Reflections on Renewal

Why do traditional metrics like attendance, sacraments, and tithing fall short in measuring parish success? Explore how focusing a different focus can help your parish.

The mission of the Church flows from Christ’s mission as Prophet, Priest, and King. This creates a practical demand for how we live as individual Christians and as a Church.

All ages are increasingly disconnected from the Church, but a growing number of young Catholics are turning back to traditional teaching and practices. Is this enough?

What seems like a practical problem is actually much more than that. Chronic busyness becomes a self-centered prison, where I don’t even have time to stop and see that I’ve become trapped.

The goal of discernment is to be able to distinguish God’s will from our own desires or temptations. We do this in order to make choices and live in union with God’s will.

The personal conversion deeply influenced Western civilization’s moral and spiritual fabric. It is this transformation that comes through a personal encounter with Jesus Christ which we need to rediscover today.

Few people have been presented with the fullness of the Gospel. All they know is a tame, domesticated version. The Jesus they know is not demanding or incompatible with their already established hierarchy of values.

Every year I turn into the Grinch. “I must stop Christmas from coming…” till the 25th anyway. Advent has been entirely pushed out by holiday celebrations that start even before Thanksgiving leftovers can be put away.

Taking responsibility for our life and living intentionally is a tremendous challenge, but it’s the only thing that makes life worth living and embracing that responsibility is the necessary first step to holiness.

St. John Paul II describes the parish as “the family of God, a … welcoming home.” Do these words have any meaning today? Is the average parish an experience of home? What does it mean to be “home”?