January is a fitting time to meet and have this discussion. The classic image of January is of two faces, one looking back at the past, the other forward into the future. My take is that there is joy and sorrow in both views, that we look back on all the great times, the happy times, the times of achievement and satisfaction – but if we are honest, if we are realistic, we see also the failures, the mistakes, the losses both of time and persons. In the same way, as we look to the future, we look forward to future joys and achievements – for me, personally, watching my children and grandchildren learn, mature and progress; – for us all, finding the will and the way to continue and improve the life of this Community, its work and its worship. But realistically, I know that at 70 my time here is limited. I’ve been to four funerals in the past two months, and I know that I will someday be the mourned rather than the mourner. I don’t say this to depress you, or to “hang crepe,” as my in-laws would have said, but because as Christians we know that ‘life is not ended, only changed.” So, as I reflect on the past 36 years here at St. Malachi Church and in the Community of St. Malachi, there is joy and sorrow, but as I look ahead it is with hope, as St. Paul says, “confident that the one who began a good work in you will continue to complete it until the day of Christ Jesus.” (Philippians 1 v. 6)

Tony DiNardo and I and our five children first came to St. Malachi’s during Holy Week of 1969. We had heard that Father Paul Hritz, then a teacher at St. John College, had a good liturgy going at “that Church at Detroit and West 25th Street.” (A group had already formed, among them Gen McCloskey and Mary Englert, etc.) Why did we come? First, to experience the renewed and participatory worship called for by the Second Vatican Council and slowly being implemented throughout the American Church. We were impatient, as young people are, because our local parish was not embracing the changes as quickly as we would have liked. Second, we were anxious to take on more active responsibility, through parish councils, etc., and were encountering resistance. Some people were saying, “But, we’ve always done it this way…” Can you imagine that?! Third, we were hungry for the kind of teaching that Paul Hritz and George Eppley were providing in their homilies. And we were dying to sing our hearts and lungs out with others who felt like we did. We found all that and much more. This place and this Community became the center of our lives outside the family, and the focus of our efforts for the next 30 years.

At first, St. Malachi was the place where people came to worship and to listen. There was no formal organization other than the parish itself, and we didn’t belong to the parish. We who came to worship were like displaced persons who don’t really belong, but who want to be there. It was a different experience of church. Until then, people belonged to their neighborhood parish or their ethnic parish, and that was that. After a few years, we wanted to do more. We wanted to reach out to the people of the area. We did things like “coats for kids,” and other more spontaneous charitable things. The folks at St. John Episcopal on Church St. were willing to host a meal for the poor and some of us began to volunteer in an effort that later moved down to St. Malachi’s and became Monday Night Meal, ably shepherded by Dave Starre for many years.

Eventually, with the encouragement and support of Paul Hritz, we began to organize in a series of home based meetings – lively sessions that would go on and on until late at night, at the same time exhausting and invigorating all of us as we slowly developed a vision of what a Community might be. There were many people involved in this process. Some are still here, some have left for other places, some have preceded us in death. All gave of themselves and a part of them is still here with us. We are rich in our heritage.

While we were working on formulating a charter, we were continuing to worship, to reach out and to live our church life in community. In our family, there was involvement for my sons in the music at Mass. There were get-togethers on Saturday nights with the Mohar family where we would read the next day’s scripture and share a potluck supper. There were adult potlucks, Community picnics, home Masses, Holiday dinners shared with people from the Community and from the high-rise. After we began to organize and collect money, when there was some left over at the end of the month, the fledgling council (called the steering committee) would search for some needy family to whom we could donate.

Eventually, our vision was codified into a charter. How do you put a dream on paper? Well, it helps when you have an inspired writer like Ed Eliason, a knowledgeable attorney like Gene Kramer, a high level of enthusiasm from people like Joe Mohar, and support from many others. We got some help in approaching Bishop Hickey from Bishop Bill Cosgrove, Mary Englert’s cousin, who counseled us to ‘keep on keeping on,” and we did. After many involved twists and turns, we finally received recognition as the first non-territorial parish in the Cleveland Diocese. We had become a LAY –DIRECTED PERSONAL PARISH.

