12 Days of Christmas?

How long should the Christmas trees stay up?

Take the survey!

For the results, click here (PDF file).

How to evangelize with Web 2.0

The United Church of Canada recently launched $10.5 million advertising campaign centered on hot-button religious issues like gay marriage and sexual boundaries. One advertisement shows a whipped cream bottle in the fridge along with the question:

"We hope is that it will be much more than a website, we hope that it will be a gathering place for people with their faith questions—the big questions of life as well as the small ones," said Right Rev. David Giuliano, moderator of the United Church of Canada.

"How much fun can sex be before it's a sin?" The goal is to lead people to a Web 2.0 style site where controversial topics can be discussed.

The primary target audience is said to be 30- to 45-year-olds, but the site seems to skew younger than that. Take a look for yourself, and see if you come up with some ideas for evangelization in your own community.

WonderCafe [via social media group]

Hospitality in the New Year

Why not resolve to ramp up your hospitality efforts this year? Catholic parishes can seem cold and unfriendly to newcomers. Here are 20 suggestions to guage your warmth factor from an outsider’s point of view.

1. What does your outdoor sign say? If a person who knew nothing of Catholicism read it, would they be drawn in?
2. Is there enough parking for newcomers who may arrive late? If your lot is overflowing, can you reserve a few spaces for visitors? Or provide a valet service?
3. Do you have parking lot greeters?
4. Do you have a hospitality team? Do you have more than one?
5. Do ushers and greeters have name tags?
6. Do ushers and greeters go out of their way to say hello to people they do not recognize and provide them with a hymnal or worship aid?
7. Are restrooms clearly marked?
8. Is there a place to hang coats?
9. Do regular parishioners “slide in” so newcomers don’t have to climb over them to find a seat?
10. Do regular parishioners introduce themselves and at least one other parishioner to a new person each Sunday?
11. Do communion ministers smile? Really, check next Sunday.
12. What’s in the bulletin? Are there confusing (for newcomers) words and acronyms such as “RCIA” and “CCD”? Is it clear who to contact if someone wants more information about the parish or parish programs?
13. What happens at coffee and doughnuts? Are newcomers sought out and welcomed into circles of conversation? Really, stand back and watch next Sunday?
14. Is there a simple way for newcomers to request more information? Cards in the pews or a book in the gathering space for example? If someone fills one out, how long will it take for a staff member or parishioner to reply?
15. Is there a live receptionist on duty on Sunday? Think about it. Sunday is the parish’s biggest day to receive and welcome people.
16. How does the receptionist answer the phone? Call anonymously sometime (or listen in while a friend does), and think about how a newcomer would hear things.
17. Do you have a parish Web site? Try looking at it from the eyes of someone who knows nothing about Catholicism. What does it “say” to seekers?
18. Is there child care for young families during Mass? One of the biggest draws of your neighboring evangelical parish is that they have child care on Sunday.
19. Does your parish recognize and celebrate the diversity of “family”?
20. Do people on the margins feel welcome at your parish? How do you know? What are you doing to reach out to them?
    

Pastor/Principal as CEO

Thomas J. Healey writes in the San José Mercury News:

If the pursuit of best practices and improvements in corporate governance has pushed companies to higher performance levels, why couldn't the Catholic Church -- whose workforce of 1 million is triple the size of General Electric's, and whose annual operating budget of nearly $100 billion would rank it among the nation's largest corporations -- reap the same kinds of rewards?

That's the message the church is beginning to hear from a small group of parishioners who also happen to be CEOs, CFOs and other senior executives from some of the country's most successful private and non-profit organizations. They've formed a team of consultant volunteers known as the National Leadership Roundtable on Church Management, which is offering a range of talent and expertise, free of charge, to the Catholic Church.

[More; free registration required]

Who should sing the Christmas proclamation?

The Christmas proclamation is the formal announcement of the birth of Christ. The birth is related to events in secular and sacred history, going all the way back to the first moment of creation. It is traditionally sung at the Midnight Mass, although it can be sung at other times. (You can download a PDF version here.)

