Journey of Faith Update: How can I help?
Read more at Journeyoffaith.org
Announcement from January 2023
Family of parishes update
This is a message from Fr. Grewe and Fr. O'Donnell in January 2023.
In early 2022, Archbishop Lucas called on the Archdiocese of Omaha to begin a special “Journey of Faith.” We would look deeply into our parishes and see how we could better carry out our Mission. Parishes were then grouped together to develop a special relationship. The two parishes of St. Margaret Mary and St. Cecilia were called to be ‘sister’ parishes.
Like all others, we were instructed to pull together a working team to see how we could better pursue our Mission without losing our separate identity. After nine months of work, we would like to present to you our Journey of Faith Pastoral Plan. Preliminary plans were submitted to the Archbishop in November and we will await final approval in February.
Our first and foremost goal is to help people find Jesus Christ in their lives. We need to see how we can better accomplish this goal. The question is: Do we have a clear path to discipleship for everyone? Are we helping each other take that next step into a deeper relationship with Jesus? This is extremely important work, and so to help us with this we are going to jointly hire an Evangelization Coordinator who can coach us in this effort. There is nothing more important in a parish than to lead each other to Christ. We cannot become complacent with this. At the same time, we feel that we need to have more connections to our High School students and to our Young Adults. The hope is to jointly hire a Youth Director who will relate to this group and invite them to know Jesus in a deeper way. Again, what could be more important?
We know that we are experiencing a declining number of clergy in our Archdiocese. Fortunately, our two parishes will continue to have their own pastor, but they will soon share one Associate Pastor between them. To be more efficient with their time and energy, we have come up with a new Mass and Confession schedule. This schedule was thoughtfully constructed so that there would be a variety of times that would not be duplicated. The Plan is to take effect on July 1, 2023. Our two Pastoral Councils will meet together regularly to monitor the progress.
Weekend Mass Times:
July 1, 2023
Saint Cecilia
Saturday
5:30 pm
Sunday
8:30 am, 10:30 am
July 1, 2023
Saint Margaret Mary
Saturday
5:00 pm
Sunday
7:30 am, 9:30 am
Weekday Mass Times:
June 1, 2023
Saint Cecilia
Monday-Friday
8:30 am
Saturday
8:30 am
Funerals
10:30 am
Holy Days
8:30 am, 6:30 pm
July 1, 2023
Saint Margaret Mary
Monday-Friday
6:30 am
Saturday
8:30 am
Funerals
10:00 am
Holy Days
6:30 am, 8:30 am
Confession Schedule Times:
July 1, 2023
Saint Cecilia
Saturday
4:00-5:00 pm
Monday-Friday
7:45-8:15 am - Noon
July 1, 2023
Saint Margaret Mary
Saturday
3:30-4:30 pm
Monday-Friday
7:00-7:30 am
Our hope is that as we grow in our parish relationship, our shared scheduling of Mass and Confession times will prove a blessing for us. Imagine that in the years ahead we will feel at home in each other’s facilities as well as with each other’s clergy and lay personnel. We ask our two strong female patron saints--St. Margaret Mary & St. Cecilia--to pray for us.
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Our special thanks to our two teams who put in many hours to bring this plan to life.
With our blessings to you,
Rev. Michael Grewe and Rev. Ralph O’Donnell, Pastors
Announcement from August 2022
Family of Parishes Update
Below is Fr. Grewe's note to St. Cecilia parishioners in the St. Cecilia August 21 bulletin. St. Margaret Mary's Family of Parish team has been working with St. Cecilia's and will continue receiving input from our parish council at our September meeting.
We have now finished our fourth working meeting with the St. Margaret Mary team. We have come a long way as we have discussed many different topics relevant to both parishes. In September we are going to discuss specifics like how we can work together with various programs like Adult Faith Formation and Evangelization.
We will also be taking an in-depth look into our Mass and confessions times. The Archdiocesan plan calls for three priests between the two parishes. With that in mind, we will be setting the Mass schedule so that three priests could handle the schedule normally, but that it would also be possible for two priests to manage the weekend if one is gone. With the size of our Cathedral, we could easily handle our entire Sunday morning worshipers in one Mass. Most likely each parish would retain their Saturday evening Mass and we would probably maintain our Sunday evening Mass. What we really need to do is to stagger the Sunday Mass times so that a priest could go back and forth between parishes and that we would offer a variety of times that are not duplicated.
The weekday Masses also need our consideration. Right now St. Margaret Mary’s has a 6:30 am Mass that is very well attended. The question is which time would be best for us? If we drop the 7:00 am Mass because of St. Margaret Mary’s time, then would we keep the 11:15 am or maybe go to an 8:30 am each day which is the time of our two weekly school Masses.
Well, as you can see, these are difficult questions to answer. I welcome your discussion and input on these matters. This will certainly be the major topic of discussion at our August Pastoral Council meeting. We are always encouraged to be open to new ideas. We cannot live in the past when every parish had a whole array of Mass times. We don’t have the priests for that anymore and, quite frankly, we don’t have the large numbers of people that we used to have. Just as a side note, St. Margaret Mary’s probably has twice as many parishioners as we do.
Another point to keep in mind is that everything we do needs to be directed toward evangelization. We need to put our time and energy into bringing people to Christ. That ultimately is the bottom line. If people are truly committed to Christ, then they would be willing to make sacrifices to get to Mass. Maybe with fewer Masses and bigger crowds we would all feel more support from each other. How good it would be to see our Cathedral full again!
We will keep praying for this process. We trust that the Holy Spirit is directing our actions. We only want to go in the direction where God is leading us.
Announcement from July 2022:
From Family Pastoral Planning Team:
Archdiocesan Mission: One Church. Encountering Jesus. Equipping Disciples. Living Mercy.
