Od obsłużonej parafii do współtroszczącej się wspólnoty

Abstract

Pastoral work consists primarily in the care to provide the people entrusted to the pastor with spiritual goods. Those pastors who merely think of what they themselves ought to do are soon exhausted by manifold cares. The essence of the Church and of the parish is participation in the Lord’s mission. The flow of love which originates in God Himself wants to embrace all people and God’s love and joy want to spread ever wider. If the essence of the Church is conceived in this way, being a pastor will mean that one feels urged on by the gift of God’s joy and love and transmits them, knowing that love will endure all difficulties because it has been verified on the Cross. The parish is a community vivified by the action of the Spirit. Every Christian has his own charisma. It is necessary to make modern parishes aware of the richness of charismata. Lay collaborators who have specific charismata may be participating servants of the pastor’s action. The pastor ought to give up the authoritarian way of thinking and switch over to action in the perspective of friendship, aiming at transforming the parish community into a living parish, a fabric of love in Jesus Christ. This requires the cooperation of various gifts of. the Spirit possessed by the members of the community. By stimulating the activity of the parishioners the pastor should strive to achieve cooperation, which leads to the transition from a serviced to a mutually serving parish. The author tries to lay down some principles of stimulating the parish to become a conscious sign of opposition to the egoism, brutuality and social isolationism so characteristic of our time and to become a living cell of people united by the love of God.