I have a dream…..that parishioners with different views will come to our Common Ground Listening Sessionon May 17 at 6:30pm in St. Anthony Hall
I hope it’s not too bold of me to catch your attention with the famous words of Dr. Martin Luther King. But, to be very honest, it’s true. Back at the beginning of Lent, many of us filled out cards naming a Sacred Struggle that we were offering up to Jesus, hoping for his help. My Sacred Struggle was that “I will find the courage to act for Catholic social justice”. I have worked with Common Ground for 4 ½ years and I’ve been involved in a few such actions. But to be honest, I have always felt only half-way in, and one of the biggest reasons for my feeling is that I have never been able to share the experience with more than a few people from the St. Anthony community.
So, that is where my dream comes in. On Wednesday evening, May 17, at 6:30 pm in St. Anthony Hall, we will hold a Listening Session. The purpose of this session is to get YOUR ideas on things that are not going well in our local community right here in the Waukesha/Lake Country/Pewaukee area. All people, regardless of their views and outlooks, are impacted by issues in our community. Together I believe we can focus on some of them and find solutions that make life in our community better.
- Tony and I will start the Listening session with some info on the difference between Charity and Justice, from a Catholic standpoint. Why? Our wonderful parish is engaged in many charitable endeavors, but we’re not doing a lot in the area of social justice advocacy. The Church has given us seven Principles of Catholic Social Teaching to guide us. Learn more about those 7 principles in the Human Concerns area of our Parish website.
- Following this brief intro, we’ll have some small group discussions at tables. A facilitator will ask some questions that we hope will help each person to talk about issues in our community that have impacted them and that they feel strongly about. Someone at each table will take notes on what was discussed and share a brief summary of those things with the group as a whole.
- We will ask each of you if you would be open to discussing your experiences in more detail in the future, and if you might be interested in working to find a solution to one of the problems that has been identified. And we will honor your answers to those questions.
- This meeting is NOT about recruiting people, but about gathering ideas. We hope that if we find the right concern to address, that people will naturally want to be involved, because we will be working together to make our community a better place.
So, that’s my dream. PLEASE help make it a reality by attending our Listening Session on Wed, May 17, at 6:30pm in St. Anthony Hall!
RSVP in 1 of 3 ways:
- By phone to Barb in the Parish office (262) 691-1173
- Email Dennis Petrie directly at petriedj@archmil.org
- Drop an RSVP form in the box in the gathering space