Elevating Our Standards

Dear Friends: Happy Summer!  We are now officially in the season where most people have become accustomed to relaxation and finding ways to refresh their body, mind and soul. Given what we’ve all just been through, despite our need for rest, I’m betting that this year Summer will be different for many of us.   If you’re like me, while observing the lockdown and stay at home orders, many of us have worked harder than ever.  I know that parents have been juggling full time jobs on top of learning a new career - teaching their children!  Our seniors have reported that their work of checking on and caring for one another has been quite busy and has left them exhausted.  And many parish staffs, ours included, have taken the crash course in making ministry available in new and unique ways.  The bottom line is ... we all need a break! In these days, while we all seek that necessary rest and refreshment, I ask you to take some time to think about how we can become a better parish - how we can elevate our standards - how we can go from good to great.  Surely, this will require some change.  In his book of the same name, Good to Great, Jim Collins writes: “Companies [and Churches] that make the change from good to great have no name for their transformation—and absolutely no program. They neither rant nor rave about a crisis—and they don't manufacture one where none exists. They don't “motivate” people—their people are self-motivated.” Here at St Teresa of Avila, we are not embarking on a new program, and thus have no name for our transformation.  We also have no new program.  We are aware of the crisis that we’re still navigating through and we know that to be successful and to survive for future generations, we need to make some changes today.   Life in 2020 is different and has left an indelible mark on human history. Things will never be the same - and that includes things in our parishes too!  It’s not possible to live one day more on the fumes of the past, and we cannot simply return to the pre-COVID days.  Instead, we need to move forward in faith with a new mindset, focusing on the essentials, eliminating the distractions and fully engaging in our important work.  And we all must be motivated to engage!  Every book I read on how to be a better parish, how to be a stronger Church and how to become a more faithful believer all have a part that underlines how fear seems to get in the way of success.  It’s this fear that holds leaders back from making the hard decisions, allowing mediocrity to prevail.  The Scriptures tell us more than 365 times - be not afraid. That’s more than once a day! In his writings, James Mallon often reminds pastors that in making change, we need to be attentive to culture.  He quickly adds that “culture eats strategy for breakfast.”  While it is very important for us to remember and respect the beautiful traditions and St Teresa of Avila culture, we cannot fail to see the importance of having a clear strategy for our future.  If we are ever going to be successful in realizing our vision - to make disciples of Jesus - then we will need a plan and a strategy. Our strategy will focus on four essentials: 1.  Proper celebration of the sacraments - with the Eucharist being pre-eminent 2.  Generous service especially to benefit the poor and most vulnerable 3.  Reigniting growth in understanding and teaching our Catholic faith 4.  Celebrating the dignity and worth of all human life People have asked me over the years, and even in my time here with you whether I’m happy being a priest.  My answer is, “I love being the Pastor of St Teresa of Avila because it’s a great parish with so much potential!”  Perhaps it’s the frustration of unlocking that potential that is my greatest challenge.  Some days my happiness is dimmed a bit because I know that it’s the failure of truly living to the level of our potential that will prevent us from becoming great instead of just settling for what is good.  (We would never do that in other realms of our lives. It seems to me that the Church today and many parishes too have settled for mediocrity.  Some priests have become lazy, unfocused, even disobedient.  In those parishes, Masses have become “routine” and uninspiring, service is only at the most expected times like holidays, religious education is rote and neither creative nor engaging, and all human life is not respected as reflecting God’s own image.  As priests, we have to own our shortcomings before change can happen in our parishes. Unfortunately, some people have also prevented the Church from truly becoming great.  And while there are many different reasons, one older priest describes the most concerning group as “cultural Catholics”.   A cultural Catholic is a person who identifies with  Catholic traditions but does not actively practice the religion.  Some cultural Catholics may still attend church at special occasions, such as Christmas, Easter,  infant baptism, Confirmation, weddings and funerals, but that’s it!  We all know cultural Catholics and surely we love them, but if we are to succeed, we all need to do better! Parishes need engaged members who are highly passionate, enthusiastic and excited to be a member AND they also need priests and ministers who understand that we are doing God’s work, and we have to give it our best.   Next week, we will close our series with looking at how we build a mentoring culture, that is, how we pass on the faith and our Church to the next generation.  Surely, one of the best ways is by our good example.  I hope you will join me in that challenge today so that we will have a Church to pass on tomorrow.    Blessings! RSM

Reducing the Distractions

Dear Friends:

Happy Fathers’ Day! On this special Sunday, I pray that my father, affectionately known as Monk, and all our fathers feel honored for all their years and sacrifices for leading their family. I also hope that on every other day of the year, you, our fathers, feel how truly loved you are!

