What an amazing week!

As we continue to reflect on the joy of celebrating Easter, we are so grateful for what so many amazing members of our community did as we came together for worship during Holy Week and Easter. We are astounded by the number of people who pitched in, and we are sure that we don’t even know about everyone who helped! We feel that it’s really important for us as a community to pause for a moment after such a big celebration, both to thank all those who helped, but also to reflect together on why we poured so much time, energy, and effort into these liturgies.

From the music ministers, altar servers and masters of ceremonies, lectors, Ministers of the Eucharist, greeters, and the many who contributed to decorating our worship spaces, to the volunteers who coordinated Kids’ Church, the teens who provided the Living Stations of the Cross, and those who coordinated screens and projectors, there were so many people who worked to make our parishes warm and welcoming and helped us create meaningful experiences of worship for people of all ages, wherever they might be on their faith journey.

As we prepared for Holy Week and Easter, we saw various members of our community doing amazing things:

• spending five hours taping down lights in St. Luke’s church and braving 45-mph wind gusts to prepare the fire for the Easter Vigil
• putting up custom-made boards in St. Joseph parish hall to block light that would interfere with projecting song lyrics and showing the welcome video
• fitting thirty balloons into two cars as part of an incredible setup for Kids’ Church
• stepping up with courage and generosity as a last-minute substitute to be in the welcome video
• scraping wax off the pews at St. Luke Church after the Easter Vigil
• coming to lector rehearsals to be as well prepared as possible to proclaim the scripture readings for our various liturgies
• serving as greeters at nearly every gathering
• rehearsing music for hours on end
• spending all day making sure everything was ready and all night making sure everything ran smoothly during Holy Thursday and the Easter Vigil
• many people doing triple duty as liturgical ministers, greeters, and serving as part of the liturgical tech team
• teens serving as “bouncers” for Kids’ Church
• even the Belmont Police Department escorting us on our Holy Thursday procession with the Eucharist from St. Luke’s to St. Joseph’s

Why did our community do all these things? Why did we put SO much time and energy into this? Because Holy Week and Easter are such important experiences of worship, and such great opportunities to welcome people who are not regularly here. Because we want to offer experiences of worship that help people to feel God’s presence and to grow in relationship with God. Because we want to help people to see New Roads as a spiritual home, a place that is welcoming, open, and meets people where they are. The efforts of so many members over Holy Week and Easter are an extension of our goal of turning all of our time, energy, and attention toward two things: welcoming those who are not here, and helping those who are here to grow in relationship with God.

Striving to become a growing community of growing disciples has meant combining our two parishes for worship during the Triduum, enabling us to use all our resources to create meaningful worship experiences; providing age-appropriate worship experiences for children at Kids’ Church through our Tiny Disciples and Children’s Liturgy of the Word; experimenting with different music to help us come up with a clear vision for music as a component of worship; and using a collaborative name and logo, a new Web site, and social media to reach out to people who may think they know what St. Joseph or St. Luke parishes are all about, but may give the New Roads Catholic Community a try. The New Roads Catholic Community exists to offer experiences of worship, welcome, and conversation through which people can encounter God and grow in their relationship with God. We can only do this through the work of our members, so we thank those of you who served during Holy Week and Easter, and invite those who have not yet served in an active role to take that next step.

~The Pastoral Service Team

Take your next step: Reflect back on your experience of Holy Week and Easter at New Roads. Was there something that stood out to you? Something that sparked your interest or curiosity? Something that made you think: I could help with that, or I have an idea to make that better? Spend some time reflecting on how you might want to serve in our community. Try bringing that reflection to prayer. Whether you aren’t sure how you want to serve, or you know exactly what you’d like to do, reach out to any member of the Pastoral Service Team to learn more about how to get involved.