By Barb Arland-Fye
Editor
Running a bit late, I entered St. Margaret Chapel at Sacred Heart Cathedral at 5:30 p.m. Friday for daily Mass, thanking God for getting me there on time! The chapel was nearly full with about 25 Catholics, young and old and who belong to different cultures and ethnic groups. (A few latecomers filled the remaining spaces). Deacon Dan Huber, the parish’s pastoral associate, scooted over in his pew to make room for me.
I feel drawn to this Mass on Friday nights because of the chapel’s intimacy and the diversity of the Catholics worshiping with me. Their faces are becoming more familiar to me, creating a sense of a small faith community. In our shared experience and celebration of the Eucharist, the source and summit of our faith, we leave behind the divisiveness that pervades the world in which we live.
“What unites us is our shared insufficiency, our mutual dependence on God and each other,” Pope Francis says in his book, “Let Us Dream: The Path to a Better Future.” Every Mass in which I participate — especially in my parish, Our Lady of the River in LeClaire — builds this sense of unity, based on our mutual dependence on God and each other.
The Mass provides hope that we can overcome the things that divide us, if we remember to take what we receive in the Eucharist and share it outside the church walls. My experience in the small faith community inside St. Margaret’s Chapel, where the pastor, Father Thom Hennen presides, amplifies that sense of unity and hope in the midst of diversity.
Another opportunity to experience the intimacy of a small faith community unfolds each Wednesday at 11:30 a.m. in the chapel of St. Vincent Center (diocesan headquarters). The Catholic Messenger has its office at St. Vincent’s, which makes it convenient to attend Mass on Wednesdays unless I have a prior commitment. Our small faith community consists of the retired priests and African priests who live at the chancery and some of the diocesan staff who work here. One retired priest told me, “We like having you at Mass with us,” which made me feel like part of the “family!”
This gathering is meaningful to me because I am in the company of retired priests who have served the Church for decades and who, despite the challenges that come with growing old continue to give witness to their ministry. Listening to their voices in unison as they pray the Eucharistic Prayer with the presider (they take turns presiding) inspires me. I think they also enjoy hearing a few female voices singing the “Alleluia” before the proclamation of the Gospel!
Outside of Mass, I treasure participation in other small faith communities: my Emmaus group and the group of fellow parishioners serving at Cafe on Vine in Davenport. In the first community, we share our life’s experiences and prayer. In the second community, we become Eucharist for the hungry guests whom we serve and with whom we interact.
Faith in the risen Lord “requires significant experience lived within the family and the Christian community as an encounter with Jesus Christ who changes life,” Pope Francis told participants in a plenary session of the Dicastery for Evangelization (3-15-24).
My divergent experiences of small faith communities fill me with a sense of belonging among the people of God and with our God.
(Contact Editor Barb Arland-Fye at arland-fye@davenportdiocese.org)
