Let’s go… Slaho!

So, now we have entered Hurricane Season (capitalized on purpose, because it should be approached with the imporatnce of a holiday) down here in Miami.  And everyone knows what that means.  That’s right, Wency begins to prepare the St. Timothy Carnival.  I know, I know, it’s only June, and the carnival is in November, some 5 months away, but if there is one thing that we’ve learned is that if we don’t start preparing now, then everything gets backed up at the last moment, and we feel pressed for time.  Thankfully in the last few years we have been able to come up with a schedule of things we must get done by certain deadlines to ensure that everything gets done.  This is good because as anyone who knows me knows, I am SOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO organized.

So this will be year five for me at the helm with my right hand man, Lenny (This on top of the two years in charge of ticket sales, and Lenny’s one year in charge of waste management, AKA garbage).  I don’t think either one of us thought we would be doing this as long as we have, but we’re still here for a variety of reasons. First, we truly enjoy doing this (though our wives don’t enjoy it anywhere as much as we do).  Second, we are having a tough time finding someone to take over for us.  It seems that we have done too good a job in some people’s eyes (or those we ask tell us this so that we won’t ask them anymore).  We have had some very successful carnivals, but mostly thanks to the great team working with us, and the volunteers who give of their time every year to make sure the carnival is successful.  The truth is that there isn’t some incredible formula that has resulted in good carnivals.  It’s pretty basic really:  make sure the committee does its job and pray for good weather.  Anybody can do this job.  But it’s Lenny and I who are doing it, and nobody we’ve asked has been willing to step up.  This year we do have someone jumping in to help us, and we’re hoping that he sees that it’s very manageable, but we’re not going to hold our collective breaths on this.  Rob, I know you’re reading this:  YOU’RE THE MAN!! (Hope I didn’t scare you off)  So many people are afraid that this job is so time consuming that they don’t ever consider it.  Others worry that it would be too stressful.  Truth is that if they follow our system and plan with time, the stress level is fairly low and with the right team, there is now plenty of time to not just run the carnival but to also enjoy it with the family.  So, why am I rambling on so much about this?

Well, our planning for this carnival has coincided with the appointment of our new pastor.  Honestly I was a bit worried about the transition because I figured that a new pastor would immediately want to put his fingerprints on all parish activities as I’ve seen happen before (sometimes for the better, sometimes not).  Now, I didn’t have a problem with this possibility.  I just wanted to know what steps we needed to take to take to be able to work in unison with our pastor. Yesterday Lenny and I got to meet with him, and to our relief he said that we can continue to do things as we had done them.  At the end of the carnival we can then evaluate how things went.  Music to my ears.  That’s the way it has always been and should be in my estimation.  So, all is well.  But, I must say that there was something about our meeting that struck me, which is what I want to talk about here.  When we first went into the office, almost before we could even get a word out, the man was already in prayer for a successful meeting.  Wow!  I didn’t expect that.  Just for a simple half hour meeting. 

It had been a year and a half since we had a pastor.  Back then, our former pastor was accused of inappropraite behavior unbecoming of a priest by one of our parishioners.  It was a very difficult time for both the accuser, and the accused, but it was also very tough on all the parishioners.  We were left without our shephard, our guide, our spiritual leader, for a full 18 months.  Yes, there were other priests there, who worked admirably in his absence, but they were not assigned as our pastors and therefore did not take his place (and understandibly so, so as to not create confusion or a preference for or against them should our pastor have returned).  And we did have the fortune of having one of our auxiliary bishops assigned to the parish to oversee the parish operations in our pastor’s absence, and he was an absolute pleasure to have around. But with all his other responsibilities he couldn’t give our parish the undivided attention we needed or deserved that can only be given by a pastor.  And so we suffered.

I remember over the latter part of these 18 months many people complaining that we needed a spiritual leader.  We lack guidance. We lack structure.  We lack, we lack, we lack…  And the truth is that it was felt.  There were a number of people who left the parish for a variety of reasons.  Would they have stayed if we had a pastor?  Who knows?  Maybe.  We also saw a number of the ministries start to dwindle in size and in energy.  Would a pastor have changed that?  Here, I’d have to say probably.  I’ve been involved in many ministries over the years and i have noticed that when a pastor is present and supportive, the ministries tend to blossom.  He is like the water to Christ’s Son-light.  Well, we had a drought, and some of the ministries, despite God’s presence started to wilt.  Some of the more “cactus-like” ministries moved on, but others felt the difference.  We needed someone.  There was no doubt about that.

Now, from the outside looking in, many probably assumed that the carnival was not adversely affected.  A short two weeks after losing our pastor we had our most successful carnival to that point, both financially, and in my eyes, spiritually.  Personally I think that the suffering we were going through at that moment when our insecurities about the situation arose brought us together and brought us closer giving us a desire to succeed in our pastor’s absence.  It was similar to how a community comes together after a hurricane, where neighbors help out strangers because we have a common hurt, and we feel that we can find comfort in others suffering with us.  And so the carnival thrived.  The next year, the carnival did not make quite as much, but it did make more than expected especially under the circumstances… a bad economy and a lot of people financially strapped.  But for many there was hope in the air.  A new president had just been elected providing hope for many that the economy could rebound.  And to some extent I do believe that, at least subconsciously, that helped us.  We made almost $10,000 more than our goal.  So, all was fine, right?