Perhaps it is fitting that on this special day for dads, as we continue our series on how to revitalize our church, we take a deeper look at how we can better worship our “Dad in heaven,” God our Father - not only in words of praise, but with our lives.

Now Saint, then Pope, John XXIII was elected in 1958. His favorite title was “Servant of the Servants of God.” The story is told about him that at bedtime, in a childlike manner, he put his trust in God and would say, “I’ve done my best I could in your service this day, Oh Lord. I’m going to bed. It’s your church. Take care of it!”

As churches across the Western world wither, it’s that careful balance of “doing the best we could in God’s service” and then “trusting the rest to the Lord” that is the perfect formula to revitalize our Church - one that embodies the vision of making disciples of Christ. Making disciples begs the questions:

• What would it take to find an honest and humble way, where all people are nurtured by God’s sacramental grace that would empower each person to live every day as Church?

• How could we be better grounded in God’s expansive love so as to generously serve others, especially the poor and most vulnerable?

• What would it take to carry the liturgy outside the walls of St Teresa of Avila and teach our faith not only by our words but with our actions and daily example?

• What would our lives be like if we were to discover that in feeding others, we ourselves are fed?

Jesus declared, “I will build My Church” (Matthew 16:18). No matter how this passage is interpreted, it speaks of a church that the gates of hell shall not prevail against and could never be destroyed. But, echoing the words of the beloved Saint John XXIII, we have to do our part, only only in working to build up the Church, but also ensuring not to destroy it!

Over the 2,000 years of our Church’s history, the mission has grown to include many things. The Catholic Church has been the sponsor of hospitals, nursing home, schools, universities, orphanages, dispensaries and so many other institutions that have cared for and assisted people. And although some recent revelations report that there have been some errors, even serious ones, for the most part the Church has cared for, assisted and loved people in all parts of the world.

The same can be said of our parish. For our more than 150-year history, St Teresa of Avila has stood proudly here in this community to celebrate the sacraments, educate children, feed the hungry, console the anxious, bury the dead and so on. But it goes without saying that the way we do what we do today is so different than at any other point in our history. All the circumstances of our current reality - staffing, engagement, finances, enthusiasm, etc all shape the kind of parish we have become - and there’s no turning back. We cannot, and should not, try to recreate the past.

We cannot do everything. The time has come to reduce the distractions, removing things that take us away from our mission. While this can be seen as a painful process, especially with the elimination even of good things, we need to focus on advancing our mission by participating in the most important things. Every parish has things we like, and people who like them, but in order to survive here and now, some programs, ministries and practices will have to be eliminated or reconfigured. Our time under quarantine has given us good opportunity and training for adaptation.

There is no doubt everyone has their pet project or ministry that they are willing to champion, protect and defend. However, the time has come to ask the hard questions for everything we do, “how does this help advance our vision to make disciples for Christ?” This question needs to be asked not only for this generation but in preparing for our unknown future. Exercising prayerful wisdom and discernment, we will begin the examination of our schedules, ministries, and opportunities to see what is really necessary going forward.

Today’s Catholic planners remind us that “programs were made for man/woman, not woman/man for programs.” Our goal here at St Teresa of Avila is to offer our parishioners the best worship, the most essential ministries, informative and creative education for children and adults, and meaningful service opportunities. The end result is always about people having an opportunity to encounter and become more like Jesus.

Despite the newness, and perhaps even the uncomfortableness, I hope you will join and support us as we re-configure our parish. I have every confidence that the best is yet to come!

Blessings!

Father Bob

Identifying the Essentials

Dear Friends:

Today our Church celebrates the Feast of the Body and Blood of Christ, Corpus Christi, for those who prefer the Latin! It’s a day to remember our Catholic teaching that Jesus appears to us in the species of bread and wine, actually giving the world his own body and blood as real food for our spiritual journey. This core teaching sets us apart from many other Christian denominations who teach that the elements merely “represent” or “symbolize” Jesus but are not actually his own body and blood.

