Apologies and an Update

I have to apologize for my absence from this space of late. I have so many other projects afoot... but I honestly think it's all part of God's plan for me and the ways I am privileged to serve the Church.

A few months ago, I participated in an abbreviated version of the Siena Institute's "Called and Gifted" process. Unsurprisingly, my top charisms include music, writing and teaching. However, it has been in the discernment it has become clear there is a reason that writing (and teaching) projects seem to be finding me. God wants me to write for the good of the church, which is the purpose, of course, of having been given a charism. All of this is not about me, or about pointless busyness but about the action of the Holy Spirit.

If you find my lack of blogging disturbing, here is where else to find me... all evidence that God has a purpose for me.

• My column. You may know that since the first of the year, I have had the privilege of serving as the regular catechetical columnist for Ministry & Liturgy magazine. I certainly did not seek this. The editor came to me. In the most recently published issue, I co-wrote an article on technology for children's faith formation, with Dan Gonzalez, a fellow M&L author and Catholic app developer. (see below)
• Mass booklet. Picked up another project just this week: a booklet on the Mass for children, also from LTP. Again, they called me.
• Blog contribution. Ongoing: my work as a partner blogger on Loyola Press's DRE Connect migrated over to Joe Paprocki's "Catechists' Journey" blog, which has now become an group project.
• More blog contribution. I also continue to contribute occasionally to Sister Caroline Cerveny's group blog, "Catechesis 2.0"
• (Another possible book project. In the proposal stage, it's been lurking for months... more later, if it comes to fruition.)

Other projects that have "found" me recently:

• Beta testing. I have, over the past 6 months or so, been beta-testing and assisting with liturgical definitions for the marvelous new Catholic Words & Games, recently released by Dan Gonzalez of Agnus, LLC. That spawned the additional M&L article mentioned above, which in turn, led to
• Pinterest boards.  I have created and curated considerable content (how's that for alliteration?) for a new group of liturgical catechesis boards. One on resources for teaching the Mass to children (co-curated by Dan Gonzalez to accompany the article we co-wrote) and several on liturgical seasons. These boards and their pins seem to have generated quite a bit of interest. 
• A webinar. I am preparing for an August webinar for Liturgy Training Publications on getting families to Mass. The webinar coordinator came to me with this suggestion.  Again, not my idea.
• Website assistance. I am now occasionally assisting with the  21st Century Catholic Evangelization website, a project of the NCCL Evangelization Committee, finding and posting content.
• Website management. I have updated and continue to expand my personal website: The Liturgical Catechist to interface with the new Pinterest boards and to keep content up to date for seasons, symbols, sacraments and other topics.
• Observing: lurking  and watching the latest session of Digital Disciple Boot Camp - occasionally participating, as I observe what participants are learning. 

Ongoing:

• Social networking.  my personal Facebook and Google+ pages, along with The Liturgical Catechist and pages for my office and the diocese. There may be a new page on its way for another organization I am involved with. Stay tuned. 
• Semi-work-related presentations. one for catechists in November on Advent, one in February for the Chicago Catechetical Conference, some local deanery presentations for leaders.
• My Real Job. And, of course, full-time work for the Diocese of Joliet Religious Education Office - a privilege that certainly keeps me occupied!
• Volunteering at the parish.  Teaching Confirmation and helping with music and liturgy ministries... always.

I'm sure there is more I am forgetting. The only thing I have been sitting back on a bit of late is facilitating online classes for University of Dayton VLCFF, from which I am taking a short hiatus due to low enrollment in my section this cycle. That, too, was not my doing, but I look at it as clearing space for other priorities. 

Yes, I am busy. Yes, it's good. So is God. All the time. 

No Turning Back: Deciding to Follow Jesus

This past weekend's readings, where several people receive calls from God and are tempted to take care of worldly concerns first - barbecuing the oxen, burying a father, etc. reminded me of a time in my life when I had that experience... and heard those readings in a very real and life-changing way. It's a tale of struggle, but one I am convinced proves that God has something in mind for each of us and is never far away. Several people have mentioned I should write about this, so here it is. It is my witness to the power of God's call.

