“Come home for Christmas.”
The phrase often evokes thoughts of gifts wrapped under a lit Christmas tree, families gathered around a fireplace and a cup of eggnog.
Coming home for Christmas at Hilliard St. Brendan the Navigator Church looks a little different. Individuals might find stockings filled with books on the sacraments, Mass and transubstantiation.
The parish hosted “Come Home for Christmas,” a four-session series leading up to the Church’s Advent and Christmas liturgical seasons. Each Monday evening in November, inactive Catholics were invited to attend refresher sessions led by Deacon Jim Morris, who serves at St. Brendan.
The sessions were geared toward Catholics who had not attended the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass for a significant period of time. Interested individuals could participate in any or all of the four sessions offered.
Each session began with prayer followed by discussion. Attendees were welcome to ask questions pertaining to a previous session or various Church-related topics.
The program was established by Morris and his wife in the 1990s. It died out around the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020.
A few months back, several members of the parish’s Inviting Catholics Home ministry – developed to invite individuals back to the Church and offer support in their faith journey – decided it was time to restart the program and bring Catholics home.
The ministry team sat down in August, dusted off the old books and prepared to welcome Catholics “home” for Christmas. The series previously included six sessions and was condensed to four.
By Nov. 30, the first Sunday of Advent this year, the team was hopeful participants would be confident in returning to the Church.
“The more life you live, the more you come to understand there’s something more,” reflected Mary Destefani, a member of the ministry team. “When that starts to happen, where do you go? You go back to your roots.
“They certainly don’t recognize it … what we’re doing now,” she said of participants, “but really, the basic dogma, the basic philosophy of the Catholic Church has always remained the same.”
Some program participants were away from the Catholic Church for as many as 50 years.
To reach lapsed Catholics, St. Brendan advertised the series in its parish bulletin, across the diocese, online and through postcards handed out to family and friends.
A physical sign proved the most effective. Of the seven participants who attended one of the sessions, more than half learned of the program through a sign in the church yard.
Janet Walsh, who helped lead the sessions, returned to the Church 10 years ago after being away for three decades. She recalled seeing a sign in St. Brendan’s front yard inviting Catholics home.
“I kept driving by here because I live right in the area,” she explained. “We always said, ‘The sign was the sign.’”
The parish continues to place the large sign in the yard on Dublin Road, garnering much attention. “This is your ‘sign’ to return to Mass!” it proclaims, also including a phone number and website for information about faith refresher sessions.
The sign attracted Walsh 10 years ago and continues to draw fallen-away Catholics.
“That’s where we’re getting all the traffic,” she said, “the sign in the yard, believe it or not. Social media and all this stuff isn’t all that. It’s the sign.”
Those who took a leap of faith to come home for Christmas spent the four sessions relearning the Church’s seven sacraments, the origins of the Mass and prayer.
The various sessions were divided into instruction on the sacraments of initiation (baptism, Eucharist and Confirmation), healing (reconciliation and Anointing of the Sick) and service (Holy Orders and matrimony).
When discussing the Eucharist, participants explored transubstantiation, the Church’s teaching on the change of the whole substance of bread into the substance of the Body of Christ and wine into the Blood of Christ.
Attendees were reminded that, at the moment of consecration, the outward characteristics of bread and wine remain unaltered, but the substance changes.
Due to the various lengths of time participants were away from the Church, sessions also sparked conversation about the Tridentine, or Traditional Latin Mass – which some participants grew up with – and changes that resulted from the Church’s Second Vatican Council (1962-1965).
Attendees reflected on differences between the two Mass forms.
They considered the change from Latin, the Church’s universal language, to the vernacular, or local language, used in the Novus Order (New Order) Mass. They also noted changes in liturgical music, formerly Gregorian chant and sacred music, to Masses with modern hymns and compositions.
“I was away for 30 years – I was shocked at how different, even with the music,” Walsh said of her return to church.
The Columbus diocese has made ongoing efforts to return to sacred music in parish liturgies.
Dan Davis, who returned to church about 10 years ago, attended the series and now serves as a member of the ministry team. He attributed his departure to poor catechesis as a child.
“We did what we did because we were told that’s what we do,” he reflected.
“When I started coming back to the Church, finding out the richness of the faith, rationale of our faith based off of the Bible, there were so many pieces of it that just started connecting for me.
“That was the benefit of the group because, one, I met some people who were just like me coming back, so I wasn’t alone, and just the support of the parish.”
Having a small-group gathering with open-ended discussion was beneficial for those reconsidering the faith.
“You can come here and feel like you are a part of something and everybody’s on the same page,” Walsh noted. “I think that’s what people are yearning for, is to get with people who are like them.”
Sessions also provided quiet reflection with questions. Prompts included, “My hopes/expectations for attending these sessions are … ” and “Some fears/apprehensions I have are … ”
Attendees received a listing of Catholic resources, including television, radio, news and apps.
“We want to help them on their journey,” Walsh emphasized. “We don’t work that hard – we do, but it’s really the Holy Spirit.”
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