Join our May meeting!
We meet with NCPD Affiliates on the third Wednesday of the month to address various disability-related needs of dioceses. Beth Hlabse, program director for the Fiat Program, will present on:
Mental Health and Living as a Eucharistic People: Renewing Parish Cultures of Accompaniment
Despite communion being so central to our life as Church, many of the lay faithful, particularly those with mental illness, experience isolation and loneliness. The Church is not immune from the cultural crisis of loneliness and breakdown of social ties. Hence, strengthening pastoral accompaniment for persons and families with mental illness involves renewing relational support among not just ordained and lay ministers but also the rest of the lay faithful. When we recognize another’s suffering as our own and realize that our flourishing is bound up with another’s, we live the mystery of interpersonal communion within the Body of Christ. But what does this mean practically? This seminar address how diocesan and parish ministers can support the mental health of those in their respective communities.
Guiding Scriptural Reflection:
“As a body is one though it has many parts, and all the parts of the body, though many, are one body, so also Christ. If one part suffers, all the parts suffer with it; if one part is honored, all the parts share its joy.” (1 Corinthians 12:12,26)
Three takeaways for participants:
- How do we ensure our programming doesn’t lose sight of the person? Keeping listening-centered relationships at the heart of our diocesan/parish/school programs.
- No one is immune from mental illness: How do we make sense of our vulnerabilities to mental illness and deepen a culture of care for one another.
- Special care for those with serious mental illness: How do we help persons and families with serious mental illness to be received and welcomed?
Diocesan Directors will receive an email on Wednesday, May 3, 2023 a week prior to the meeting to register.
For more information email egarcia@ncpd.org
