Dear Archbishop Sean O'Malley,
SACRED HEART,
Recently, I and my family returned from a week's vacation
into Logan Airport on a Saturday afternoon barely in time to make the 5:00 pm
Mass at the Sky Chapel. We found ourselves running furiously through the
airport to catch the service before the Offertory. When realized it was at
least 10 minutes into the Mass, my daughter and I cried out simultaneously to
stop. She articulated exactly what I was about to say, "Let's not do this.
I want to go to Sacred Heart and not just rush through a
My 15-year-old teenager wanted to go to a Mass that she appreciated. She wanted it to be meaningful. She wanted it to be with people she knows, likes and respects and who like and respect her. She wanted to go to Sacred Heart. And so did I.
Flash back to a time, six years ago, at another church, when my daughter, in order to attend CCD class, needed transportation because both my husband and I worked and could not bring her to the mid-week class. The assistant director of the program through which my daughter had just received her First Communion, after two years of preparation, told me that she would not help me find her a ride. Not that she could not, but that she would not. That was my responsibility as her parent. It was my duty as a Catholic. Sorry. I was on my own.
That was the final straw after two
years of impersonal, stuffy services which very much were reminders of the
Catholic school Masses we attended as children and never gave two thoughts
about, because we didn't question the way things were done then. Two years of
rejected offers to help with writing, marketing, communicating, areas in which
I felt I could offer to help. I was active with presenting the First Communion
retreat, with promotion of and cooking for the sick and needy, with the 30-hour
famine, and a Christmas youth pageant. We attended the guitar
A few weeks
after the lecture about my responsibilities as a Catholic parent, we left that
church, a building that is a two-minute drive from our home, and started our
relationship with
Our initial visit to Sacred Heart showed us we had made the right choice, when the music director told us she was thrilled our daughter wanted to join the choir and to let her know if she needed a ride. We hadn't even asked! We never stopped experiencing that generosity of spirit at Sacred Heart, and were compelled to return in kind, volunteering time and talent in many ways. The biggest requirement for us--the need for a liturgy that spoke to us and let us speak to God--was more than met. The people who ran Sacred Heart respected us. We were never lectured to, never belittled, never taken for granted. It was quality, not quantity.
That is why it should not close. If it does, that is what I will seek: The liturgy has to be intimate. Not small, not necessarily modern, not "different," but personal, encouraging rather than dissuading, a connection to fellow parishioners and to God. The location is not the important thing. We want to be thinking, feeling, challenged Catholics. We do not want to sleep-walk through our Sunday obligation. We do not go to church because of a sense of duty. We go because we love God and our fellow church-goers and need to feel close to both. The congregation we seek is not the congregation of our parents. We need to find a home for our teenager and ourselves. We need to continue teaching her the importance of a Christian home; of a value set that is consistent with ours, and that will guide her throughout life. If that means searching for another church, we will. Because what Sacred Heart gave us we will share. Good will come of this. For the sake of God and our fellow parishioners and our own future.