Midweek at Midtown – Feb 9, 2022
Mass Attendance
Many have asked how attendance was for our first weekend with the new Mass schedule. We had a total of 690 attend on the weekend of February 5/6, 2022. To give you some perspective, our January 2022 average was 712. The January 2021 average was 522. Thank you to everyone who have had to make changes their schedule!
Hospitality Training
Our long-term strategy for church growth not only in numbers, but in discipleship will be determined by people’s encounter with Christ and their experience of community. We will launch our first hospitality ministry at the St. Joan of Arc’s 5:30pm Mass. TJ Simpson, our Director of Evangelization, will take the lead on this endeavor. The first training date is set for Sunday, Feb 13 at 9am at St. Joan of Arc. If you are interested in helping the church to grow here, plan to attend this extremely important ministry training. If you have questions, contact TJ at 402-556-1456 ext. 203 or tjsimpson@midtowncatholic.church.
Synod Survey
Pope Francis announced last spring that the topic of the October 2023 Synod of Bishops will be synodality in the Church. A synod is a meeting of bishop delegates from around the world invited to discuss a topic of theological or pastoral significance, in order to offer advice or counsel to the pope. Synodality is understood by Pope Francis to mean all members of the Church (clergy, laity, religious) participating in the evangelizing mission of the Church, journeying together as a community, prayerfully listening to one another in order to discern the voice of the Holy Spirit.
In preparation for the synod, the Holy Father has asked Catholics worldwide to share their experiences of participation in the life and mission of the Church. We have begun the diocesan phase of this consultation by holding listening sessions with some of our neighbors on the peripheries, including the incarcerated, homeless, migrants, refugees and the elderly. I now invite all of you to participate in the consultation with the wider Church that the pope desires.
Individuals thirteen and older are asked to respond to a series of questions online from February 5-28 at https://archomaha.org/synod/. Those without internet access can ask for a printed copy of the questions from your parish. The questions should take you 5-10 minutes to complete. Feel free to share this link with family and friends living in the archdiocese, including those who may not be members of the Catholic Church.
All that is received in our archdiocese, from the listening sessions and responses to the questions will be summarized later this spring, published on our synod website this summer, and forwarded to the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops. There it will become part of a national
summary that will be forwarded to the Holy See. This worldwide consultation about the experience of the Church’s life and mission is a daunting project. At the same time, Pope Francis is sincere in his hope that even this process of sharing will strengthen the bonds of our life in Christ. I encourage you to respond to the pope’s invitation to participate.
With best wishes and prayers,
Most Reverend George J. Lucas
Homily Highlight
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