”We Need that Like a Social Disease”
A favorite phrase of my late father’s. Applicable to so many situations. So true...so often. What I’m thinking of today is work calls I get from people doing geneological research. Geneology is fascinating. (Especially when it’s my family) But from the Church mouse/ low level office pencil pusher point of view, it’s a pain. There is no such thing as a good time for these calls. And, in the few years of my Church work I have found that the calls often come at the most inconvenient times. I care. I really care. I’m also paid to care. But,in the daily triage of tasks, looking through the books for your long deceased ancestors is usually bumped to the bottom of the agenda. Pardon me for not sounding enthused if you call on Holy Thursday because you would like documentation of your great-grandmother’s baptism so that you can apply for Irish-American dual citizenship. (Not that that’s such a bad idea - I should pursue it myself. Time permitting.)

Advent is very close and already time is at a premium. Which disappoints me. During our visit to my sister’s we were going through old Smith family memorabilia and I discovered where my grandmother is buried. (Not just affirmation of the cemetery where I thought she was, but the actual lot, section etc.) And I found where my paternal grandparents were married, my father was baptised and from where my grandmother was buried. So I’d like to write to this parish. But the empathetic part of me knows how welcome the request for more info would be. (I can only imagine: “The nerve of her. She works in a rectory and she thinks we’re sitting around with nothing else to do!”) Our parish is very well off and amply supplied with office help and still the geneology stuff is a pain in the derriere. A parish more stretched in the office would probably not be thrilled to expedite my sentimental journey. Their parish website says that they are “vibrant and caring.” I know all too well the kind of stuff that knocks the vibrancy out of the administrative assistants. The kind of stuff that “we need like a social disease.” Maybe I’ll wait until after Christmas...in those few slow days before preparations for Lent.

(God forgive me, when I’ve been really pressed by people who need to know about great-uncle Joe and need to know now! I ask them if they’ve talked to the Mormons. )