I had received my Masters in Pastoral Studies (with emphasis in Liturgy) from Loyola Institute of Ministry Extension (LIMEX) in 1994, but had been unable to find full time work in ministry. By 1997, I was still working as secretary for a diocesan vicar for clergy (priest personnel) and part-time as liturgy coordinator in my parish, while moonlighting as a reviewer of classical music concerts for the local newspaper. I could not help feeling this was not what I wanted in the long term. A change in supervisors a couple years before had made me restless as my relationship with the new one was slightly rocky - unlike his predecessor, he did not treat me like a partner in ministry.

In the fall of 1997, I had made my Cursillo weekend, despite some severe health issues prior to major surgery - a long story, really - but during the weekend I had had an epiphany. For months before that, a "voice" in my head kept saying "Bloom where you're planted." I wasn't really blooming, just really getting by. After making a pretty routine confession at the Cursillo, I heard that voice again as I returned to my seat in the chapel. I finally rebelled - and retorted inwardly "I CAN'T bloom where I'm planted - I HATE where I'm planted!" Back at me, I heard, quite plainly "Then plant yourself where you can bloom!" That completely shocked me. I had never thought of leaving the city where I had lived for 19 years, raised my children and had my parish roots. I would never have considered it on my own.

That experience set off a job search which lasted for a number of months, with a number of false starts. However, when things did fall into place there was no mistaking that the choice to leave everything familiar and to follow that inner voice of the Spirit was the right one. Here's why:

• Liturgically, Lent 1998 was the worst thing ever in my parish - everyone was at each other's throats and an "interesting" decision by the environment committee had unleashed a small firestorm. As the embattled coordinator, I could not help but feel that the "tail of the snake", as St. Ignatius refers to it, was slithering around every corner. I felt like it was time to leave.
• Several job interviews were pleasant, but not successful. Nothing surfaced.
• I had the surgery in January - the recovery was 6 weeks away from work, during which I had time to think, discern and pray. I kept the regimen of walking around the neighborhood each day. That's when it happened.

One day, after an interview during which I found out that a parish seeking a liturgy coordinator was actually looking for an organist, even though that had not been advertised, I went for that daily walk. I was sad that this had not worked out, and in conversation with God about what he could possibly want from me. As I walked, I encountered a piece of a broken dish in the alley. Since I am a cantor and the psalms are all stuck in my head somewhere, the first thought was "I am forgotten like a dish that is broken." (Psalm 31:12) Picking up the fragment, I took it home, wrote the psalm verse on the back of it with a marker and put it into a box of prayer objects. God was obviously still in the process, I thought. Unmistakable sign.

Later that day, I talked to a friend in ministry - who told me that the parish I had just interviewed with had been replacing their director of religious education, had someone, but that person had just reneged on the signed contract. I called the diocesan RE office and asked the director what were the minimum requirements for becoming a DRE: a master's degree and three years as a catechist was the answer. I had that!  I immediately wrote the pastor a thank you note for the interview. I also mentioned that I had heard they were now looking for a DRE, and that I had the minimum requirements for that position. The next day, after he opened his mail, he called me and said "We need to talk."

What resulted was the creation of a dual position in religious education and liturgy. What happened next is that I had to get ready to leave all that was familiar - to go to a town where I knew exactly no one to do the work to which the Lord was calling me. It was frankly scary.

Over the weeks prior to my departure I heard a series of readings at Sunday Mass - John the Baptist saying that if the tree does not bear fruit it needs the ax - and a version of the story we heard this weekend - with the line “No one who sets a hand to the plow and looks to what was left behind is fit for the kingdom of God.” I know God was speaking directly to me.  I left. I did not look back. My life was changed... forever.

That was 15 years ago. The journey later led me to diocesan ministry and life in a mostly-Hispanic parish. I have never regretted a thing because I have always known this was all part of the call. No turning back.

Holy Saturday: We Prepare...

Holy Saturday. The people will arrive tonight at sundown, experience the lighting of the new fire, the proclamation of the Exsultet, the Vigil readings in the dark, the lighting of the altar and revelation of the beauty of the flower-decked altar and sanctuary... and this morning, small, dedicated groups of art and environment ministers and volunteers will put all those pieces in place so that the great liturgy can happen.

