Sharing a reflection of our first "Mingle on a Monday" event from Kelley McMenamin - a parishioner who now lives in Ireland.
Dia dhaoibh! What’s that? Oh “Hello to you all” in Irish… but literally “God be with ye”. I don’t want to make you all TOO jealous… but it will be 21C in Ireland today (and that’s about as hot as we can handle here!)
So how did I end up on the call? Our former Parish Associate, Maria George, kindly passed along an article from “Heartbeat” featuring Fr John. Having enjoyed that, I clicked onto the website and was reminded of all the great friendships I’d made when living in St Kilda from 2014-2016, before returning home to Dublin. What a joy to see a Zoom call entitled “Mingle on a Monday” had been set up. With the June Bank Holiday here on 01 June I set my alarm to connect with the other side of the planet… I considered I might not know anyone, as parishes move along. But to my excitement I knew EVERYONE! What a joy to see all your faces again!
And it was as if nothing had changed. The chat flowed and we caught up on everything from families to Covid-19 to bunny rabbits! Yes we were graced with the presence of Fr John’s furry friend. I was delighted to see everyone keeping so well. My heart was truly warmed to see our great community adapting and thriving in the pandemic. I was amazed to hear that 15,000 people logged into the Easter services! It has been wonderful to catch up with the St Kilda services online. I shared a story from my neighbourhood. The second closest Catholic church to my house has a BIG sign on the doors, explaining that they are closed due to the Coronavirus but that services can be accessed online, volunteers are standing by to assist with deliveries and tech support plus the mobile numbers of the staff to be available for anyone suffering loneliness and isolation. The closest Catholic church to my house has an even bigger sign on the door “CHURCH CLOSED. KEEP OUT”. It doesn’t surprise me at all that the Parish of Sacred Heart and St Columba falls into the former style of community.
The plan is another Mingle on 22 June. Technically it will be 10:30am for me and I’ll be working from home. But I think an early lunch might be in order! In God’s great universe, what’s 17,208 km between friends?