Again, leading up to our Ministries Fair (after the Masses on September 14 and 15 at Holy Name, and on September 22 at St. Casimir), I have asked some representatives of the different ministries to share a witness of how the ministry they participate in has helped them grow closer to Christ. 

Last week we heard from Rachel, a young wife, mother, and Physician Assistant who grew up in St. Casimir, and cantors at the 8 AM Mass. This week we are going to hear from another young woman — this time a single, teacher who grew up in Holy Name — who is one of our lectors, Erin Kitley.

“As far back as I can remember, I’ve always enjoyed being a part of the mass and the church community. Some of my earliest memories are from riding with my MomMom to CCD. I remember how big her first grade students seemed, I was only three years old and the Big Kids seemed to tower over me. I thoroughly enjoyed going to class with the Big Kids. After class, Mom Mom would take me to Friendly’s and we would talk about Jesus over ice cream sundaes. She would tell me how when I grew up I could be an altar server and what a big deal that was. She said when she was little she wanted to be an altar server, too, but girls were not allowed. I remember asking Father O’Connor how soon after my First Communion could I start altar serving. He told me the next week. Well, the week after my first communion I started training classes. I loved being able to serve the Lord in a special way. I felt closer to Him because I was able to give my talent and time to Him. After altar serving for 4 years, Father O’Connor asked if I would like to start lectoring at mass. I responded with the robust confidence that only comes from young children. I said of course! When can I start? He had me trained and I was ready to transition my role in the church community. I knew I wanted to continue my devotion to God (and I seemed to be outgrowing the altar server robes) so this became a natural transition. I love lectoring. I’m a firm believer that God gives you exactly what you need to hear when you need it. He will tell you how He needs you to serve Him. He will show you how to learn from Him. All through high school, college, grad school, and my professional life, I have found a closer relationship with God through lectoring. I find it important to my faith journey to not only read God’s words to myself silently, but to read them out loud to my fellow parishioners. Somehow the readings always seemed to speak to me and correlate to a problem or experience I was having in my outside life. Whenever I practiced my weekly readings, I would find myself saying, “Ok God, I see what you’re trying to tell me. Thank you for your guidance.” My relationship with God deepened throughout every position I have had within the church. There is something so unifying when you are standing in front of God and your church community proclaiming His word to all.”

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A brief note: for the past three years, the parish has subscribed to FORMED, an online source for excellent Catholic ebooks, videos, Bible Studies, Faith formation series. Parishioners could sign up using the parish code for free. The cost of FORMED has continued to increase, and is now over $1800/year. When I checked, only 56 parishioners have signed up to use it, with less than 10 using any aspect of it each week. So we are canceling our subscription at the end of August, in order so save the parish some money.. If you want to download any ebooks or MP3s, you need to do so before the end of August.