26 years ago, I came into Full Communion with the Catholic Church - and for 25 years, have participated, and even sometimes directed, the preparing of the liturgical space for the Easter Vigil. The tasks are many - ironing and placing a new altar cloth, placing the flowers in the sanctuary, font and vestibule - preparing the congregational taper candles for distribution at the door,  preparing and decorating the candlestick for the Easter Candle - and for some, the preparation of the materials for the Easter fire.

This year we have no adult baptisms, for the first time in memory, but normally, preparation of the font, placement of towels and preparing the dressing rooms also is a part of the task list. We will miss having a baptism, but even that cannot dampen my spirits.

Always, on this particular morning, I find myself gripped by a sense of excited anticipation....In a short while I will leave for my parish church to be part of these important preparations. We prepare the space for the people - and for the Resurrection of Jesus Christ, who will reveal himself in the light of the new fire as the sun sets tonight.

Living the Gospel: Pope Francis Blesses a Disabled Man in the Crowd

I cried when I saw this today:

On his way to the Inaugural Mass, Pope Francis was directed by his entourage to the edge of the crowd, where a disabled man was being held up by his friends in hopes of receiving a papal blessing.

Just like the friends in Mark 2:1-12, who lowered the disabled man through the roof of the house in which Jesus was speaking, these people carried their friend through the crowd of thousands,  in hopes of this very encounter.  In the midst of the papal pomp, a beautiful encounter of faith and love.

May Pope Francis continue to find opportunities for the love, responsibility and service he preached today in his homily: "We must not be afraid of goodness, of tenderness!"  This encounter, above all, was one of great tenderness.

The Role of the Ministries of the Word

Next Sunday, (3rd Ordinary Time) provides an ideal moment to reflect on the ministries of proclamation of the Word. In the Gospel we will encounter  Jesus standing in the Synagogue proclaiming from the scroll of Isaiah. Prior to that iconic moment, we have been set up to make connections. In the first reading, we hear of the awe of the intergenerational assembly, "men, women, and those children old enough to understand," as Ezra proclaims the Law of God from a wooden platform in an open place. In the second reading, we hear Paul speak of discernment of the various gifts in the community, including the ministries of the Word:

Now you are Christ’s body, and individually parts of it.
Some people God has designated in the church to be, first, apostles; second, prophets; third, teachers; then, mighty deeds; then gifts of healing, assistance, administration,
and varieties of tongues.
Are all apostles? Are all prophets? Are all teachers?
Do all work mighty deeds? Do all have gifts of healing?
Do all speak in tongues? Do all interpret? (I Corinthians 12:27-30)

Taken as a package, this is a ready made opportunity to talk about who in the community is sharing their gift to preach and teach the Word. It might be an ideal time to call attention to the ministry of the reader at Mass,  of the deacon and priest as lectors and preachers, and to catechesis as a ministry of the Word.

The General Directory for Catechesis notes

The ministry of the word is a fundamental element of evangelization. The presence of Christianity amongst different human groups and its living witness must be explained and justified by the explicit proclamation of Jesus Christ the Lord. "There is no true evangelization if the name, the teaching, the life, the promises, the Kingdom and the mystery of Jesus of Nazareth, the Son of God, are not proclaimed". Those who are already disciples of Jesus Christ also require to be constantly nourished by the word of God so that they may grow in their Christian life.  The ministry of the word is exercised in "different forms". The Church, since apostolic times, in her desire to offer the word of God in the most appropriate manner, has realized this ministry in the most varied of ways. All of these, however, perform the essential and fundamental functions of the ministry of the word itself. The ministry of the word, within the context of evangelization, transmits Revelation, through the Church, by using human words. These, however, always refer to works: to those which God has done and continues to do, especially in the liturgy; to the witness of Christians; to the transforming action which these Christians achieve, together with so many men of good will, throughout the world. This human word of the Church is the means used by the Holy Spirit to continue dialogue with humanity. He is, in fact, the principle agent of the ministry of the word, the one through whom "the living voice of the Gospel rings out in the Church—and through her in the world". (50) Catechesis itself, the General Directory tells us, "is that particular form of ministry of the word which matures initial conversion to make it into a living, explicit and fruitful confession of faith.” (82) The readings of the weekend call us to reflect on who the people are in our communities who are  called to the ministry of the Word in its different forms: primary proclamation in the gathered assembly, initiatory catechesis, continuous education in the faith, the liturgical function, and the theological function (GDC 51-52) As we hear about the ministry of proclamation and the gifts in the community next weekend, let us give thanks for the various people in our communities who have been called and gifted for proclamation of the Word.