Note that the rubrics identify this proclamation as a ministry of the deacon, cantor, or reader. It is not a presidential role. Nor is it necessarily an ordinary role of the deacon if the assembly would be better served by a trained singer chanting the proclamation. When planning the Christmas proclamation, the needs of the assembly are paramount.

Empty your “mind-clutter”

In the January 2007 issue of Today's Parish Minister, Jason Womack has written a terrific piece on getting rid of the stuff that clutters up our lives. Here are five additional suggestions from him:

1. Outline: Create a linear hierarchy of ideas with supporting data for each point. To create an outline in MS Word, go to the Format menu, click Bullets and Numbering, and then click the Outline Numbered tab.
   
2. Mind map: Sketch a loosely connected, non-linear association of ideas linking similar concepts in an organic method. For more on mind maps, click on the example image above that Jason created. Also see en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mindmap.
   
3. Sticky note collage: Use Post-it® notes as movable puzzle pieces to create and change the flow of information as needed.
   
4. Index cards: Use 3x5 index cards as data points that can be grouped and resorted as topics grow and change.
   
5. MindManager® (software): Use a digital version of a mind map that creates an outline at the touch of a button. This has the flexibility of easily moving data and regrouping like sticky notes and index cards (www.mindmanager.com).

Cold coffee, burning hearts

I got my start in professional ministry in Minnesota. The year I moved there, it snowed on Labor Day. My sense of dread at being snowbound during what the rest of the country calls “Fall” was mitigated by this saving grace: I would surely have scores of eager parishioners who would turn out for an adult education series in which I could show off all the learning that earned me a newly-minted master’s degree. What else were folks going to do in those long, dark winters?

Well. Let’s just say I was the one who had a lot to learn. I spent many winter nights trying to warm the parish hall with a budget-conscious thermostat, an industrial-sized pot of coffee, and the body heat of two or three good souls. The pastor, who’d been around the ecclesial block a few times, had the good sense to hold forth only on Sunday mornings between masses. The attendance was respectable, but even he never had what you’d call a “turnout.”

This is the image many of us have of adult formation. It was in the face of this image that eight years ago the bishops of the united states said:

There are many obstacles to adult catechesis, many challenges to overcome to bring the living word of god to the adults in our faith communities. But just like the disciples after Jesus revealed himself to them, our hearts burn within us to proclaim the good News of the reign of God. We are committed to this plan and are willing “to exercise utmost courage and patience” as we implement it. We move ahead full of hope, knowing this vision of adult faith formation can become reality. (Our Hearts Were Burning Within Us, 181, 182)

I want to believe, I really do. I have, at times, been hopeful, patient, maybe even courageous. I’ve also been frustrated, disappointed, and discouraged over the years as I poured countless gallons of undrunk coffee down the drain.

I’ve heard all the reasons adults don’t show up for formation classes. We all have. Say them with me:

• We live in a post-Christian society.
• There are many more entertainment options now.
• Parents are busier than they used to be.
• There are more single parent homes than there used to be.
  

Okay, okay. All true, I suppose. But I walked into borders bookstore last November, and in the magazine section, at eye level among Entertainment Weekly and Sports Illustrated, were three religiously-themed magazines. No big deal you say? The magazines were Time, Newsweek, and U.S. News and World Report. Featured on their covers were, respectively, a cross, a rosary, and a renaissance painting of Christ. A whole lot of post-Christian, entertainment-saturated, busy parents must be reading those kinds of stories.

Newsweek, et. al., are not evangelizing. They are selling stories. if faith stories did not sell, they’d dump them and sell other stories. So how is it that the secular media can sell faith stories and those of us with faith cannot? Perhaps we disciples have forgotten how to put the news in good News.

I was at a diocesan religious education conference the day after I saw the magazines at borders. At the closing mass, the local bishop gave a standard closing homily. Not bad, but nothing to write home about. And then he ended with a story. It was a story of a very personal and deep loss he had suffered. He told us why, and how, in the face of such loss, he still had faith. The assembly was rapt. Some were in tears. All of us were formed in our faith in that moment.

