of
commitment.
- Pre-Cana(Marriage Preparation) - I attended as an observer
our parish Pre-Cana retreat day for couples in the parish preparing for
marriage. I joined in on some of the small group discussions and did a
"wrap-up" on the talk on spirituality given by a couple from the
Pre-Cana Team. Assumption operates its Pre-Cana retreats by having couples who are already married
give the talks from their own experience. I believe this is a very
good idea. In general, the couples do a good job. They speak
from their own experience.
Ministries with More Significant
Involvement:
- Stewardship Committee - This is certainly one of the committees where I had a lot of
involvement. I have helped with the Parish Ministry Faire and the
general work of the committee. The committee is a relatively new
committee in the parish. It was formed to promote the ideas of Time,
Talent, and Treasure in the parish. I enjoyed my work with this
committee because I believe the people need to take their involvement in the
parish seriously. We are all called to serve God. I saw my work
on this committee as helping the people to see how their are called to help.
- Parish Council - My involvement
here was mainly to attend the meetings. I did not attend just as
an observer. I always tried to let the council members speak
first. Once they have spoken, I offered my opinion. I am working
to determine exactly when I should speak. I also did some
research on the role of parish councils as they are seeking to redo their
constitution and wish to determine exactly what they should be doing.
- Liturgy Committee - This is an area in which I am very interested in. Liturgy is
what everyone sees. We celebrate Mass to give thanks to God.
Through our celebration of the Eucharist, the parishioners may see how they
are called to act according to the will of God. I was involved
in planning of all our liturgical celebrations including children's
liturgies. As Catholics, we have rites which we follow. As a
committee, we work to bring forth the meaning of the rites and symbols we
have.
- Rite of Christian Initiation for
Adults (RCIA) - I enjoyed teaching a few of the RCIA sessions.
Assumption has a team of volunteers who take turns leading the sessions. One of
the things I have a passion for is to share the faith and knowledge that I
have and the RCIA is an excellent way to do this. The catechumens and
candidates are seeking faith and understanding and ask excellent
questions.
- Home/Hospital Visits - We are called to reach out to those in need.
I only visited four or five people at home and a couple in the
hospital. There are other people in the parish who do most of the this
ministry but I would have liked to do more because I believe it is important to be
there for the people.
- Funeral Ministry - I met with a
few families to help them in planning their loved one's funeral. This
has been a very different experience from the other work I do. As I
met with the families, I find my own abilities weak. However, the
Holy Spirit is always present and helps me know what to say to the family
during their time of loss.
Ministries that I was Responsible for
- Vocations Awareness Team - I
worked with a few parishioners to start this committee. The role of
the committee is to promote in the parish as awareness of how we all have a
vocation and the gifts God gives each of us. As a committee, we seek
to increase awareness especially in those called to priesthood and religious
life.
- (partially responsible for) Baptism
Follow-Up - We started a follow up program to baptism. After
parents have their children baptized, we can lose contact with them until it
is time for their child to start religious education classes. Together
with another member of the staff and a few volunteers we sought to fill
in this gap. My role was to review different materials available,
to draft some material for the parish and to "train" the
volunteers to track the baptized children and provide the parents with
material at regular intervals.
- Holiday Food Baskets - For the Thanksgiving, Christmas, and Easter holiday, Assumption provides food baskets to families in need. This program is not limited
to parishioners. We helped 88 families at Thanksgiving and over 75 at
Christmas and most of the them are not parishioners. Jesus reached out
to the Gentiles in his miracles and teaching. We are called to reach
beyond our own parishioners. My role was contact the schools and social
to determine what families need help and recruit volunteers from the parish
to provide those food baskets. It was a lot of work and takes a fair
amount of my time around the holidays but we are all called to feed the
hungry (Matthew
25:31-46).
In an event to raise awareness for vocations I was asked to
speak at St. John of Rochester School to the elementary school children. While I have done some religious
education this was my first experience speaking to the younger children outside
of prayer services. So, since this was a new experience I was
nervous. Now that it is finished I am grateful for the experience.
The students were split into two groups of 1st - 3rd graders and 4th - 6th
graders. Despite my fears, the younger group was actually very interested
in what I had to say. They had lots of questions. Both groups were
very good and I am very grateful for the experience and hope the students got
something out of it.
In July of my pastoral year, I visited St.
Margaret Mary Church in Appalachian and St.
Patrick's in Owego. They are part of the Blessed
Trinity/St. Patrick's Parish which includes all of Tioga County. Each
parish in the group has adopted a seminarian to pray for. St. Margaret
Mary is the parish praying for me so it was a great experience to visit with
them and meet the people who are praying for me.
One of the last things for my pastoral
year was to make another retreat. This time I chose to make my first
directed retreat at Mount Carmel
Spiritual Centre in Niagara Falls, Canada. This was my first time
making a directed retreat. In the past I have focused on preached retreats
as while I appreciate quiet settings I am not a person drawn to silence.
However, I am very glad I have made the retreat as it was the right opportunity
for me to bring into focus some of my own spiritual issues that arose while on
pastoral year.