Austerity or Abundance? When Church Budgets Drive Ministry Decisions

Today, I feel moved to engage in a little hand-wringing... and to pose lots of questions. With the stressed economy and falling contributions, some parish pastors have been cutting back on ministry salaries and hiring recently. I personally know of both catechetical and liturgical positions that have been converted to part-time, people who have been told the parish "can no longer afford to pay" them. It is heartbreaking to watch.

It began a couple years ago, when local pastors started letting full-time degreed lay ministers leave or retire, replacing them with part-timers with minimal formation for ministry. In my own diocese, this unfortunately coincided with the demise of our lay ministry formation program. This spring, I have watched with increasing dismay as excellent veteran ministers are pushed out at the behest of finance councils, or leave the ministry to retire while the pastor intends to get semi-volunteers to replace them.

Are we becoming an austerity Church rather than one of abundance?  We seem to be abandoning a theology of Christian hope and retrenching as if we are businesses instead of mission-driven agencies of the Kingdom of God on earth.  Have we forgotten the blessing to the Church that lay ministry provides?  Have we forgotten that the Holy Spirit is in charge?

At the same time parishes cut back, the cultural challenges to church participation and attendance are greater than ever and call for additional skills and strategies from our catechetical and liturgical leaders. Replacing them with well-intentioned but unformed people who are simply able to organize and operate a  program can only have negative effects.

We have not lost the need for catechetical leaders who can see the big picture - people with the ability to evangelize families and draw people into deeper participation in the life of the church, not just people who can "make the trains run on time."  We need people able to evaluate catechetical materials intelligently, who can deal with the very real issues of non-practicing parents of children in formation, and who have the ability to choose, lead and form catechists to provide more than what is in the textbooks.  We need leaders who can discern and support volunteers, with a vision for the future, who are available to attend local and diocesan formation to develop new strategies and skills, not part-time people who have another day job and/or the responsibility for a young family.

Parishes also need to provide more, not less adult faith formation. The promise of "Our Hearts Were Burning Within Us" that adult formation should become the priority in parishes has not been realized in most places - and without someone giving that area attention, parishes provide either nothing or very little to engage and catechize adults. Small wonder that stewardship of time, talent and treasure for many people is tepid or irrelevant to their Mass attendance (if they attend at all.)

This church needs liturgical ministers who understand the beauty of the liturgy and have the ability to lead volunteers to enculturate the celebration appropriately to make it lively and appropriate for the community, not just people to play keyboards. The most frequent complaint parishioners have is about the quality of liturgy.  When pastors cut back on liturgical staff, they make good liturgical leadership even less possible - and more of the burden goes onto the pastors themselves.

Back in 2005, Paulist Father Robert Rivers proposed that we need to go From Maintenance to Mission - to move forward as a church to accept the challenges of evangelizing in today's culture. Today, it is even bleaker than that, as we seem to backslide into retrenching, rather than maintaining.

So where are we going? Where is the vision? Where is our trust that "God will provide?" Why do we have such a failure of Christian hope? More than that, how does the trend toward retrenching affect our ability to carry out the Church's mandate to provide the "New Evangelization"?  Since pastors seem to be more and more adopting a business model of operation, why are they having so much trouble seeing that the more they invest in good people the more they will get back?

The ROI (return on investment) in good lay ministers who are able to work with a pastor and independently to provide and inspire great parish leadership will naturally be larger in terms of participation, engagement and stewardship of its people.  The experiments by the Gallup organization with "church engagement" strategies have shown how true that is.

The larger question here is why are pastors listening more to the voices of their business managers than to the voice of the Holy Spirit?   There is a term that seems to apply here: "Functional Atheism" - meaning we say there is a God, but we act as if God has no power to affect our situation.  We are going into a Year of Faith. Perhaps it should instead have been a "Year of Hope" instead.

