Baltimore Partners In Mission is Experiencing Healthy Growth
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November 29, 2021Fr. Francis Gargani, C.Ss.R., presented the following report on Partners in Mission at the Baltimore Province Convocation via Zoom on Thursday, October 21, 2021 at 1:30 p.m.
Thank you to Fr. Paul and the Convocation organizers for this opportunity to address our Province on the development of our Redemptorist “Partners in Mission” program, both in our Province and in our Conference of North America. Having just completed presenting a retreat with our global Director of PIM and North American Conference PIM Secretary, Anne Walsh, this past weekend, to over one hundred associates, in five different time zones, in English, Spanish, French, and Vietnamese languages, it is exciting to see the growth and energy of Redemptorist “Circles of Associates” throughout our Conference.
Convinced that the Holy Spirit is inviting us Redemptorists, along with many other religious communities of women and men, to form the laity in our unique Alfonsian spirituality, and to engage the laity in our mission of announcing God’s redeeming love in Christ to our wounded world, it has been a joy, as your Province PIM coordinator, along with Lucy Burich McNamara of our former Bethpage Parish of St. Martin of Tours, to experience such positive development and momentum among us.
Hopefully, you are all aware that we now have an approved working document for our world-wide Congregation, “The Directory of ‘Partners in Mission,’” as well as an approved working document guiding the formation process, “The Ratio of ‘Partners in Mission.’” Hopefully, you are also aware the two main categories, “Circles of Associates,” and “Lay Missionaries,” are ever growing throughout the world. There are one hundred “Lay Missionaries” in the entire Congregation. “Associates” now number in the thousands world-wide.
Of course, aware this movement which flows not only from the evening chapels of St. Alfonso, but especially from the “circles of lay associates” of St. Clement, and is a response to the Second Vatican Council’s daring vision of the laity to live their baptismal call more fully, we are thrilled it has a real momentum in our North American Conference, after years of pioneering ministry of Fathers Arthur Wendel, Tom Travers, and Pat Woods in our Province alone.
There is a North American Conference Committee of approximately ten members representing every unit, coordinated by myself and Wendy Barnes, Lay Missionary of the Denver Province, long-time employee of Liguori Publications, under the guidance of Anne, with Jack Kingsbury, our Conference coordinator, our ex-officio members, that has been meeting by Zoom every month for over two years now. Our own PIM Baltimore Province Committee of John Olenick, Anthony Michalik, Michael Cunningham, Glenn Parker, Tom Travers, Lucy and myself, meets monthly, along with Anne Walsh as our cheerleader. We’ve also been trying to keep all the Province informed through our monthly Baltimore Beacon newsletter.
I am thrilled now to welcome our Province Lay Co-coordinator, Lucy Burich McNamara, who has managed to form and sustain a sizeable “Circle of Associates,” even after we Redemptorists returned St. Martin of Tours to the Rockville Centre Diocese of Long Island. Lucy has shown that even after we move on, parishioners want to grow in our rich Alfonsian Charism and together make a difference for others. You are welcome to view Lucy’s witness video at: https://youtu.be/IT0VS1RkdUs.
Our Conference Secretariat for Partners in Mission invited each of the Province Lay Co-coordinators to create a witness video so that professed Redemptorists and the laity interested in Redemptorist spirituality and mission could begin to imagine the possibilities of PIM.
Three different confreres in varying locations of our Province also shared their experience of recently forming a Partner in Mission ‘Circle of Associates’. These reflections will be presented in the December issue of the Baltimore Beacon.
Thank you again for your interest, support and attention. Though so many of you have engaged numerous lay sisters and brothers in ministry among the parish communities, PIM offers interested parishioners and others not only a unique path of spiritual formation that is grounded in our Christ-centered charism of crib, cross and sacrament, accompanied by Our Mother of Perpetual Help, but opportunity to deepen their baptismal vocation by joining our ever-widening Redemptorist Family on mission to our wounded world.
We hope this short report will encourage all of us professed Redemptorists to “get on board,” and help us join hands with many more sisters and brothers “to circle” our hurting world with the redeeming love of Christ. For as our graphic joyously proclaims, “It is not greatness that we aspire as Redemptorists, but an attitude of gratefulness to God’s redeeming love we ourselves experienced and we are called to share and experience with others.” ~ Father Eric Paul Soliven Sevencruz, C.Ss.R.
To support you, please note both the PIM section in our SCALA website, as well as our NASPIM website. We invite you share your feedback or questions with Fr. Francis Gargani, C.Ss.R., at [email protected] or Lucy Burich McNamara at [email protected]May St. Alphonsus bring this dream of one Redemptorist Family of professed and lay members to fruition!
Partners in Mission Province Co-coordinatorsFr. Francis Gargani, C.Ss.R. and Lucy Burich McNamara
