St. Patrick Parish in Victor is home to more than 45 separate ministries, each fulfilling a specific role within the parish.
Some of these ministries serve such specific segments of the parish community as teens, young adults, incarcerated individuals and people preparing to enter the church. Senior citizens recently joined those ranks with the addition of the parish’s Senior Series Ministry.
Senior citizens involved in this ministry gather once a month after weekday Mass to socialize, enjoy refreshments and listen to a presentation on a topic of interest to many people in this age group, explained Helen Sherman, one of the group’s founding members.
“One day, some of us were standing around after Mass kind of talking … and it came up that a few of the senior parishioners had mentioned that it might be nice if there were some kind of a program for seniors,” Sherman recalled.
Victor parish’s ministry started as a coffee hour and grew into a discussion series
The group started out as a monthly coffee hour for seniors, who gathered in St. Patrick’s Parish Center on the second Wednesday of each month.
“We were just going to have a little social thing with some donuts and coffee or bagels or whatever. Whoever wanted to show up after the 8:30 a.m. Mass could just stop over, and we would sit around and have some nice conversation,” Sherman said.
After a few months, however, participants began to talk about adding a second coffee hour on the fourth Wednesday of each month and bringing in speakers on those days to talk about topics of interest to senior citizens. They looked to Sherman for help in recruiting speakers, as she’d worked for Ontario County’s Office for the Aging for 26 years — including a 10-year-stint as its director — before retiring in 2013.
Ministry recruits speakers to talk about topics of interest to Catholic seniors
Senior Series participants were interested in learning more about a broad range of topics, Sherman said.
“It didn’t have to be necessarily all prayer, as you might think in a Catholic church, but just diverse things that might be nice for seniors,” she said.
With that guiding philosophy in mind, Sherman worked with contacts from her former office to arrange for the ministry’s first two speakers.
“We had a speaker out to talk about Medicaid, then we also had a speaker from the Alzheimer’s Association who came out and talked about Alzheimer’s disease, and that was arranged through the Office for the Aging,” Sherman explained, noting that all Senior Series offerings are open to the public.
After taking a break during July and August, Senior Series participants welcomed fellow parishioner Carol Thornton, who gave a presentation about prayer during the ministry’s late-September gathering. Thornton explained such ways of praying as the Ignatian Examen, which is a style of daily reflective prayer, and lectio divina, which is a way of praying with Scripture.
“I touched on several methods of prayer that I became aware of as an adult … I just pointed those out, because even though I had a very good Catholic formation and always went to Catholic schools, I had never encountered some of these (until adulthood),” Thornton said.
On Oct. 23, the Senior Series’ featured speaker was funeral director Jeffrey Jarmusz, president of the Jarmusz Cotton Funeral Home, who gave a talk about funeral planning. And on Nov. 13, local attorney Catherine M. Fafone will talk to the group about estate planning, Sherman said, noting that the group members recently decided to go back to meeting just once a month, but each monthly meeting will feature a speaker or discussion.
“I’m kind of excited to see how this whole thing is going to evolve in the future,” she said.
Ministry helps seniors make connections, combat loneliness
Each Senior Series session thus far has attracted between 15 and 20 people, Sherman said. This small-group setting is attractive to those who might not feel comfortable in a larger group as well as seniors who may have limited opportunities for social interaction, she added.
“I think it decreases a sense of loneliness for people who are isolated. I think it enhances the lives of older people and improves their social connections. It improves their mental health, and they make new friends,” Sherman said. “We’re trying to build small Christian communities.”
Tags: Ontario County News
