Penal parish alive

While COVID-19 has challenged many parishes, the parish of St Dominic’s, Penal continues to pulse with life as it seeks to meet the pastoral needs of its people. Even before the coronavirus situation, the parish, under the leadership of Fr Robert Christo, was searching for ways to gather the people to share the Good News in a way that propels us into mission and truly be a Sacrament to our community.

Relationship building was where Fr Christo started. He met and greeted everyone in a ‘Spirit of Hospitality’ that reflected Eucharistic living. He connected the table of the Eucharist with the human relationships that existed in the parish.

Flowing naturally out of this hospitality, homily and human relationships were people taking ownership of pastoral care and volunteering for various ministries.  People were burning with desire to give and share with others what they gained at the Eucharistic table and the homilies shared by the priest.

Immensely striking was the number of young people in ministry: altar servers overflowing, the media team became dynamic and creative.  The highly effective youth media team was successful in bringing ‘We are here’ and a Christmas and Easter concert to the Archdiocese from the presbytery in Penal.

COVID-19 restrictions only elevated the people’s response to the gospel message.  Ministries in the parish expanded to meet the needs of the people.  This included the migrant ministry which serves one of the largest migrant communities in the nation.  The parish became an oasis of life for those who needed help with food and other care.

The parishioners express feelings of being connected and alive.  The use of social media to keep the connection flowing among the people is phenomenal with the experience of daily gospel reflections, Holy Mass, youth-led evening prayer, meditation, rosary and even aerobics.  The parish is alive in both cyberspace and face to face.

We believe that this is made possible through visionary and shared leadership, through spirit-led hospitality and homilies that connect gospel to practice, and hymns that minister and help people participate, reflect, and feel a sense of belonging.

We think while it is still a work in progress, we believe that under the leadership of Fr Christo, we have experienced what it means to be a hybrid parish. Thank you, Fr Christo for your pastoring work especially during the time of COVID-19 restrictions. —A parishioner