upstarts: how to build a community of people from whom you can borrow a cup of sugar
You've searched for months and cannot find a Catholic community in a 200 mile radius. So you need to start your own Catholic community. So, you get together with one other family. None others if that's the way things are. You give yourself a name, something very Catholic and put yourself under the patronage of an excellent saint (they're all excellent, because they are already in heaven) and you start having fun. Plan events. Put it in your local church bulletin. Put it up on the notice board. Put it in church bulletins in a hundred mile radius. You don't know how many others are out there looking for exactly what you are offering.
Even if it’s just your family or one other family, plan and post information as though ten or twenty families might be coming.
Saint Thomas Aquinas Homeschool Families
are having a
Potluck Supper to celebrate Divine Mercy Sunday
held at Our Lady of Sorrows Church
at 5 pm
After the Chaplet in the Church
Fellowship and Fun to follow.
Plan something every week if you want to. Eventually, someone will show up. They might be Catholic newbies. They might be disgruntled Protestants. They might be a couple with a young family who suddenly have it laid upon their hearts that they want to know more about God. If they say, I'm not Catholic can I come anyway? It’s usually best to say yes, but qualify that you are a Catholic group, and you do Catholic stuff and they are welcome to join you in anything that you do.
Another excellent resource for people in a community and trying to be in one is a book called Haystack Full of Needles by Alice Gunther. A beautiful and cozy book about our families and the people we live with and love. Discernment on what to Do and how to Be. Very Practical.
Be Radical. Be an Idea Person. Make it Happen.
And here’s more on community:
