Parishioners gathered on Saturday before the 5 PM Mass to celebrate the ribbon cutting for the new church steps. The ribbon was joyfully cut by parishioners Art Keegan and John Canuso.
A couple of priest friends were by the parish in August and noticed the renovation of the church entrance. They asked why we were building curved steps because the church is rectangular. A bit embarrassed, I admitted I never would have caught that. I shared this with a parishioner, who immediately answered that there were already curved steps in the church. The step to the sanctuary and the steps to the tabernacle are all curved. How appropriate that the exterior steps into the church are now curved, too!
I imagine these concentric circles of waves flowing first from the altar, then from the whole church into our community. Our faith is centered around the Eucharist, but at the end of Mass, the priest or deacon dismisses us to “go in peace, glorifying the Lord by your life.”
The solemn petitions at the Good Friday service suggest concentric circles. We begin by praying for the pope, the center of Catholic unity, then we pray for all members of the Church, those joining the Church (catechumens), members of other Christian churches, the Jewish people and others who do not believe in Christ, and finally those who do not believe in God.
In the life of the parish, there are other concentric circles. At the center are those who attend Sunday Mass. The next circle may be those families we see only in our Catholic school or religious education program. Then there’s the families we see only at baptisms, weddings, and funerals. We can imagine even more circles: those in the community who think well of us but do not join us for worship and finally those in the community who know about us but do not view us favorably.
We are all connected, even if our distances from the center vary. How does our parish live the message of our architecture? How are we allowing God’s grace to flow well beyond our church and campus? In the meantime, I’ll tell my priest friends to stick to their day jobs.
Byline: Father Jon Thomas is the Pastor of CTK and Vicar General of the Diocese of Camden