New rectory receptionist Carol Gangnath joins Father
Gallaugher in learning about all the parishioners on our tree.
|
Several
months have passed since Corky Hart left our rectory staff to “tread the
boards” at the Kennedy Center. We had a
lot of invaluable help from Karyn Zanger, but she could only give us that much
time for the interim. So Carol Gangnath,
our new receptionist, started on January 4.
Just into her second week, she is learning the many and varied
responsibilities that fall to the person who sits in her chair. She is also just beginning to learn the many
and varied people she encounters in the course of a week.
Providentially,
she started just as the Christmas season was ending, and right there in front
of her was one of the best resources there is to learn about the people of our
parish: our “Parishioner Tree”.
This is
not the first time I have let you know how much I enjoy getting family picture
Christmas cards from parishioners, and that I am not the only one. In order for everybody in the rectory to be
able to enjoy them, we hang them in the front office, on our festive tree
decked with lights, ornaments, and smiling parishioners.
Everybody
who works here enjoyed seeing the photos, oohing and ahhhing over the cutest
little ones. My one request would be
that parents not leave themselves out of the picture, or off the card. Especially since so many of the card services
now offer the opportunity to have inset photos or supplements montages on the
reverse side, surely it is not too much to ask that mom and dad be included
somewhere? We still enjoying seeing you,
too, even if you don’t get the same oohs and ahhhs you did when you were ten months
old.
There is also
a practical aspect that this year has come in particularly handy. It is a great way to see everybody in family
groups, and learn who belongs to whom.
Maybe it even gives us a name we hadn’t been able to catch! Fr. Gallaugher has only been here for six
months, which is just long enough to have encountered a whole lot of faces and
names, but not necessarily to have hooked them all together properly. And now
Carol is just getting started. So even
now that the tree has come down, all those cards are a helpful resource.
So next
time you are passing by, stop in to meet Carol, welcome her, and let her see
your face and hear your voice. How
better to reveal that as much as you enhance our appearance at Christmas, your
role here is not merely ornamental.
Monsignor Smith