Welcoming the stranger
I’m just back from holidays in the US. Through the internet we arranged to swap houses with a family in the wilds of Ohio. When my husband and I wandered into the local Catholic church to enquire about Mass times, we were given a royal welcome. The parish embraced us!
Our first day at Mass, the small congregation lined up to shake our hands and greet us. We had coffee with the parish council. After Sunday Mass we went to brunch with our PP and another family, who later invited us out on their boat and had us over for dinner. We became great friends with them, and they were our first port of call as minor crises arose, and we needed to see, first a dentist, and then a doctor.
The parish was not a wealthy one and its community was small, but we really experienced a Christian welcome there which coloured our holiday with a new tone. I wonder does this ever happen to foreign tourists in Ireland, the country which used to be known as the land of welcomes? Certainly we found pure gold, among the people of the parish of St Anne’s in East Liverpool, Ohio.
Friday, August 10th, 2007 and is filed under Love Thy Neighbour.
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m Says:
Yes we have a priest whom we have been blessed with for a year
At every mass he welcomes everyone and has a marvellous ability to remember everyones name
It makes a differance the stranger feeling welcome.
MARY
January 16th, 2008 at 10:29 am