Communion to the Sick and Homebound

At most Masses, after the community’s participation in Communion, it is not uncommon to see a few people gather at the foot of the altar. These persons are Extraordinary Ministers of Holy Communion and they gather at the foot of the altar to receive the Body of Christ so that they can bring Communion to those who are unable to attend Mass. They receive Communion in a little round container called a pyx, which is Latin for “box.” Many of them wear the pyx around their necks so that it rests close to the heart.

These ministers, commissioned by the parish and the Archdiocese, travel to homes, hospitals, nursing homes, assisted living facilities and prisons. Currently St. Thomas Aquinas serves the residents at Atria, Cottonwood, Crabapple Manor, Dogwood, JManor, Mayfield Oaks, Roswell Nursing Home, Lee Arrendale State Prison, Hays State Prison, and patients at WellStar North Fulton Hospital. In many cases the request for Communion is short-term, 2-3 weeks following surgery. In other cases the request is for a longer period due to old age or an extended illness.

The ministers not only bring Communion, they also spend time conversing and praying with those they visit. The relationship that forms between the minister and the parishioner is a very special one—often lasting long after the parishioner is able to return to Mass. Claire Dravis, who leads this ministry, understands the bonding that takes place between parishioners. “Fifteen years ago I began visiting a parishioner who was recovering from foot surgery.  I visited with her in her home. A friendship developed and [when she recovered] my husband and I began to take her out to the movies, to shopping or to dinner. Today I still continue to bring her the Eucharist but now the setting is a nursing home.  We recently celebrated her 85th birthday with a party at the nursing home. Another parishioner I visited for just a short 4 weeks while she recuperated from surgery.  She is now fully recovered and attending her favorite mass at STA.”

The ministers say they receive much more from the ministry than they give. For more information or to get involved in this ministry, contact Claire Dravis, clairedravis@yahoo.com.

Processions

On Monday several churches in Alpharetta came together to honor the life and legacy of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. An ecumenical worship service at St. James United Methodist Church took place followed by a unity march from St. James to City Hall in downtown Alpharetta. The unity march echoes the marches held during the time of Dr. King which created awareness of and bolstered support for the civil rights movement. For Dr. King, the marches were a nonviolent way to tell the world what the civil rights movement was about. They demonstrated solidarity, unity, and hope.

Catholics understand the power of a parade! Like unity marches, our liturgical processions do more than help us to get from point A to point B. They tell us who we are and what we’re about. The opening or entrance procession is led by the cross, the symbol of the mystery of our faith. This procession also includes the Book of Gospels, typically held high in the air, a sign of the stories we hold dear. The offertory procession is a sign that we are willing to offer our very lives on the altar along with the sacrifice of Christ. The procession at communion is a sign that we are united--one body in Christ. The procession at the end of Mass tells us that our faith now proceeds from the church into our homes and communities. At times liturgical processions mark transitions. Weddings, for example, mark the transition between being single and being united with another in sacramental love. Funeral processions express the transition from death to new life. 

All processions, whether civil or liturgical, acknowledge that we are pilgrims on a journey who have not yet reached our final destination. Dr. King knew this yet he marched on anyway, taking one step at a time, stepping out in faith, marching forward with hope. 

Epiphany over and over

According to the Gospel of Matthew, magi from the east went in search of the child they believed was the “newborn king of the Jews.” They brought gifts of gold, frankincense, and myrrh, a bitter extraction from a thorny tree used in perfumes and medicines. The magi didn’t have our contemporary devices used for navigation. They were guided only by a bright light in the sky and the faith in their hearts.

Like the magi, parishioners Nicole and Peter Hartman have been on a journey of faith. They wanted children but could not conceive. With medical treatment, Nicole was able to become pregnant. But at eight weeks, the baby whom the couple named Caine, died. Months later, Nicole became pregnant again, this time with twin girls. But early on one of the girls, named Lea, died in the womb. The other girl, named Cara, survived only until the 16th week. Heartbroken, the couple reached out for help within and outside the church, but didn’t find much support. “We would constantly hear things like, ‘you’re not over that yet?’”, Nicole said. “Our baby was a life, with a soul. If we really believe that as Catholics, then the loss needs to be acknowledged.” That’s when Nicole met with Archbishop Gregory. “I shared with him our pain and that things need to change, and he agreed with me.” Thus, the Embrace Ministry was born, a ministry for families who have lost a child from miscarriage, stillbirth, or infant death.

