Marco Carvalho
Overseeing the balance of the body, helping to manage inheritances and succession issues, but first of all, nourishing the soul and preparing it “for heaven.” In São Lázaro parish, more and more people are becoming aware of questions of a spiritual nature. Now, seventy-seven-year-old Father João Lau wants to answer some of these concerns.
The Parish of São Lázaro wants to help prepare its parishioners – mainly the older ones – in their sunset years and is concluding the establishment of a concern group on this, Father João Lau told O Clarim. The parish priest claims that the new platform should also help to answer more mundane concerns, such as the management of inheritances and other succession issues.
Most of the elderly who live in the São Lázaro area, the veteran priest guarantees, are happy and enjoy a carefree existence. One of the few afflictions they face, Father Lau claims, concerns the fact that many are approaching the end of their lives: “In our parish, the elderly are generally very happy. They don’t lack money. Most of them have already retired, they are middle class people and they lack nothing. They take part in local tours, join their friends at restaurants,” João Lau points out. “They lack nothing compared to other areas, such as Fátima parish where things are a little different,” the 77-year-old parish priest warns.
If material needs are not a problem, more and more people are becoming aware of concerns of a spiritual nature. The parish of São Lázaro is preparing a new venue close to the church, a place where, in the future, these and other questions of the same nature should be addressed: “I am working with an association in order to do something to prepare them for heaven, both in physical and in spiritual terms,” Father Lau told O Clarim. “The idea is also to help prepare them to manage their assets, to decide to whom they will leave their inheritance, as well as preparing their lives as Christians to be of service to God. I am helping them to do what was previously unthinkable,” the priest claims.
The solution envisioned by Father Lau should include the creation of a concern group that may provide a closer dialogue between the parish and the local community. The purpose is to clarify eventual doubts and allay any possible anxieties: “Death is a concern both spiritually and physically. This is something of a necessity and it is something that I’m doing. I’m preparing a little space close to the Church that will host this initiative,” João Lau explains. “It’s a meeting place that will be open to everybody. It will help them to plan any activity, to organize a tour. And I will also benefit from it, since I’m an old man. I am 77 years old. At 75, I already had the right to retire, but as long as I continue to feel comfortable here, I will continue to do my work,” the parish priest concludes.
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