Awards
Parish Diary
Fr. Peter Daly
3/18/99
Awards
This is the awards season. Academy Awards, Grammy Awards, Image Awards,
Country Music Awards. Most
of them not really all that memorable in the long run, despite their hype.
Perhaps we in the church should give out awards. Not for performances, but for real life.
There would be no shortage of nominees. There is so much grace around in real life it
is amazing. In fact, that is what we
could call them, the "Amazing Grace" awards.
The arrival of Easter is a good time to celebrate the
harvest of grace from Lent. So here are
my own personal nominees for the "Amazing Grace" awards. They are all real people.
And
the nominees are ---
The several young mothers who get their little
toddlers up and dressed and bring them to daily mass.
The husband who stays resolutely at the bedside of his
wife of 57 years and holds her hand as she lies dying.
The
young man who works in a fast paced information technology job, who starts the
day with the liturgy of the hours at his desk .
The father of six children who stops by the church on
his way home from work to pray for his family.
The three teenage boys who spent hundreds of hours
putting together a web site for our parish youth group. They dedicated
it to five teenagers killed in auto accidents in our county this year and
included a prayer list and a "hot link" to a biographies of the
saints so our confirmation class could use the information in picking their
names.
The
adult leaders who give their Wednesday evenings to working with teenagers who
are not even their own children, just because they love kids despite their
baggy pants and pierced body parts.
The single young people in our parish who persevere in
chastity.
The
retired business man who devotes his time and the money from the sale of his
business to the needs of youth, setting up youth centers for the arts and
athletics throughout our area.
A retired nurse who volunteers her time and effort to
hospice work, taking care of the dying.
The young lawyer in our parish who devotes his lunch
hours to teaching illiterate adults to read.
The
doctor and nurse, husband and wife team, who take time out of a busy medical
practice twice each month to cook meals for the area homeless shelter and their
three teenage sons who help them deliver the meals.
The retired airline mechanic who devotes full time to
taking care of the homeless, despite the fact that he is struggling with his
own cancer. Also nominated as co-stars should be the over
one hundred people who volunteer to keep the shelter going, many of them
retired.
The social workers for Catholic Charities who
distribute food, medicine, clothing and sympathy to hundreds of people every
day for very little pay and no recognition.
The
women who volunteer a few hours each week to teach English to the migrant
workers in our area and the young
Spanish speaking mother who translates for the same migrant workers, to
lessen their isolation and help them with their many problems.
The
Knights of Columbus who spend their Saturdays at the state university football and basketball games, manning
the concession stands and giving all the proceeds to charity.
A
bedridden man at the nursing home who told me he uses his time praying for
priests.
The
team of our RCIA program who prepare their talks each week to bring more people
to know the love of Christ.
The young women who volunteer at the neighborhood
crisis pregnancy center and who save lives every week.
And
the winner is: All the rest of us.
My
parish is not unique. Any pastor could
make a similar list. Perhaps we all
should. There is so much goodness and
grace, it is truly amazing. These are
the real award winners.