On Aug. 11-13, I had the joy of conducting my pastoral visit to Emmanuel Catholic Church in Delray Beach. It was a wonderful experience of parish life, and I came away deeply encouraged by what I witnessed there.
I can tell you that the enthusiasm, prayerfulness, fraternity and joy I found at Emmanuel were matched only by the amount of food shared throughout the entire visit: a lot! By the end of it, I joked that I had gained more than five pounds!
But behind the abundant meals, laughter and warm hospitality was something much more important: a Catholic community that genuinely enjoys being together because it enjoys being together in the Lord.
Emmanuel is a parish alive with faith. The current pastor, Rev. Gaudioso Zamora, has succeeded in leading the community to a remarkable level of pastoral vibrancy and spiritual vitality. The parochial vicar, Rev. Theodore Ihedoro, has also made an outstanding contribution through his energetic and inspiring ministry. Together with the parish staff and a remarkable number of volunteers, they have fostered a community in which people do not simply attend Mass on Sunday. They participate, pray, serve and take responsibility for the mission of their parish.
Emmanuel currently has more than 27 active ministries, many of them involving dozens of parishioners. Among them are more than 55 extraordinary ministers of holy Communion, 25 lectors, 30 hospitality ministers and 29 homebound ministers — to mention only a few. The parish community is mostly composed by parishioners of Italian, Irish, Filipino, Hispanic, Haitian and African backgrounds. A beautiful, unique ministry I found at Emmanuel was the cooking team for the CCD children: every week they feed the kids with the physical food that becomes a lovely sign of the spiritual nurturing those children are going there for.
Numbers, of course, never tell the whole story. The Church is not a corporation, and the vitality of a parish cannot be measured simply by statistics. But these numbers reveal something important: many people at Emmanuel understand that baptism calls us to more than passive membership in the Church.
A parish cannot be a place where the priest does everything while everybody else watches. Nor should it become simply a religious service station where Catholics come to receive the sacraments and then leave without becoming involved in the life and mission of the community.
A parish is a family of faith. And in a family, everyone has something to contribute. I saw that spirit everywhere at Emmanuel: in those who proclaim the Word of God, those who assist at the altar, those who welcome people into the church, and especially those who visit the homebound and bring them holy Communion and the consolation of the Church.
But what impressed me most was not the number of ministries. It was the spirit behind them. There was joy. Christian joy does not mean that everything is perfect or that a parish has no challenges. It comes from something much deeper: the conviction that Jesus Christ is alive, that He remains with His Church and that our lives have meaning because they belong to Him.
When that conviction takes root in a parish, it becomes visible. People want to pray together. They want to serve. They want to welcome others. They want to share their faith. And, yes, they also want to eat together!
There is something deeply Christian about the table. Our Lord Himself often used meals as occasions of encounter and friendship. He ate with His disciples, multiplied bread for the crowds and, on the night before He died, gathered His apostles around a table and gave us the Eucharist.
And ultimately, every Catholic table points us toward another table: the altar of the Lord.
The Eucharist must remain at the heart of everything a parish does. Ministries, programs, social activities and buildings are important, but none of them is the center of the Church. From the altar we receive the strength to serve, and from the altar we are sent into the world to live and proclaim what we have celebrated.
This is why vibrant parishes are so necessary today. Our society is experiencing profound loneliness, division and uncertainty. Many people are searching for meaning and belonging. Some have drifted away from the practice of the faith. Others have never experienced the beauty of belonging to a genuine community of believers.
Our parishes must be places where those people can encounter Christ. They must be communities where the stranger is welcomed, children learn to love Jesus, young people discover that the Church needs them, families find support, the elderly are treasured, the poor are served, sinners encounter mercy and everyone is invited to become a disciple.
My visit to Emmanuel reminded me of what is possible when priests, deacons, religious and laypeople embrace that mission together. I am deeply grateful to Father Zamora and Father Ihedoro for their priestly ministry and leadership, and equally grateful to the parish staff, ministry leaders and countless parishioners who generously give their time and talents.
But I also left Emmanuel with a challenge for them: Do not become comfortable!
A parish on fire with the love of Christ must always look beyond itself. There are still people in Delray Beach who need to hear the Gospel. There are Catholics waiting to be invited home. There are young people searching for purpose, families struggling, and people who are lonely, sick, poor or discouraged.
The more vibrant a parish becomes, the more missionary it must become.
That is what I hope to see growing throughout the Diocese of Palm Beach: parishes centered on the Eucharist, faithful to Catholic teaching, committed to prayer and service, welcoming to newcomers and unafraid to invite others to encounter Jesus Christ.
As I concluded my pastoral visit, I left Emmanuel with gratitude and hope — gratitude for what God is already doing there, and hope for what He will continue to accomplish through this wonderful community.
Congratulations, Emmanuel Church!
Keep praying. Keep serving. Keep welcoming. Keep evangelizing. And keep feeding people —spiritually, and perhaps a little more moderately when the bishop visits next time!
Above all, keep your eyes fixed on Jesus Christ.
Remain a community on fire in the Lord!
Bishop Manuel de Jesús Rodríguez, JCD
