August 2019
Glenmary Home Missioners
Glenmary Volunteers
Photo by Cassie Magnotta
Cultivating His Harvest
Recent volunteer “Mountain Managers” Maria Pangori (left) and Maggie Sheehan directed groups serving in community outreach.
A
sk Glenmary volunteer director Joe Grosek why he does what he does and he’ll point in two directions: to the volunteers he directs, and to the people of East Tennessee whom they serve. Joe, a Glenmary lay co-worker, has directed Glenmary’s volunteer program for nearly 20 years, first in Lewis County, Kentucky (for 13 years) and now in Grainger and Union counties in Tennessee. There, on Joppa Mountain, is a house for short-term volunteers and a few “tiny houses” for the Mountain Managers who run the program alongside Joe. Those Mountain Managers, who come live at Joppa Mountain for up to 24 months, are key to the program. “They serve as a bridge between the community of people in Grainger and Union counties and the volunteers—high school, college and adults—who come to serve. They’re responsible not only for the service and mission work that Glenmary does in the community, but also for the growth of the volunteers,” he says. The volunteers are typically newcomers to the region, so education is a big part of their service project. What is it like to live in poverty, they might learn. How are the cards stacked against the powerless? How does a life of faith empower both these people and the volunteers who come to serve? How does their volunteer service fit into the missionary role of the entire Church? Those are some of the central questions that volunteers might consider and pray about during their visit to Joppa Mountain. It is the Mountain (continued on reverse side)
I love to garden. At Glenmary headquarters, we are blessed to be on a former farm, in Fairfield, Ohio, now surrounded by suburban development. Our property, with its simple buildings, is an oasis of green. For years I lived in the novitiate house, formerly the farmhouse, where I served as a novicemaster. This summer, after I was elected to lead our Society, I moved across the parking lot to our residence, where about 12 of us have single-room apartments. We eat together. We welcome guests to worship with us, we share common spaces. And, here and there on the grounds, some of us have small gardens. Among my favorites to grow are tomatoes and basil. I feed and till the soil, start my seeds in my homemade closet-sized greenhouse, then move my plants into the garden. An early riser, I get out and water them before the sun shines, most days, all summer. There’s nothing finer to me, now in August, than a fresh-grown tomato, served with a little mozzarella cheese and fresh basil. It reminds me of our Glenmary parishes. We gather community, we help to build a church, and, over time, the community flourishes as a new parish. Our Glenmarians are like farmers, cultivating seeds that the Holy Spirit has planted. As Jesus tells his disciples, “The harvest is plentiful!” Yours in Christ,
Father Dan Dorsey President