Getting More Out of the Mass - Part 5: Praying the Responsorial Psalm

In the fifth part of this series, I would like to expand comments I shared recently at our parish Roman Missal sessions. This is another piece about the particular points of "internal participation" by the Assembly. (Part 1, Part 2, Part 3, Part 4)


During the Liturgy of the Word, there are two particular places for musical participation by the people.  The first of these is the Responsorial Psalm. The General Instruction of the Roman Missal says: "After the First Reading follows the Responsorial Psalm, which is an integral part of the Liturgy of the Word and which has great liturgical and pastoral importance, since it fosters meditation on the Word of God." (61)


The key word there is "meditation" - which clearly implies an engaged inner engagement with the text during the Psalm. This is not passive listening, or simple enjoyment of a song and joining in a refrain.

The cantor here takes on a specialized role:  "It is the psalmist’s place to sing the Psalm or other biblical canticle to be found between the readings. To carry out this function correctly, it is necessary for the psalmist to be accomplished in the art of singing Psalms and have a facility in public speaking and elocution." (G.I.R.M. 102)  Notice the role implies the ability to proclaim Scripture well - this goes beyond merely being a good singer, because the Psalm is more than a mere song. Ideally, the cantor will not just sing the Psalm, but pray it as well - sincerely interacting with the text, connecting spiritually to the words and how they have impacted his/her own life in the past, and impact it in the present moment. 


As a cantor/psalmist myself for almost 24 years, I have often been encouraged to make the Psalter my prayer book - to have a living relationship to the words I sing and proclaim and to make the Responsorial Psalm a moment of genuine prayer. There is no substitute for that. The authenticity of the cantor's prayer life should be transparent during the Psalm.  Therefore, the act of singing is secondary to the expression of the meaning of the text, which should come from the depths of the heart, without being so overly dramatic as to be distracting to the Assembly. 


Much of this expression can be accomplished through eye contact with the Assembly, the sincerity of the facial expression and the dynamics (level of loudness/softness) as the Psalm is proclaimed. Ideally, the cantor should sing a joyful psalm of praise with conviction and joy, or a psalm of contrition with a genuine sense of his/her own sinfulness and unworthiness.  It does not matter if the musical form is chant or through-composed. The inner engagement of the singer should be transparent.  The Psalm is not merely an expressionless chant. It is not merely a pretty song. It is never a performance.  Instead, it is a moment when the proclamation of the Scriptural text is incarnated - brought to life through the authenticity of the cantor.


Certainly, it helps if the cantor has the musical ability needed to make the singing of the psalm "beautiful," but knowing the music and being able to sing well is secondary to the ability to proclaim the text. The ability to make the music simply a vehicle for the prayer is what every cantor should strive for in his/her ministry.  When this is done well, the Psalm becomes a genuine dialog of prayer between the people and the cantor.  During the Responsorial Psalm, the cantor/psalmist is - like the priest in the rest of the Mass - the leader of prayer. While the cantor is the collective voice of the people as individual private human beings, each living their relationship with God along with all the emotions and situations described in the psalms, the priest is in his role leader of the voice of the Mystical Body of Christ, the gathered Assembly, raising the public prayer of the Church to the Father.


What is the role of the people during the Psalm? To listen and actively meditate on the words of the verses and to make both the verses they hear and antiphon they sing their own personal prayer - to "own" the Psalm as the voice of something in their own human experience.


Next: the Gospel Acclamation.

Roman Missal Implementation: Is it Change or is it Renewal of the Old?

(Apologies for the long silence on this blog. This is an incredibly busy time of year for those in diocesan catechetical offices, with all the parish start-up issues. It rather saps the energy.)

Back to the discussion  of  how parish leaders need to prepare for change with the upcoming implementation of the Roman Missal. In my last post, I referred to the article in With One Voice by Bishop Kicanas, who issued a call for change-agent tactics. Nobody likes change - especially in this era of rapid technological change - when most would prefer that the Church be an island of comfort and stability. I have discussed before in this space the issue of the pace of cultural change and how it affects the Church.  I posited then that there are two responses: to go forward or to hang back.

