Serve Together in 2022: Family-Style

Ever been to a restaurant that serves food Family-Style? I have – a fabulous Italian restaurant near us only does it this way. Family-Style dining, with large bowls of abundant pastas, breads, sauces, and calamari piled high always forms some wonderful memories and fills some hungry bellies. Family-Style builds conversation and connection, and it reminds me of something our Pastor said this past summer before the Junior WorkCamp for youth in our parish, “Call the parish if you ever want to do service. We always have a mountain of things to do, and we will find something for your family if you ask.”

Here is a short list to use as your starting block of serving as a family in 2022:

1. Call Your Parish. Do you have your parish office on your contacts list? Get it on there now! And now that it’s definitely there…
   - Call up the parish and leave a message. Let them know you want to serve the parish as a family this year.
   - Share about the ages of your kids and the adults who want to serve.
   - Share how many hours per month and how many times per month you’re available and if you might have some flexibility or want to schedule for certain dates.
   - Share what type of work you’re hoping to do so at least they have a ballpark idea of where in the mountain of to-do’s they can look for you.
   Example A: Your parish loves help to stuff envelopes during the Bishop’s Lenten Appeal. All your kids and you need to do is to show up on Saturday before Confessions, and place envelopes in every pew. It might take 20 minutes between you all, but it saved the parish staff an hour doing it themselves. Bingo! Service together 2022!
   Example B: You mention to Father that your kids are learning typing, so he wants to have you support the parish secretary in creating a few templates. Even better! Learning and Service together 2022!
   Example C: Your kids don’t like sweeping their own house, but sweeping the front entrance to the church isn’t something that gets done, so the parish staff let you know how often and when the best time to do it is. Wohoo! Your kids get to sweep the parish steps, they notice their work is helpful for others entering, and they learn that sweeping is more important than they thought.
   
   
2. Contact your Parish Service Coordinator or Social Ministry Coordinator. They always have opportunities – it’s their job.
   
   
3. Contact your Religious Education Director. I have never met a Religious Education Director who had a lack of tasks for a small group to accomplish. If nothing is happening now, just let them know you’re available as First Communion time rolls around.
   
   
4. Contact your Parish Youth Minister. There is nothing more fun than buying 20 cans of silly string for the next Youth Group Meeting! Ok, there might be the shopping for 15 rolls of duct tape for “Tape Your Minister to the Wall” Night… but that’s a rare occurrence, and you didn't hear it from me.
   
   
5. If your parish isn’t where your family’s heart feels called to serve, find your local Hypothermia Shelter. My dad recently sent me a pic of our family’s old sleeping bags. I didn’t have a use for them, but the local shelter serving those experiencing homelessness was nearly leaping through the phone with enthusiasm for the donation. See if your local shelter will let you run a sleeping bag drive (or any-other-need-they-have drive). Have your family design a poster to hand out or mail out to the neighborhood. Be sure to deliver the posters the weekend before your pickup date. Provide instructions or a large neon green bag in which to place the sleeping bags on the front doorstep for pickup. Decorate your family van on the pickup date, and drive around with some Christian Music (or Gregorian Chant – to each their own) on the radio.
   
   
6. Pray about it. Servant of God Dorothy Day said, “There is nothing we can do but love, and, dear God, please enlarge our hearts to love each other, to love our neighbor, to love our enemy as our friend.” I encourage you on this journey of service as a family to pray about the type of service you would like to do together. There are many inspirations from Day, and this one really fits well with serving as a family, “We feed the hungry, yes. We try to shelter the homeless and give them clothes, but there is strong faith at work; we pray. If an outsider who comes to visit us doesn’t pay attention to our prayings and what that means, then he’ll miss the whole point.” Choose a family service with prayerful wisdom.
   
   
7. Create a deadline to decide and act, or it’ll never get done.

I hope these ideas start some brainstorming in your family. May the compassionate heart of Christ lead your family!