By Rita McInerney

St. Augustine and Eric Sevareid greatly influenced the life of Father Jim McGlone, MS, pastor of St. Thomas the Apostle Church in Smyrna.

As a young boy in Connecticut, he spent early evenings glued to the television set as Sevareid, one of the pioneer commentators, did his stint on network news. Young McGlone was taken with his skillful delivery and mastery of the language.

Later, as seminarian and priest, St. Augustine offered him insights into Christian self-love. “There are 120 references to this in his writings,” the priest said, and taught him that “to find God, one must find himself.”

Today, 25 years after making his religious professions of poverty, chastity and obedience as a member of the Missionaries of Our Lady of LaSalette, both the great father of the church and the newsman continue to influence his preaching, “the most important aspect of my ministry.”

Themes of his homilies, some written years ago and often updated, include co-dependence, affirmation, gratitude, the motherhood of God, grief, anger, jealousy. Much of the wisdom they impart is based on Augustine’s Confessions which he read and translated from the Latin over a 20-year span.

Each Advent he preaches on an aspect of the inner child, the broken and divine child within each human heart. He asked his congregation to let go of one stumbling block to Christian self-love: rage, resentment, selfishness, hurt, in order to experience the love and joy of God within them during the Christmas season.

The weekend he made his Cursillo in Andover, Mass., the team leaders took his homily notes away. He hasn’t used any since. He usually keeps his sermons to eight or 10 minutes; a teaching homily might go 15 minutes when the readings lend themselves to such length.

“You must respect the selected readings of the Church,” Father McGlone remarked on choosing homily themes, “but you can’t let them stifle creativity as a teacher.” Two subjects hard to connect with the Sunday readings, he finds, are sexuality and old age.

Twice a year he gives a teaching homily on the reality of teenage sexual behavior, “neither condemning or condoning,” and linking to the co-dependency rampant today. He defines co-dependency as a systemic family illness based on abandonment which leads to compulsive behavior and low self-worth. He sees this illness as the cause of the “tremendous compulsiveness in our children.” Alcohol, death, divorce or misguided parenting are the most frequent causes.

While writing his doctoral dissertation in moral theology, “Christian Self-Love and Human Emotions,” at Gregorian University in Rome from 1977 until 1980, he realized that “All the years I preached on the inner child I was actually talking of co-dependency.”

Becoming enslaved by co-dependency, he said, brings with it the feeling of powerlessness. But such helplessness, he assures his congregation, should never make an individual feel worthless.

“I feel that God has worked through my preaching. The only bridge between the ideals of Catholic theology and the real hurting person is Christ’s compassion. I would never want to discourage anyone through my preaching. Even when we’ve sinned grievously, God never abandons us.”

“Never give up on yourselves,” he tells listeners. “In your greatest moment of weakness you are closest to God. His healing comes through acceptance of helplessness, of powerlessness.”

He will begin a course on St. Augustine’s confessions on Wednesday, Sept. 27 and continuing each Wednesday night until Nov. 1. People from outside the parish are welcome to enroll.

Father McGlone taught for 15 years after his ordination in May, 1970, at a Catholic women’s college and at the LaSalette Seminary in West Hartford. He received three master’s degrees, one in Latin from Trinity College, Hartford; one in theology from Catholic University, and one in clinical pastoral education from St. Raphael’s and Yale University.

After returning from Rome he resumed teaching adult education and then asked his superiors to assign him to their smallest parish. After a year’s internship at a Polish ethnic parish where he learned the Mass in Polish, he was assigned to Our Lady of LaSalette in Canton, Ga. He served there for three years, from 1983 until 1986, becoming pastor at Smyrna that same year. He succeeded Father Robert Dyer, MS, pastor at St. Thomas from 1977 until 1986.

Father Dyer, who died Nov. 18, 1986 after several months as pastor at Blessed Sacrament in Atlanta, incorporated a pool for immersion baptism in the plan for the new worship space at St. Thomas dedicated Nov. 23, 1985.

This immersion pool, about the size of a large hot tub, was a new experience for Father McGlone. Admitting to a tremendous fear of the water since childhood, he now prefers immersion as a “real and symbolic entrance into the death of Christ…a burial and resurrection.”

His enthusiasm is not confined to preaching, teaching and baptizing by immersion in the parish of 1,680 families. When he arrived at St. Thomas, 920 families were registered.

Most are families in their 30s and 40s with “lots of teens and children.” A substantial number are transients and even if their stay in the parish is to be brief, the pastor urges them to become active because “Your stay here will help us carry on the vision.”

Parishioners are encouraged to invite others to St. Thomas the Apostle. “The best gift you can give a friend is to invite him (her) to church,” the pastor believes. The parish RCIA, he added, reflects this.

And the parish welcome ministry is “the fruit of how much a council can do for a parish,” he said. The ministry is one of three goals developed by the council in its first year; the others are youth ministry and parking. Newcomers are welcomed, receive an information packet, meet the pastor and attend a wine, cheese and jellybean party within a month’s time.

Another social aspect of Father McGlone’s ministry is the dancing class he instructs at the parish. He took up dancing after his mother died and soon was told by an Arthur Murray instructor that he had “two left feet.” He did better as an instructor. That’s what he’s been doing for the past eight years.

He only teaches in the parish context because he has found it to be helpful for people working out their grief at the lost of a spouse or other loved one.

“I teach every dance derivative from the polka,” he said. The German, Polish, North American dance is popular with his students, along with the jitterbug, Lindy hop, swing, the samba and chacha.

Couples taking marriage preparation courses receive free dancing lessons. This, the pastor said, has improved many a newlywed performance as they glide around the dance floor at the wedding reception.

He comes by his love for dancing naturally. His Baptist grandmother and Baptist preacher grandfather loved to dance despite the strictures of their denomination. In Canton, several Baptist couples attended his classes.

A native of Norwich, Conn., Father McGlone entered the LaSalette seminary after finishing eighth grade and terms himself a “lifer.” He took his vows at the age of 21 after seven years of seminary study. Recently the LaSalettes flew him and other jubilarians to Ipswich, Mass., for a celebration. The banquet included all the New England delicacies, lobsters, clams, and chowder.

Co-pastoring with him is an old friend in the priesthood, Father Donald Baribeau, MS. Such friendship and the support it brings helps priests living together and sharing the work of a large parish, he said.

“I think there is a dysfunction in any walk of life. And religious communities of males have a difficult time with intimacy. If each person is working on his own dysfunction then the ability for religious communities to grow in intimacy and affirmation is possible.”