So, what is this process? Is it change, or is it renewal of the old? The implementation of the new texts is a case in which we are being called both to move forward to embrace a new future, but also to retrench and renew the liturgy as we do it. That, in effect, may make\ it twice as difficult. Some will see this simply as unwelcome change. Some will see it as recovery of something which was always there and never should have been changed in the first place - that the post-Vatican II translation was a temporary aberration.  Some will see it as one step forward, two steps back. All of these are valid feelings - but these may constitute the lines of polarization which are already developing in the Church over the issue of the Revised Roman Missal.

This is a complexity that goes beyond a simple call to change. Diocesan and parish ministers will be dealing with people all over the spectrum of opinion and acceptance.  This is not a case of all of us moving forward together as one people facing a single issue. Some people already see the new texts as a step backward. Some are overjoyed and see them as what is truly just and right and should have been all along. In the wake of the final approval by Rome, accompanied with additional changes which some have labeled as being even further from the Latin than the currently used text, some are frankly confused as to exactly how the translation principles of Liturgiam Authenticam have been applied.

In this "lull" between the approval and the implementation, it is good to take stock of the many issues and opinions we face and will continue to face as this thing moves forward. I hate to say it, but while change agency skills will definitely be important, perhaps the most important skills will remain, as they always have, the pastoral listening skills that every parish and diocesan minister needs.  We will need to listen to our people and assess the range of attitudes. Moving forward without acknowledging the confusion and diversity of opinions could make this a more difficult task.

Moving Forward with the Roman Missal: Laying the Groundwork for Change

I finally started reading my copy of With One Voice, a book of short essays from Federation of Diocesan Liturgical Commissions, last night and lo and behold, the opening essay from Bishop Gerald Kicanas of Tucson is about change agency and what is needed to implement the new Missal. While I agree with most of what he says, I strongly feel that catechetical staff and parish faith formation boards need to be a part of the implementation, not just liturgy committees. 

Bishop Kicanas comes from Chicago, and now Tucson, both places where there is likely to be large, well-developed liturgy committees in parishes. I think he is not realizing this is often not the case. Many smaller parishes do not have well-formed functioning committees, and often may have only a part-time musician who is not trained in liturgy.  That fact aside, I strongly believe that liturgical catechesis is the responsibility of both the liturgical and catechetical personnel of the parish (and the diocese).  Implementation of the new Mass texts is an opportunity to work together to provide a better experience of the Mass, and as sacramental enrichment, is rightfully shared ground and an opportunity for collaboration. If the two areas of parish administration work together, implementation may well be perceived by the people as more of an imperative, and not just the agenda of one group in the parish. If liturgists and catechists in a parish have not worked closely together before, this, too,  will be an area of change - and growth for them.

Bishop Kicanas cites a number of experts on change-agency, but the most useful thing I took away from his essay is the contention of William Bridges, an expert on organizational transition. Bridges says there are three stages to change: letting go or losing something, a neutral period of adjustment, and a new beginning.  He says we cannot short-cut this - we need to go through all three stages.

I suggest that parish and diocesan leaders are going to have to engage in these three stages before we can help the people do that. As in the familiar Kubler-Ross stages of grief, we may indeed revisit the loss stage at various points in the process, but to become a change agent, we have first to be convinced ourselves of the need for change. We have to go through our own sense of loss, our own time of neutrality, before we can be energized to move forward to lead implementation. 

"Training the trainers" workshops have been taking place around the country for exactly this reason. Far in advance of the actual implementation, leadership needs to be helped through their own process of letting go and accepting this change, formed, so that they, in turn, can form people in parishes. In our diocese, we will gather parish leaders, beginning in the fall, to talk this through. We will gather them in December to hear Fr. Richard Fragomeni talk about the mystery of the liturgy and liturgical spirituality -- the "soul" of the liturgy that must be addressed even before we discuss changing the words we pray. 

In the spring, our parish leaders will experience the Mystical Body, Mystical Voice event from the Liturgical Institute in Mundelein.  As follow-up next August, we are planning a practical workshop on helping children, youth and adults to deepen their understanding of the Mass (speakers will include Jerry Galipeau and Bob Piercy.)  We will have to talk about the new translation at regional cluster meetings, at adult faith formation leadership gatherings, and on the liturgical side, our diocesan office will be doing the same with their constituents as they, too, have practical workshops on changing the Mass responses, music and more.