Now that we had “our papers,” as it were, we were in business! We could take on the adult responsibilities of stewardship, leadership, outreach, spiritual development, and all that makes a Catholic Christian Community. There was always lots to do and lots of people who wanted to help. I believe that people who join the CSM today, just as then, want to help and to be involved. Now there is more of an institutionalized framework in place, and people are less likely to “just do it.” One of the mistakes of the past that comes to mind is the failure to promptly contact people after the annual membership renewal. Many times, I have heard people say, “I signed up for XYZ but nobody called me.” I would be willing to volunteer to call people after the sign-up this year.

The realities of family life and work life in today’s society are very different than they were 35 years ago. I see this in the work lives of my children. They are under a great deal of pressure. Think about it?! It’s you and the computer and the fax, and the cell phone and the palm pilot, and if you can’t get it done that way, it won’t get done, for the most part. There’s an increasing isolation which is enabled by technology. All the more reason to be more directly involved with people as part of our church life.

We need to adjust our expectations with regard to volunteer participation, just as folks have had to do in other volunteer arenas such as hospital work, etc. Senior citizens need to step up a little more too. As the baby boomers come along into their sixties and seventies, they may still be working. But those who can retire or semi-retire are vital to outreach activities. All of us need to prioritize better, and I include myself in that. I need to find the time to be involved once more as a volunteer. We all know that we will find time for the tings we rally want to do!

Another important consideration is educating people during the membership process. I sometimes think people are confused as to the relationship between the parish and the Community. I know it seems like we have to say it again and again, but sometimes there are things that do have to be said again and again. And again! We are separate entities. We work together, but we are separate. The Community of St. Malachi is LAY DIRECTED. We are different.

Tony and I were actively involved in many ways in the developing Community. Tony served as chair of the steering committee before we were recognized and as chair of council several times afterward. I served on council. I became very active on the Liturgy committee for several years, and, with the leadership of Christine Schenk and intern Lou Papas, worked on expanded observance of Holy Week traditions. Spiritual development was important to the Community, and the CSM hosted many excellent lecture and discussion programs over the years. Our children and youth needed some organized learning experiences, and several members of the Community devoted countless hours of their lives to bringing about the program that we have today. When the property immediately behind the church came up for auction, Father Hritz asked for help in securing it. Anthony Rego and Tony DiNardo and Father Hritz went to the auction and surprised themselves by bidding successfully. Now it was, “What do we do with this building?” St. Malachi Center has evolved over the years into a center to support neighborhood people in their efforts toward empowerment. Malachi House also was a dream of several people including Paul Hritz, and has become an outstanding care-giving refuge.

Dick Gibbons had a dream of raising money for the support of St. Malachi Center. In the late 80’s, he and Tony produced three variety shows which drew on talented and not-so-talented members of the Community and Parish as well as many friends from the wider community. Though these shows were great fund and excellent builders of friendship, they weren’t exactly cost-effective when you balanced hours, weeks, even months of effort against the level of money raised. So Dick, again snagging Tony to help him, came up with the concept of a variety store in the immediate neighborhood. Of course, I was on board. Guilty by association. Malachi Mart opened its doors in the fall of 1990 and is still going. There have been some disappointments for me in this arena. I regret that the volunteer component, which I worked on for ten years has been pretty much eroded. I regret that two employees of the Mart were dismissed in a manner unworthy of a Church organization. However, I still believe that the Mart can be an important ministry. Obviously, it can be a service to the neighborhood. It also can be an important funding support for the Center. But to me, more important is its role as a face of the Church to those who will never come through the Church doors.

One of the questions Bill Johansen asked us to address is “What has the Community of St. Malachi meant to us?” For Tony and me, as I said before, it was the focus of our activity outside of our family. And for our children, it was an experience that had provided a model of church not always easy to find. They continue, for the most part, to try to find that elusive combination of good liturgy, warm fellowship and meaningful service. As I travel to be with friends and family, I visit many, many churches. Some have excellent liturgies. Some are warm and welcoming. Some do admirable charitable ministries. None is just like Community of St. Malachi. It is my church home.

For me, you have been and continue to be my extended family. Nowadays, there are many new faces as I look around at Mass. I look forward to knowing you better. There are many whom I know well, as one knows another in a deep relationship—what the struggles have been, what the successes and contributions have been. As we all process up the aisle to receive the Eucharist, we are walking together in faith. We are, as the Mission Statement says, “a pilgrim church continuing the presence of Christ…who is our hope.”