ST. JUDE PARISH GOOD SHEPHERD MINISTRY Members: Noemi Ewalt Amparo Morales Mabel Borges-Gomes Jessica Martinez Laurie Diaz Richard Cowart Sally Ramirez
What is the Shepherd Ministry? Through home visits, reassuring phone calls and sending cards or letters on a regular basis, our ministers will engage the elderly/homebound person through conversation and social support. Volunteers who are Eucharistic Ministers can deliver the Holy Eucharist to those who ask, and training is offered to our ministers.
Our intent is to visit those in Nursing Homes as well as those restricted to their own homes. Homebound includes those parishioners who cannot easily get out of their homes due to temporary or chronic illness. You do not need to have a special need to ask for a visitor. We encourage parishioners who would just like to make a new friend at church to ask for a volunteer from this ministry.
One way of taking church to the homebound is through volunteer Communion visitors or Eucharistic ministers who deliver both Communion and community to those who are confined to their homes. The homebound need to have fellowship brought to them. They miss their friends and the fellowship of other church members. By receiving Communion from volunteers who visit their homes, the homebound church members develop new friendships and meaningful connections.