Before we can enter this period of re-assessment, renewal and growth, we have to take the time for grieving, anger, resentment, and ultimately, letting go. To become an effective change agent, leaders must first be convinced  of the validity of the change. Personally, I'm well on my way to getting there. 

In upcoming posts, I plan to deal with skills for change agency for church leaders.

New Roman Missal: If Not Now, When? Moving Forward with Change

Have had a busy few days, but as the dust settles following last week's approval by the Vatican of the revised Roman Missal, I have heard a variety of reactions.  These have ranged from a sincere "Hey, I don't like change" from my young adult son, to those who have said they either don't think some of the priests will do it, or that they don't have much hope that this will be the much-vaunted catechetical moment that enriches the average Catholic's understanding and participation in the Mass. All I can say is, not if I can help it!

For those out there advocating a "Why don't we just wait?" attitude, and for those who have resigned themselves to a mediocre process of implementation for whatever reason, I challenge them to find a better moment to take a chance.  This could be a moment when we have an opportunity to affect the Church postively.  Instead of wringing our hands in dismay, or nay-saying about something beyond our ability to change, why not put the energy into affecting what we do have influence over - which is quite simply how well we personally respond to this task?

Being a change-agent is part of the normal job description of those in ecclesial ministry. Wherever the Church is called to move forward on something, diocesan and parish ministers are put in the position of helping average Catholics grow and learn to accept change, which is indeed a huge challenge.

A few years back, in my diocese, a large number of us went through the two-day training for Generations of Faith. People were then sent back to their parishes to change the paradigm of catechesis of children and youth from the drop-off model to an intergenerational model. During the training, John Roberto, then of GOF, explained that what was needed was skills for being a change-agent. What happened in many parishes with the GOF process, is that today their program incorporates some elements of intergenerational catechesis, or in some cases, catechesis is fully intergenerational. It was certainly not easy to make that change. I remember receiving phone calls in my diocesean office from disbelieving parents, inquiring whether this was OK, or protesting about the change.

What is different here is that we are not talking about an "option" but a requirement. About one-third of our parishes embraced intergenerational catechesis in some form. These are the parishes where they felt called and able to do this. All of our parishes are now being called to move to the new Mass translation. It is not an option, although without a doubt some pastors will treat it that way.

We need to embrace the opportunity to catechize about the Mass that the Missal presents by planning great strategies for catechesis and implementation.  Instead of moping about the vagiaries of  the process and the inconsistencies of translation principles,  we now need to find ways to move on and to move ahead with the task of preparing the people for this change - and of convincing them that it IS a good thing. That means we must now put aside our personal feelings about the translation and we must work hard ourselves to find what is positive here so we can communicate that positivity to others.  I have chosen to do that.  Sister Kathleen Hughes, in her address to the National Association of Pastoral Musicians in July said she was choosing not to be "crabby" about the new Missal. I believe that's the right attitude.
 
Personally, my next step is to dig out my Generations of Faith training binder and take a look - and to research change-agency skills so I can help our parish leaders. (More about that in future posts.)  We have been handed a mission, and an opportunity, catechetical folks. Let's not waste it.  We don't want to look back in 5 years and say that only some parishes made the change and that (as some people are predicting) we have effectively split into two worshiping traditions - Roman Missal II and Roman Missal III parishes. Even if that were to happen in spite of our best efforts, personally, I don't want to look back and say I wish I had tried harder to prevent it. I'd reather be able to say that I did the best I could to help implement the new translation.

Gonna go off and dust off my change-agent badge.

Ministry Blues: How much can one person possibly do?

A little down tonight. Kind of a rough day at work. I found that I am even further behind than I had believed... discovered an uncompleted large project, got several additional projects that seemed, like rabbits, to take on a life of their own, reproduce and generate even more tasks, got a few things done, had a bit of a venting fest with someone I work with, got out of the building long after everyone else was gone... well, it wasn't exactly a great day.