Missional Community: An outward-looking group of disciples, under the care of a pastor, sent by Jesus to make disciples.
Question to Remember: How does what we do address our mission of bringing people to Christ?
To St. Cecilia Parishioners & St. Margaret Mary Parishioners:
Teams from both parishes met on June, 15 for a second time to work on the partnership plan.
The second goal of the team is to “assess how various elements of life in each parish is oriented on the mission today, and to begin to identify opportunities for growth.”
Topics included “mission-oriented parish religious education” and “mission-oriented Catholic schools.” Members evaluated the percentage of consistent Mass attendance and engagement in parish life for the following groups: school children/parents, parish religious education children/parents, home-schooled children/parents, high school students, young adults, and current and former RCIA participants.
The discussion included addressing the fact that not all our school students/parents are Catholic. Each school offers Masses to their students during the week.
The team generated reasons for why families who are active Mass attendees are attentive to their Catholic values including family tradition and generations of families remaining in the parish geographic area. Team members agree that parents are key to getting children/teens to Mass regularly, helping promote faith education and sacramental preparation, building children’s faith and devotion, and encouraging parish involvement. Two other groups that influence these factors include teachers and coaches.
The goal of the team’s study of engagement and growth of Mass attendance and parish involvement is to determine if the ministries offered by the parishes “equip disciples, create a culture of evangelization, mercy, and unity” and determine what we can do together to address these concerns. A list of ministries from each parish is being compiled to show what we each offer, what neither offers and what one offers that can be shared with the other.
To assist in the study of what each parish currently offers, team members/parish staff will gather information on the following: mission-oriented liturgies, collaborative leadership, the path of discipleship, culture of generosity, adult faith formation, parish children’s faith formation, Catholic school faith formation, youth ministry, sacramental preparation, mission-oriented finances, and mission-oriented facilities. Sharon Doran and Sheila Graham will coordinate the information gathering and compile the results into a team document.
Announcement from June 2022: Journey of Faith Plan Update
From Family Pastoral Planning Team
To St. Cecilia Parishioners & St. Margaret Mary Parishioners:
Teams from both parishes met May 18 to begin the journey and to become one discerning, goal-formulating team working for the betterment of each parish and to “become flourishing communities that tend to the people who are there and to the people who are not there.”
Those representing St. Margaret Mary parish: Fr. Ralph O'Donnell, Fr. Toby Letak, Deacon Mike Conzett, Principal Maureen Berg, Kris Berg, Sharon Doran, Jeff Feldhaus, Todd Sauer.
Those representing St. Cecilia Cathedral parish: Fr. Michael Grewe, Fr. Jim Buckley, Fr. Eliot Schwer, Deacon Jim Tardy, Principal Julia Pick, Sheila Graham, Pam Lammers, Greg Penny.
The first goal of this team is to learn about each parish, the people who make up the parish, and the culture and history that has brought them to their present circumstances. Each parish has a strong heritage and a proud history of serving the Catholic community of Omaha. Each church evokes a powerful sense of the sacred, the beauty, the presence of God which parishioners appreciate, and which draws visitors and potential parishioners through the doors and into the community of believers.
Using the dream of Pope Francis to have a missionary church, the team discussed how we do/can/will become “a missional community, outward looking group of disciples, under the care of a pastor, sent by Jesus to make disciples.” The team will be reviewing the liturgies, programs, organizations, committees, and events offered through each parish and how they contribute to this idea of missional community.
Under the guidance of the Holy Spirit and the direction and leadership of pastors Fr. Grewe and Fr. O’Donnell, the team is excited to have their parishes be partners on this journey. Updates will be given following their monthly planning meetings.
Journey of Faith Prayer
Lord and Giver of Life, we ask for your guidance as we journey to discover your plan for our parishes and schools. Change can bring about great excitement; it can also be the source of anxiety and fear. Help us to move forward with faith, courage and confidence. Give us open minds and clarity as we discern your will for a promising future. May Jesus, the constant companion of the Church since Pentecost, help us to accept the challenges of loving service in new and invigorating ways. May Mary, Mother of the Church, encourage our efforts to listen and learn. In the beginning, you hovered over the waters, giving birth to your plan for creation. You were present to the People of Israel, speaking to them, teaching them, and guiding them. Be present with us now, and give us your light to see the way. Amen.
Families of Parishes: A Modern Day Answer in Our Journey of Faith
Moving Past the Burden of Current Realities
Flourishing communities of faith–the Families of Parishes approach is a modern day answer. In the Archdiocese of Omaha, it means replacing our current realities with a sustainable, faith-filled future. Across the country, this mission-oriented structure is already a powerful way of life. We can only benefit by adapting success stories from dioceses of all sizes.
For our 34 new Families of Parishes, 2023 represents a new beginning. From groups of two to ten parishes, a family becomes one community of faith. Much like any extended family, each parish shares their own unique identities and strengths. Together, many families will balance difficult and essential changes with the opportunity to experience faith in a new way.
Focused on Becoming Missional Communities
Families of Parishes give energy to our vision that every parish become a missional community by 2026. At the heart of every family, is the desire to build a stronger relationship with Jesus Christ and outwardly share our faith with others.
What Makes a Family of Parishes Different?
Rooted in prayer
Belongs to One Church guided by the Holy Spirit
Encountering Jesus
Sharing faith and equipping disciples
Living mercy by serving the needs of the broader community
Centered on the Eucharist
What’s Next for Families of Parishes?
As you’ll see on the Journey of Faith timeline, parish leaders and pastors have months of planning and discussion with parishioners ahead. Families of Parishes submit detailed plans for approval to Archbishop Lucas in November.
Content from archomaha.org