Transform Your Parish

Give Him 21 Lent Edition

Back in December I wrote a post about giving the Lord 21 of something in 2021. I thought it would be good to revive this for Lent and include some graphics you can use. We talked earlier this week about a Lenten resolution for the whole parish. 21 minutes a day with the Lord is a great one. I hope you’ll share these with your parish !

Welcoming on Ash Wednesday

When I worked at the parish I almost dreaded Ash Wednesday. Not because Lent was beginning, but because of the number of calls that came in asking about Mass times and the plethora of cars in the parking lot all day long. I was happy that people were beginning this beautiful season with the Lord, but I didn’t really want to be anywhere near it.

Surprised by Lent

I am frequently surprised by Lent. Both in my personal life and here in this newsletter. I’m typically writing about Lent the week after it starts. I’m always looking for the time between Christmas and the beginning of Lent to be longer, an extension of this very short season of Ordinary Time. This past Sunday our pastor reminded us of the upcoming penitential season in the opening announcements, encouraging us to begin considering how we will spend the time growing closer to the Lord.

Year of St. Joseph

The Holy Father announced a Year of St. Joseph a few weeks ago. How is your parish embracing a devotion to this holy man? Have you thought of anything? My diocese actually just concluded a year dedicated to St. Joseph – so I thought I’d share a few ideas. Offer a parish-wide Consecration to St….

Knowing the Priest

I wrote earlier this week about how I’ve become enmeshed in my new parish over the course of about six weekend Masses. The past few weeks I’ve been attending another parish while visiting my brother at his new home in the Catskills for the holidays. I’ve been to their local parish now for five Masses…

Becoming Invested

How long does it take to become invested in a parish? I’d venture to say 6 to 8 weekend Masses – around 6 to 8 weeks of attending Mass, meeting the pastor, getting to know the people who sit around you, and ‘finding your groove.”

Give Him 21

A few weeks ago the woman who produces the fitness videos online I like launched a program that’s 21 minutes a day for 2021, and it got me thinking about how we could adapt this for the Church. A Spiritual Exercise program for our faith. Since everyone loves alliteration (you do, right?) I’ve been thinking…

Doing Triage on the Wound

I work with parishes all over the country to develop Vision Plans that are intended to help transform their parish. As you can imagine many think now is an odd time to create a plan for moving forward in your parish.

Back to Normal

The latest OSV Talks video really struck me when I watched it last week. It’s entitled “What If They Don’t Come Back?” Dan talks about what if people don’t come back but also what if we all just “went back to normal?” … Would it be okay to go back to February 2020 and pretend like the last 10 months never happened?

Thoughts on Being Welcoming

In order to be safe at Mass, we have to undertake a variety of different precautions from masks to hand sanitizer to disinfecting the pews to sitting six feet apart. For so many of you this time is just about surviving from one Sunday to the next. You might have even had a minor panic attack looking at that picture above with two people shaking hands! (I think it was taken pre-pandemic!)