Parishioners pitch in to help lighten priests’ load
by Reagan Scott
for the Register
For already-busy parish priests, the start of the school year can bring about additional activities and obligations that require their time and attention.
In an effort to alleviate some of the strain from these changes, parishioners at St. Patrick Parish in Lincoln volunteer to provide dinner for their priests each week.
This year, nine families have signed up to make dinner for the priests on Wednesdays. The first meal was delivered Sept. 6, the first night of CCD classes at the parish, and weekly meals will be provided through Memorial Day.
Parishioner Paula Ryan said this parish ministry began about six years ago, when Mother Anne Marie Zierke, M.S., was working at Pius X High School. One day, she happened to ask one of the parish priests serving St. Patrick at the time how his Wednesday was going. He responded that, in addition to it being a busy day at school, he likely wouldn’t get to eat until 10 p.m., because he would go straight from teaching at Pius to CCD classes, and then help with the Godteens group after that.
Mother Anne Marie mentioned this to her mother Betty Zierke, then a parishioner at St. Patrick Parish, who shared the predicament with the parish’s weekly Bible study and social group, “Women at the Well.”
Ryan is a member of that group, and was one of the women who originally volunteered to start bringing meals for the priests on Wednesdays.
“We said, ‘That’s easily taken care of, let’s help them out,’” Ryan recalled.
Starting with four women – Zierke, Ryan, JoAnne Munn and Nancy Archer – the ladies started a rotation, with each taking a meal every four weeks.
Munn has been a member of the parish for about 20 years, and remembers hearing about helping with the dinners.
“This could be something I could do,” she said she thought at the time.
She said while there had been times in her life when she hadn’t been able to give much time to Church ministries, she was happy to have found one that spoke to her.
“I think that the good Lord guides us to things that we have the ability to do,” Munn said.
Due to the nature of the priests’ busy schedules, the dinners provided were the type that would keep over the course of a few hours – casseroles, crockpot dishes and the like. This way, no matter when each priest would have time to eat, it could be something that was still warm, or easily reheated.
After a couple of years of this, the women decided to ask for help in sharing the work. Ryan put a notice in the parish bulletin asking for volunteers, and the parish responded, with families reaching out to offer to be put in the weekly rotation.
There’s been a call for help to lighten the load ever since, usually posted in the bulletin at the beginning of August. By the end of the month, Ryan has a list of people who have volunteered to help and she is able to put out a schedule for the coming year.
She’s loved seeing more people get involved each year as the ministry has continued.
“When we started, there was no discussion of how long this would go on,” Ryan said. “Every year it needs to be done, so we just do it.”
While Munn is now responsible for funeral dinners at the parish and isn’t making meals this year, she’s enjoyed seeing the growth of the ministry.
“It’s wonderful to see that there are more people involved in it now,” she said.
Father Christopher Miller has been the parochial vicar at St. Patrick since April 2022. He serves the parish with pastor Father Troy Schweiger and Father David Bourek, who is in residence at St. Patrick, in addition to healthcare ministry and nursing homes.
Father Miller said during a previous assignment at St. Joseph Parish in Paul, the parishioners would provide a meal for the priest on Saturday evenings so that there would be something to eat after the vigil Mass.
He said that while he enjoys cooking, he’s thankful for the meals provided each week at St. Patrick, since Wednesday is such a busy day.
“It’s nice because with everything that’s going on, you don’t have a lot of time to sit down and put stuff together. It’s one less thing we have to worry about.” Father Miller said.
Ryan said this is the very reason the parishioners have kept up the ministry.
“I just think that for a lot of the people who are doing this, they see how much the priests are doing for our parish, and they know this is just a little tiny thing we can do to help out,” she said. “It frees them up and kind of lightens their cross.”
Ryan said anyone can help out their parish priest, any day of the week.
“You can always call the priest and say, ‘I want to bring a meal over.’ Every night is a busy night for them, I’m sure,” she said.
