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Happening ... in the Local Church
 Pastor
Father Don Eder with the traveling statues: “This is about improving the
quality of our faith journey and fortifying the family.” (Photo by Lisa
Wilson-Cotillier) |
“We have learned a lot — this gets families talking and I think it’s great.”
By Lisa Wilson-Cotillier
The Catholic Moment
OXFORD — Two parish patrons, St. Patrick and St. Charles, are making house calls.
“Charlie” and “Patty,” as they are affectionately called by Father Donald Eder, pastor of St. Charles, Otterbein, and St. Patrick, Oxford, are traveling from household to household to celebrate and strengthen families.
The idea came to Father Eder as he searched for a parish-uniting activity for the fourth Sunday of the month.
“I thought of traveling statues,” he said.
Father Eder constructed a carrying case of oak for each of the two statues. Each case has a drawer containing corded rosaries and suggestions for family discussion and prayer time.
Rick Gretencord, his wife, Susie, and their two children received the statue of St. Patrick at Mass on Dec. 30. They will keep it until Jan. 27, when they will pass it on to a family of their choice.
“We’ve spent a lot of time researching our parish patron,” Gretencord said, adding that they focused on things they did not know about St. Patrick. “We’ve come together and shared our findings, and we’ve also prayed and asked St. Patrick for his intercession.
“This has really opened us up to the idea that we need to ask all of the saints for their intercession more often,” he said. “We have learned a lot. This gets families talking and I think it’s great.”
“I would like the statues to become a center of focus for families to learn more about the patron saint of their parish,” Father Eder said. “My hope is that this will increase their knowledge and at the same time increase their devotional life. It’s just another effort to build family and extended family in the Church.
“These days, families are faced with anything and everything,” he said. “Selfishness, instant gratification, sales and commodity are the focus of our society. It’s really an affront against the family. I am encouraging the continued attention to family so that we are able to withstand the constant assault that would otherwise affect families.
“We’re caught in a real warfare today,” Father Eder said. “Instant gratification is constantly pushed on us. We hear the message that we need material things all the time. Promoting a sense of religion and faith is hard. When we are asked to exercise our faith it’s hard.
“It’s a struggle to push faith, which is intangible, when there are so many tangible distractions around us,” he said. “Our faith journey demands a lot more. So this is about improving the quality of our faith journey and fortifying the family. Any way that we can help people with tangible signs and symbols of our faith, I think, is important and necessary.”
Cecilia Brost, a parishioner of St. Charles, received the statue of St. Charles at Mass on Dec. 28, and also will pass on the statue later this month.
“I can’t say enough how happy I am to have the statue here in my home,” she said. “I think this was a very good idea. I am trying to decide who I would like to have it. So far I’ve had people over and we’ve said one mystery of the rosary. I think we need this so much more now than ever, because we don’t get it otherwise.”
The 94-year-old recalled how, when she was a young Catholic student, the nuns passed on the traditions of the Church to her.
“That has fallen by the wayside today,” she said. “This is a wonderful way to help our children now get acquainted with our lovely, lovely traditions — the rosary, the scapular and holy pictures even. I’m trying to find more information about St. Charles also, because he’s one saint I don’t know a whole lot about and my son is researching him for me so that I can learn a little more and maybe find ways to imitate him in my daily life. I’m trying to connect more with him and knowing more about his life will help me to do that.”