In one sense we were, because we were successful financially, but in another sense we weren’t.  Volunteers were harder to come by this past year.  In the end we wound up covering all our time slots (and some would say better than the previous year), but we had to work a lot harder to find the people  to help us.  In some cases we had to beg: not something we would figure we’d need to do to put together this grand event.  And many of the people working with us were now into the fouth and fifth year working as heads of their respective committees, many without others helping them, or without replacements lying on the wings waiting to step in.  This is dangerous.  If a number of people from one year to the next decide they want to step down from heading one of the carnival committees, we’d be in trouble.  We’d have to train a slew of new people to step in and do jobs that, for right now, practically do themselves, their heads are so adept.  But we don’t have these people, and in my belief it was because we were missing our pastor.

I remember how I became carnival coordinator.  I was put on the spot by the pastor.  When he asked me to do it, I felt some sense of obligation to help out.  I could have said no, don’t get me wrong, but I understood that there was a need and my pastor wanted ME to fill it.  The next day, Lenny was put on the spot.  You get the point.  Well, when it was our time to move on (normally these positions are held for 3 or 4 years), there was no one to assign our successors.  We decided to find them anyway, and train them in the process, but no one would bite… (”You guys do such a great job!”).  We could have stepped down, and seen who would just step in, but that would be irresponsible on our parts, especially under the circumstances, and we didn’t want to see the carnival falter while we were already treading water while waiting for our new pastor.  So we stayed on.  As did all our committee members.  Thankfully so. 

Now, I wouldn’t mind continuing to do this indefinitely.  I ENJOY running the carnival.  And Lenny and I make a good team.  But I also believe that if the same people do the same job for too long, two things happen:  first, the person and the job become synonymous, making it that much more difficult for the eventual successor, and second, the ministry will eventually become stagnant, reaching a point where it wouldn’t grow and improve.  Fresh ideas and renewed energy come from fresh faces and energized imaginations.  I can’t be selfish and call this carnival mine.  It’s the parish’s, and at some point it needs to be handed over to someone that will take it to the next level, to make it even better than I feel it already is.  And the only person, that can do that is the pastor. And now we have one.

I’m really looking forward to doing the carnival this year under our new shephard.  And I wouldn’t mind doing it another year after that, just with someone waiting to take over then.  Once we’ve done this once with our new leader I think we can smoothly begin a transition to a new administration heading the carnival. And I think our pastor’s guidance will be key to this whole transition.  But there is an extra factor at work here which I think will further improve what we’re working with.  And it all goes back to the prayer at the beginning of our meeting.

We needed a spiritual leader? Well, I think we got one.  Not only did he begin the meeting with a prayer, though.  He ended it the same way.  All things in our parish should be done that way, and I think that was one thing that we sorely missed.  Nothing against our former pastor, because I got along really well with him, and I honestly miss him, but maybe our parish needed the new face and the energetic imagination of someone new to guarantee the growth of the parish.  And for the last year, we did not grow.  Now, it appears we have a mentor.  Hey, people said we needed a spiritual leader.  Well, at least on the surface (and I think it’s safe to say beneath it too) we got one.  And we may turn out the better for it.

Now, I’ve already heard some grumblings.  Our new pastor seems hard core.  As an example, he’s already expressed his desire for us to be “prepared” for communion by receiving the sacrament of reconciliation regularly.  He’s done this more than once… right as we were about to receive communion no less… week after week.  Talk about a guilt trip for the “unforgiven” (myself included).  But would you prefer the opposite?  Isn’t he here to be our PRIEST.  To get us closer to God?  Isn’t he just reminding us of the necessary tools to do so… the sacramentS (yes Capital S, we tend to go to communion thinking it’s the only sacrament left for us to receive regularly… we tend to forget the other… reconciliation).  And to make sure that it’s not all talk and that he’s just trying to make our lives miserable, he’s actually adding a day with more than 3 hours available for confession… Thursdays at 6:30.  He’s trying to make it easy for us too!!  And he’s adding daily mass at 6pm.  He’s not just inviting us to grow spiritually, he’s attempting to facilitate it. And the guy is flexible too.  When we told him the carnival begins at 5:30, Thursday, November 12, he immediately suggested to move the mass up so we could start the carnival, not just with any prayer… with THE prayer, the Eucharist.  How cool is that.  I din’t ask him, but I’m sure he’d be willing to do the same thing on Friday.  Sweet!

Now, I have to be honest.  I am going to have to get a little used to our new pastor.  Every pastor I have had since I was 12 was someone I knew personally before becoming my pastor.  I was always comfortable then when I approached them because I knew them as friends, or mentors before I knew tham as pastors.  I do not know my new spiritual leader yet, which is something I am not comfortable with.  I can’t just come up to him and start shooting the breeze or joking around with him.  Our relationship is not there.  But, I’m hoping that it gets there.  In the process of getting to know him, though, I could take advantage of his very positive attitude towards inner growth and emulate what I see.  Hopefully I will stop being stagnant myself and grow.   And to those who may be discouraged because he’s not what you expected, I think we need to give him a chance (actually we have no choice, unless you’re planning on leaving, which would be copping out if you waited to this point to do so).  After all, one must be careful what he wishes for because he might just get it… we did say we needed a spiritual leader, didn’t we?

So, welcome Father Jordi Rivero to Saint Timothy Parish.  May it be a long and fruitful stay here at our home.  We hope that it will be a growing experience for both you and for the Saint Timothy Parish Family

Now, to begin working on that hurricane we call the Carnival…

This entry was posted on Wednesday, June 10th, 2009 at 1:45 pm and is filed under Just thinking.... You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.