That bishop’s sharing of his personal faith struggle was exactly the kind of courage the conference of bishops promised us in Our Hearts Were Burning. It was a new model (or renewed model) of how to teach faith. That’s news. Good news.

Dreaming of a white Christmas?

If you're shopping for a nativity set this season, be sure to check out the Newsweek story on the historical protrayal of the Holy Family:

While we can never be exactly sure of what Jesus, Mary and Joseph actually looked like, we know they were not fair-skinned, flaxen-haired Europeans. And, though an emerging fringe of historians would argue otherwise, it’s fairly certain they weren’t black Africans. In all likelihood, what they were was something in between: olive-skinned, dark-featured Semitic Jews living in Israel.

Read the entire article here.

Actual Grace

Sister Paul Mary turned her piece of chalk sideways and slashed a long, wide swath of white across the middle of the blackboard. “We’re all born with original sin,” she said.

Then she rubbed a big black felt eraser back and forth until only a faint shadow of white dust remained. “Baptism washes away our sin,” she said. She drew a bottle and, turning her chalk sideways again, filled it in neatly with white. “Baptism fills us with grace.”

To my second grade eyes, the grace looked exactly like the sin, except there seemed to be less of the grace.

Pictures teach louder than words, especially for children. I learned that grace was rather limited and controlled while sin was apparently unlimited and uncontained. Grace had to be constantly replenished as you used it up to wipe away the unrelenting sin. Never enough grace. Always too much sin.

This past October, we were taught a new lesson in grace. Charles Carl Roberts IV walked into a schoolhouse and slashed a long, wide swath of darkness across the Amish community. After releasing the boys and adults, he threatened to kill the ten remaining girls. The girls responded by asking him to pray with them. A picture of grace.

When he refused, 13-year-old Marian Fisher stepped up to him and said, “Shoot me and leave the other ones loose.” Marian, full of grace.

After the madman shot the girls, killing five and severely wounding the others, the grandfather of two sisters killed told an interviewer he bore no anger toward the killer’s family. And he had forgiven the killer. “How is that possible?” asked the reporter. “Through God’s help,” replied the grandfather.

After shooting the girls, Roberts killed himself. There were 75 mourners at his funeral. Half of them were Amish. The Amish have received over a million dollars in donations since the shootings. They have pledged some of it to help Roberts’ wife and his three children. Overflowing grace.

The Catechism says grace “escapes our experience and cannot be known except by faith.” Perhaps it can also be known in the pictures of grace we see. Pictures such as the Amish give us. Pictures of unlimited, uncontainable, unrelenting, almost unbelievable grace.

DaVigil Code—November/December clue

This clue appeard in the November/December issue of Today's Parish Minister.

The key to this clue is "Caesar" and "His box." If you Google "Caesar's box," you'll learn that it is a cipher supposedly invented by Julius Caesar. The cipher works by rearranging the letters of a secret message vertically and breaking the columns in such a way as to from a perfect square or box. So, if you spell out the first column of the box above horizontally, you will read:

Sacra

Continue on in the same fashion, and the entire text reads:

Sacramentary Easter Season nmbr. 8

If you flip open a sacramentary to the section titled "Easter Season," and then find the paragraph numbered "8," you will read:

Dear friends in Christ, on this most holy night, when our Lord Jesus Christ passed from death to life, the Church invites her children throughout the world to come together in vigil and prayer. This is the passover of the Lord: if we honor the memory of his death and resurrection by hearing his word and celebrating his mysteries, then we may be confident that we shall share his victory over death and live with him for ever in God.

If you know which night the text refers to, you are closer to finding the church's hidden treasure. Stay tuned for more clues.

Candle maintenance

Back in the day when I was a parish liturgist, I always used oversized candles for Advent (about four feet high by about four inches in diameter). Inevitably, they would get nicked and scratched in the goings on that happen in churches during the holidays. This recent post on Lifehacker reminded me of a useful trick; use old pantyhose to polish up your pillars just before liturgy begins.