St. Mary’s Parish, priest win grant for renewal activities

Being a pastor of a congregation is a 24-hour a day job. There are weddings and funerals over which to preside, counseling sessions, church activities, and sermons to write and preach and sacraments to perform.

That leaves little time to take a step back, learn about new ideas, reflect and just rest.

Rev. Albert Grasher Jr. of St. Mary’s Presentation Catholic Church in Deer Park will be getting away from it all to refresh and renew himself and his parish.

The Lilly Endowment has selected Grasher and his congregation to receive a National Clergy Renewal Program grant of $33,125. The funds will be used so that he can rest, pray, study and have fun.

He is one of 127 pastors representing 19 denominations to receive this grant throughout the country.

Lilly recognizes that in leading a congregation, many pastors need to take a break and grow spiritually and creatively.

Grasher, who has been a priest for 20 years and at St. Mary’s for five, is planning to attend a 12-week course through the Vatican II Institute for Clergy Formation at St. Patrick’s Seminary and University in Menlo Park, Calif. He’ll study evangelization and discipleship.

The grant, which goes to the entire congregation that will send him on his journey, will also cover the cost of a substitute priest and opportunities for them to learn, too.

His congregation will use his time away to study what Grasher is studying, so they can apply what they have learned upon his return.

“It’s not just a renewal for me,” he said. “It’s a renewal for the parish.”

In order to be considered for this grant, Grasher and his congregation completed a 15-page questionnaire, which included the theme of this year’s grant program, “What will make your heart sing?”

For Grasher, who is half Italian, that will be a trip to Italy to take language classes, cooking classes and attend the opera in Florence.

He hopes to leave on his spiritual journey in July and will return December 2007.