OK, Ms. Perfectionist here doesn't like discovering I have missed something. The unfinished project should have been completed last summer... but I am trying to be charitable with myself, realizing that last year at this time, I was pretty much non-functional, in the early throes of grief at losing the person dearest to me - and that the additional responsibilities for our diocesan Year of the Eucharist have tied me up for months.  However, it goes beyond that, to the question  - in this time of shrinking ministry resources and reductions of staffs on all levels of the Church, how much can we be expected to do?  Do we drop our daily standards or do we try to uphold them until WE drop?

I have a picture in my office that my friend Jim had given to me - of the Cat in the Hat juggling an umbrella, fishbowl and several other objects while balancing on a beach ball...  and many days I feel that really is what I must look like. Paste that smile on my face, act like I am having fun, when unlike the Cat, I am really just trying to make it through without falling off the ball or dropping anything. (Well, anything important, maybe!)

I remember parish ministry - it really was no different. In my last position, as director of religious education and directory of liturgy, I pretty regularly put in 60-80 hour weeks. I simply did not have a life. I hear the same story from most other parish ministers.  It always, for me, was that there were tasks to be done, and it was a priority to get them done - and there often was no one else to do it. If I had a nickel for every night after RE or an adult faith formation session that I was the last one in the building, cleaning up and locking up, I'd have my retirement savings in good order! 

With the much-touted "bad economy," our office has, over the past couple of years, watched parishes let full-time, qualified people either retire or ask them to leave, and replace them with part-timers who do not need benefits, or simply eliminate the position.  For those left to do the work, it becomes doubly hard - parishes are relying on them to do more, with less. Everywhere we gather with other diocesan leaders, it is the same as our situation. Once we were a very large office. Now, there are two of us in ministry and two support staff people. Certainly, we are able to do less. Yet many tasks do not disappear just because we cannot do them - and these stack up and the guilt is allowed to gnaw away at us.

Scripture (and the familiar old song) point out "the harvest is plenty, laborers are few". And how!  But lately, even the plentiful harvest seems to elude us, as Mass attendance and parish involvement continue to decline. One disturbing trend, directly attributable to the drop in parish and diocesan income/stewardship is for business managers to take the lead in decision-making that affects ministry, without really having any solid knowledge of what ministry entails. Instead of boldly going forward, trusting God will provide, ministry personnel are cut, hours are cut, or much-needed resources are reduced.

This happened a while back at my own parish - and now, in a parish that is actually growing because of the increasing population of Hispanic immigrants (but whose income is not keeping pace), we are asking, even though the diocesan finance office has affirmed our cuts as being instrumental in creating financial solvency - are we shooting ourselves in the foot by cutting back on ministry services?

Where are these trends going? How many people will be burn out on the way back to sanity - or will we even head back there at all.? Or, was it really ever sane? Is the answer just to trust and plan great things and do as many of them as we can? Not sure. I do know that a lot of God's people are very tired - and tonight I am one of them!

Winding down the Catechetical Year

This is the time of year in diocesan catechetical ministry when things begin to slow down - and the time to pick up all the little loose ends of things that have been set aside because of more pressing priorities.  It is time to finalize details of events for next year's calendar, to review safe environment training reports, and more. 

It is also time to reflect on the ministry. In the last year, I have had many opportunities to make a difference... even though at the time, it might not have seemed that was what was happening!  In an office with limited staffing, it can seem like there are so many tasks each day that I can never hope to catch up.

I look back and the moments I remember most are those in which I made contact with people who were trying to work out particular issues: the young mother who was ready, a bit belatedly, to put her 4th grade  son in religious education and needed to hear whether the options she was being offered made sense; the man who had recently felt the call to help start adult faith formation in his small rural parish, the harried DRE who needed advice on how to prepare a baptized, uncatechized older student for First Communion.  These and many other moments were ones when it was clear that I was fulfilling my mission - the reason I am in diocesan ministry - to be the human face of the Church - to help people navigate the "system", to make their lives easier by matching them to the strategies, resources and people that can help.

I find that when I can help at least one person every day, the other, less-pleasant tasks are more bearable.  It is those moments, when the phone rings, and like Jesus, who met people along the road as he was on the way to somewhere else, and stopped to listen to what they need, I listen and try to help that person put the pieces together, that makes it all worth it.