In 1965, the Second Vatican Council taught that:

“The Most Blessed Eucharist contains the entire spiritual boon of the Church, that is, Christ himself, our Pasch and Living Bread, by the action of the Holy Spirit through his very flesh vital and vitalizing, giving life to men (and women) who are thus invited and encouraged to offer themselves, their labors and all created things, together with him.”

Because the Eucharist shows itself as the source and summit of the whole work of preaching the Gospel, means that we cannot believe anything else more central than that. Belief in the real presence of Jesus in the Eucharist is essential for all Catholics, despite perhaps not fully understanding or being able to adequately explain the mystery.

As we continue in our series on how we revitalize and re-open our parish, this week we find ourselves at discussion point #2: Identifying the Essentials.

I’m guessing that a bit of context and some recent history may help. For many of our parishioners who participated in the life of the parish in 1962-1965, the years of Vatican II, you will remember this parish (as most parishes) engaged only with a few things: sacred ministers, sacraments, schools and some service. Priests, religious brothers, and religious sisters directed and organized the model - and surely not all as equal partners.

The role and responsibility of the parishioner was often referred to simply (and unfortunately) as pray, pay and obey! A certain English Monsignor of the 19th century quipped with regard to the laity, “to hunt, to short, to entertain - these matters they understand, but to meddle with ecclesiastical matters they have no right at all?” Time has shown how wrong he was!

Looking deeper, before the Council laity were passive spectators in the liturgy, often praying devotional prayers while they were “hearing” Mass since the readings were in Latin. Of course, lay ushers collected and counted the money, and often the choir and its director were lay. As for the apostolic life of the church, laity were involved in charitable works of mercy through such groups as the Knights of Columbus and the Society of Saint Vincent de Paul. However, teaching of the faith was predominantly the role of the priests and the sisters.

Then along came the Vatican Council when Saint, then Pope John XXIII “opened wide the windows of the Church” ushering in a more expansive vision and a more inclusionary model - one where leadership and direction was opened to and encouraged of lay people too! Over a three-years period more than 2,000 bishops from all over the world, assisted by thousands of advisors, issued 16 landmark documents. While no new dogma as issued, the council transformed the church from an exclusive to an inclusive institution.

We live now as Catholics in 2020, days that have been marked for human history as challenged by the world-wide scourge of COVID-19 and more recently by protests and movements against racism. Additionally, we continue to suffer from a serious decline in Church attendance. One study shows that from 2014 to 2017, an average of 39% of Catholics reported attending church in the past seven days. This is down from an average of 45% from 2005 to 2008 and represents a steep decline from 75% in 1955. (Https://news.gallup.com/poll/232226/church-attendance-among-catholics-resumes-downward-slide.aspx)

In this context we need to ask some important questions:

• How do we identify the essentials?

• How do we see and respond to the signs of the times?

• How do we work together, each with our unique gifts, to make disciples of Jesus?

While my thoughts are still forming, and I welcome your thoughts, I would submit the following are essentials for us:

1. Proper celebration of the sacraments - with the Eucharist being pre-eminent.

2. Generous service - especially to benefit the poor and most vulnerable.

3. Re-igniting growth in understanding and teaching our Catholic Faith.

4. Celebrating the dignity and worth of all human life.

Authors, including James Mallon, have written that we are at the end of Christendom suggesting that what we have no longer reflects the reality around us. What we have is designed to reach a world that no longer exists. To be successful, and quite frankly to survive, we will need to move our parish model from maintenance to mission, focusing better and more generously on what we can do for all people, especially those people who are on the fringe, who have walked, or run away from our Church.

Success will not be achievable by circling the wagons, getting defensive, or bemoaning our new reality. These times give us new opportunities to embrace our mission with a new vitality. As mission will drive our structure, we will have to take a hard look at all our resources and how we use them. Our current reality will force us to make difficult decisions.

With your help, I know that we can bold do what needs to be done. With your support, I know that we can re-open and re-invigorate our parish not just from the closure caused by the pandemic, but to advance our vision, to make disciples of Jesus. The pruning may hurt, but new life is not possible without it.

I hope you will join us on this exciting journey - re-committing to being engaged members who are enthusiastic and excited about being a part of the mission of Jesus. Future generations are counting on you! I’m counting on you - but more importantly, so is the Lord!

Blessings!

Father Bob