Supplements

Commentary

By Liz Quirin

Help Wanted and Given - Free of Course

It’s almost picnic time in many parishes in the diocese, and committees that have been meeting for months will put their plans into action to fix dinners, set up and staff basket booths, games and other events to happily separate parishioners and visitors from some of their money for the good of the parish. The tradition of the parish picnic, whether new or longstanding, has always made a difference to the parish’s “bottom line.”

These are the stalwart volunteers who return year after year to offer their time and their talent to the parish, but they are by no means the only people who generously offer their services to parish communities. No parish can operate without the many people who spend countless hours to make sure services are offered and people are cared for.
Any parish with a religious education program staffs its classrooms with teachers, people who not only share their faith with young people but prepare lessons, attend meetings and show up on time to greet children every week during the school year. Almost none of these people receives any kind of salary for their services, and in many parishes, those volunteer teachers have been giving of themselves for many years. They provide critical services not only to the parish but to us and our children. Without them, where would we turn for faith formation. Those or others provide assistance with adult faith formation as well. We know they must be active when we see the names of those who are welcomed into our parishes at Easter time.

Others volunteer to cook meals for funerals, offer rides to people who need them for a doctor’s visit or to get to church on the weekend; some people visit the sick or the homebound, bring Communion to those who are at home or hospitalized; and still others pick up a hammer or saw or other equipment to do a little work on parish grounds or buildings.

The number of people who can be counted on for the numerous jobs and services a parish provides would be staggering if we accounted for everyone, and we would probably forget someone if we tried. We have no idea what these people give to all of us through their support of the parish because we don’t usually see them; we don’t hear them asking for recognition; and we know they don’t appear on the parish budgets unless materials are needed.

Many of us know the volunteers in our parish. We sit next to them at weekend liturgies; we benefit from their services, sometimes even without knowing it; and we need to pause in our daily routines to look around and see all that they do. We really need to say thanks even if they would rather be anonymous. If we can’t step up to offer our own services in our parishes, we can say “thank you” and very quietly, on our own time, pray for them.