Shrine Staff Picnic
The Shrine of Our Lady of Guadalupe strives to be, for all who come, an oasis of Our Lady’s love and joy. On a special level, this includes the staff and volunteers. Tasked with the mission of serving pilgrims on their Mother’s behalf, they themselves need to be supported and built up. Accordingly, the culture sought in the Shrine workplace is one of spiritual community, even family.
Gathering Families Together
This perspective came through especially strongly at the Shrine staff picnic held this past September 22 at Mormon Coulee Memorial Park in La Crosse. Here, staff gathered with their families to relax, enjoy good food, and get to know each other better outside their work environment.
The Shrine Community
Mary Clare Kelly, who joined the Shrine as Monthly Giving Manager this past summer, comments on how the picnic brought out the Shrine’s community. “I’m always so struck to see so many of us, from our staff,” she says, “and the community that that forms, and how not only do we work together but we actually just want to spend time with each other. … I think it brings out a side of people and you start to get to know people apart from work.” These social events, she continues, elicit “different topics of conversation sometimes and just different sides of people that are naturally brought out that we don’t see as readily at work.”
Among these different sides of people, one especially important aspect is how they live out their vocations. Giovanna Lopez, Inventory Control Supervisor in the Flores Mariae Gift Shop, was moved to see the vocations of priesthood and family life unfolding side by side: “It’s really cool to see the priests, to see them out and about, get to talk to them … And then also, it’s cool to see my coworkers not in suits, in casual clothes just chasing their kids around on the playground.” Giovanna also notes that this community time enables the staff to experience each other’s lives on a deeper level: “We just see them at work, and so [this time] we get to see the more important part of their lives with their kids and getting to share their family with us.”
Living Out Vocations
Sophia Sawaya, who also works in the gift shop as Inventory Control Assistant, agrees and highlights the importance of family, both natural and spiritual, to the Shrine’s culture. “Our workplace is so unique because it’s so rooted in the faith, and … already feels like a family,” she remarks. “But their hearts lie in their vocation, with their families, and at the picnic, we get to see them with their families … living out their vocations to the fullest extent.”
That the Shrine work environment should operate like a family fits well with its mission to express Our Lady’s motherly love for her children; the staff, too, are reminded daily that they are all children of the same Mother. “We’re all part of the Mystical Body of Christ,” Sophia says, “so we already are a family in the Faith, united in that way; but because our work is the Faith, here, evangelizing, I think even more so … It’s like an elevated workplace.” This “elevation” serves their relationships with both God and neighbor, including all they meet at the Shrine, and especially their work “family.”
