Transition is a natural part of life. Whether a young couple welcomes their first bundle of joy home or experienced parents say farewell as their first moves out of the house, transitions are attended by both joy and pain.
As a parish team we experienced a huge transition this past December.
Having myself moved this past July from an air conditioned office to the second floor of an unconditioned rectory I could hardly wait to get into my new office at the Cathedral of the Holy Family. I am sure that all the staff of Holy Family parish felt the same way.
Imagine our surprise as we entered an unfinished building. Contractors were working all around us busily painting walls, laying floor, plumbing bathrooms and fixing leaks in offices. Furniture was on backorder and most of us had nowhere to put our files. This was shaping up to be a difficult transition indeed. All of a sudden I found myself thinking fondly of a certain second floor office back on 105th and Egbert. At least in that office, I had a filing cabinet.
In time, our offices came together and we were gelling as a team once again. The difficult transition gave way to possibility thinking. Here we are in this amazing building, a result of incredible vision, dreaming of the potential such a space has to offer.
It is truly awe inspiring to be here for an evening meeting only to realize that each and every single room in the space has been booked. For our Town Hall Meetings we had to get folks to stand at the doors to direct traffic for there were five other meetings happening at the same time. What incredible potential!
Yes there was pain in the move here, yet at the same time there was such joy expressed as well. The fact that there is ample parking and seating for Sunday liturgies in itself brings joy. The fact that we were able to increase the number of attendees to our bi-annual Pig N’ Whistle (from 250 to 475) speaks to the incredible potential this building offers to creating a sense of community.
As we continue our parish wide Shared-Vision process and as Jane continues with her visioning process with our youth and their families, we are grateful to God and the people of this Diocese for their incredible generosity and goodwill. Our visioning will tell us in the end where it is that we want to go, and this space will provide us the opportunity to get there. That is the way it is with transitions; we step over the horizon only to discover an entire landscape yet uncharted, ready to be explored.
