Parish Life
Never Enough
Father Patrick M. Carrion Comments Off on Never Enough
I am not a hot-and-humid-weather person, but this year, I look forward to summer more than ever as it is time to vacate the bombardment of administrative emails, which have been exhausting this past winter and spring. The mantra the staff is feeling is, “It is never enough,” and “It is never quick enough.” The Read More
Learning from the Liturgy
Msgr. Michael Heintz Comments Off on Learning from the Liturgy
Pope Pius XI (r. 1922-39) is quoted as having said that the primary instrument of the ordinary magisterium is the sacred liturgy. He was quite correct. What he did not mean is that we need to make our liturgical celebrations “catechetical” or “didactic” (heaven save us from that — it was tried and failed quite Read More
Models for Parish Evangelization
Father Mark David Janus Comments Off on Models for Parish Evangelization
“The parish is not an outdated institution; precisely because it possesses great flexibility, it can assume quite different contours depending on the openness and missionary creativity of the pastor and the community. While certainly not the only institution which evangelizes, if the parish proves capable of self-renewal and constant adaptivity, it continues to be ‘the Read More
‘Wow-ing’ Guests with Hospitality
Father Michael White Comments Off on ‘Wow-ing’ Guests with Hospitality
The COVID ordeal has added new urgency to the question that was already pressing pre-COVID: How do we get people to church, or back to church? I believe that one major key to unlocking this puzzle will be renewing our understanding of what hospitality is and who it is really for. Literally, the word hospitality Read More
Get to Work
Bishop David J. Bonnar Comments Off on Get to Work
This month I celebrate my 60th birthday. Tempus Fugit! There was a time when that number seemed so old to me, but not anymore. As I mark this milestone, I am not focusing so much on the number as much as on the experiences of this time. I have experienced so much. I do not Read More
The Priest as Chameleon
Father Patrick M. Carrion Comments Off on The Priest as Chameleon
Each Christian is anointed as priest, prophet and king. Each priest is anointed and ordained with this same munera. These are the three basic duties and obligations of each Christian, and even more so for each priest as he serves his community. While these three tasks are more than enough, one quality necessary to pull Read More
From two communities, one
Father Maciej Mankowski Comments Off on From two communities, one
It has been well over a decade since an official merger had taken place between two ethnic parishes somewhere in the Midwest of our beautiful country. I was a newly appointed pastor, and the expectation was to accomplish a merger that had been talked about for over 30 years and had never been finalized. However, Read More
Father, Meet PAPI (the Process, Assessing, Prioritizing and Implementing Plan)
Owen Phelps Comments Off on Father, Meet PAPI (the Process, Assessing, Prioritizing and Implementing Plan)
“COVID shot holes through our parish’s bottom line and the pastor just crawled into a hole.” That’s the way a lay friend of mine recently described the toll taken on his parish by the COVID-19 pandemic. He continued: “He just stopped communicating. Staff and volunteer leaders waited weeks for email responses to their questions.” As Read More