As they were beginning the Embrace Ministry, Nicole and Peter tried to adopt, but after several failed attempts, they gave up. “We realized we were never going to have children, but God still gave us the desire. Does this mean we are supposed to be really good aunts and uncles?” asked Nicole at the time. “Like everything else in life, we laid it on the altar and said, ‘ok God, we’re done.’”

Around the same time an article about the couple and the Embrace Ministry appeared in the Georgia Bulletin. The article ended with a line that said the couple was hoping to grow their family through adoption. A woman whose granddaughter was pregnant read the article. The granddaughter was unable to care for the child and wanted to choose adoption. That’s when the grandmother reached out to Nicole and Peter and eight weeks later, Olivia Joan Hartman was born. Today the Hartmans have their hands full. Not only are they raising their now five-year-old daughter Olivia, they are also foster parents, currently caring for a newborn girl. And they continue to run All Embrace Ministry, which is growing on an international scale.

Like the magi, the Hartmans understand what it means to offer the gifts of bitterness and beauty to God. They continue their journey, not knowing where it will lead, only guided by God’s light and the faith in their hearts. For more information about All Embrace Ministry, visit allembrace.com.

Christmas Harmony

What would Christmas be like without the music? Christmas carols playing on the radio and in shopping malls boost our spirits, nurture our souls, and flood our hearts with fond memories of Christmases past. Since Christmas in the Catholic Church is a liturgical season that generally lasts through the first or second week in January, we get to experience Christmas music a little longer than most.

I am always struck by the history of certain carols. Silent Night, for example, was first written as a poem by Fr. Joseph Mohr, a priest in a little Austrian village. He asked musician Franz Gruber to put his poem to music and the hymn was performed at St. Nicholas Church in Oberndorf on Christmas eve in 1818. A century later, the song aided a temporary Christmas truce between opposing forces in World War I when troops from Germany and Britain joined in singing the familiar melody in their own languages.

This year I was moved by the story behind two Christmas songs that have been fused together: The Little Drummer Boy and Peace on Earth. The story began in September 1977, during the recording of a segment for Bing Crosby’s television special, Bing Crosby’s Merrie Olde Christmas. Both Crosby and David Bowie, a guest on the program, were scheduled to sing The Little Drummer Boy together, but David Bowie resisted. “I hate this song, is there something else I can sing?” Bowie reportedly said. So a team of composers scurried to write a counter melody and new lyrics to harmonize with all the pah-rum-pum-pums-pums. They called the new part of the tune Peace on Earth. After only an hour of rehearsal the segment was recorded. About five weeks later, Bing Crosby died. The show aired later that year as scheduled and the song became a hit in both the United States and in Britain.

This duet is considered one of the most wonderful and perhaps one of the most unlikely in music history. Pairing the offbeat Bowie with Mr. “White Christmas” himself was a risk that became a witness to the power of music to unify. Despite their differences, Bowie and Crosby found new ways to harmonize for all the world to hear.

The Family Tree of Jesus

The PBS program Finding Your Roots traces the genealogies of celebrity guests to reveal their origins. The popularity of this program is an example of a growing desire to find out more about who we are and from where we came--a process made easier with websites like ancestry.com.

In the time of Jesus, family records weren’t as readily available, so it was much more difficult to trace one’s roots. Both Luke and Matthew include genealogies of Jesus that are based not as much on historical records as on key points each author was trying to convey to his particular audience. Luke, writing to a community of Gentiles, stresses the divine origin of the human race and so he traces the lineage of Jesus all the way back to Adam. Matthew, writing to a Jewish community, stresses that Jesus was the intended Messiah and the legal heir of the throne of David, Joseph’s ancestor.

According to Jewish belief, the Messiah had to be a descendant of both Abraham and David. But not everyone in the lineage were kings or patriarchs. Many are unknowns and perhaps that’s Matthew’s point. God not only remembers the faceless and the forgotten; God included them in his saving plan. No one is too insignificant for God’s purpose. It is also interesting to note that the people on Jesus’ family tree were far from perfect. David, for example, committed adultery, murder and theft. Solomon, David’s son, had a harem of 700 wives and 300 concubines. The women mentioned in Matthew’s genealogy committed incest, betrayal, and prostitution, yet all of them prepared the way for the birth of Christ. Matthew is telling us that the most unlikely characters are often used by God to give birth to a divine purpose. God isn’t concerned with who deserves God’s love, only with who needs it.

Perhaps these are the reasons why Matthew’s genealogy, rather than the genealogy written by Luke, appears in our lectionary. Matthew’s genealogy is proclaimed on the weekday of December 17 and at the liturgies on Christmas Eve.