Settling into Our New Parish Home

About six months ago, we became parishioners again at Saint Patrick parish in Tacoma, coming home to the place where I was baptized and confirmed, and where Francine and I were married. We came to this point after long discernment, some of which occurred on our most recent Camino. It’s wonderful just to be able to walk to daily Mass (work schedule permitting).

Just after we began attending Mass here, Francine and I received our certification as catechists from the Archdiocese of Seattle. Our pastor, Rev. David Mulholland, presented our certificates to us at Mass and then asked us to participate in our parish adult catechesis program.

It’s been a delight to get back into this. I was for many years involved with adult catechesis at our old parish of Holy Rosary, and it’s one of the ways I feel called to serve the Church and our parish community. And it’s absolutely great to have Francine there!

About a month ago, a second opportunity for service presented itself when Father asked me to train our altar servers.

I’d been itching for the chance, and I leapt at the opportunity. Funny thing is, he asked me at a meeting we’d scheduled to talk about something else entirely – but more about that at a later date.

Laura Dougherty, our Pastoral Assistant for Parish Life and Administration, scheduled three training sessions hoping that we’d catch all of the current – and any new – servers in the net. We held the first of these last week, and another this past Saturday. We had seven in our first session (including one adult), and 14 on Saturday. They seem to be a great group of kids, and I’m looking forward to working with them and serving with them. In fact, I served during this weekend’s Masses, which was the first time I’d served here as a parishioner.

There were definitely some bumps and hiccups, but it was a solid start.

During the Saturday training, I accidentally locked both of our processional crosses in the priest’s sacristy, where Rev. Ron Knudson was hearing confessions. As you can see from the photo below, we had to improvise during the training!

I was particularly happy to see a host of servers from Holy Rosary at the training. Their families, like ours, are now registered parishioners at Saint Patrick. We had a bit of a crisis with a lack of servers at the Saturday Vigil Mass, and the Hygema family very graciously answered my plea to step in and serve. They were fantastic!

It’s kind of amazing to me how we were able to begin settling into our new parish home. Father Mulholland was instrumental in this, and we’re very grateful for his pastoral solicitude. We’ve reconnected with old friends, and we’ve made many new ones. I’m also somewhat surprised – but gratified – at all of the Holy Rosary and Saint Rita families we’ve been seeing here. So many old friends.

Although we’ve been happy parishioners elsewhere for more than a decade, our first six months at Saint Patrick really has felt like a homecoming. Deo gratias!