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Monthly Archives: March 2010
Measuring Successful Parish Ministry
My background is in theology and in nonprofit business/administration. As such, I have sought ways to combine the best business practices within ministry. And, with that in mind, I have wanted to “measure” what makes a successful parish. What can we examine and evaulate to deem that a parish is doing well and another is not. Or are we just to throw everything up to, ”We will see the fruits in heaven?” There are many things we can analyze: offertory, mass attendance, number of baptisms and weddings, etc. While these would give us some perspective into the success of the parish, I think that they can be attributed (good or bad) to other factors outside of the parishes control. And, in some cases, I think these are additional by-products or secondary measurements caused by good catechesis and evangelization.
The two measurable areas that I think one could use to gauge a successful parish are the number of vocations to the priesthood and religious life and the size of ones Rite of Christian Initiation Program (R.C.I.A.).
Posted in Evangelization, Love & Truth, Parish Ministry
Tagged Parish Ministry, RCIA, Successful Parish, Vocations
1 Comment
Pro-Life Rosary App for iPhone, iPad and iPod Touch
Caritas et Veritas is proud to announce that Apple has approved the very first Pro-Life iPhone app for distribution!
Life Rosary – Meditations and Prayers is a meditation and instructive aid for those praying the Rosary. It does NOT replace your Rosary beads, but rather helps you focus on the mysteries of the Rosary.
Fr. Frank Pavone from Priests for Life has shared additional prayers and meditations to compliment and focus your attention on life and human dignity. Each day of the week includes special prayers for mothers, the unborn, for forgiveness, governments, and the world.
Our Pro-Life Rosary app is priced at $1 to help raise money for pro-life causes. All of the proceeds go to support pro-life initiatives and organizations, including Priests for Life. Our first iPhone app is free and was downloaded 25,000 times in 6 months. With your help in promoting this latest app, we could raise $25,000 or more for pro-life initiatives this year!
Please help us spread the word about this app to your friends, parish and diocese. Share this post on Facebook and Twitter.
Screenshots from Life Rosary – Meditations and Prayers
Each image is linked to a higher resolution version for press and sharing with friends.
Posted in Life Issues, Love & Truth, Prayer, Pro-Life
Tagged Abortion, iPad, iphone, Life, Prayer, Pro-Life, rosary
4 Comments
Lent for Life: Prayer
Next up in the Lent for Life series is Prayer.
The USCCB’s Pastoral Plan for Pro-Life Activities encourages us, alongside the Scriptures, to petition the Lord for mercy and justice.
Prayer is the foundation of all that we do in defense of human life. Our efforts—whether educational, pastoral, or legislative—will be less than fully fruitful if we do not change hearts and if we do not ourselves overcome our own spiritual blindness. Only with prayer—prayer that storms the heavens for justice and mercy, prayer that cleanses our hearts and our souls—will the culture of death that surrounds us today be replaced with a culture of life.1
I’d like to focus on three points in the pastoral plan that every one of us can take action.
Pray for life at every Mass
Parishes should include in the petitions at every Mass a prayer that ours will become a nation that respects and protects all human life, born and unborn, reflecting a true culture of life.2
As a new Catholic I was impressed by the prayers for life offered daily at Mass. If your parish does not participate in this request from the USCCB, please consider adding it to the book of petitions or speak with your pastor about including prayers for life at every Mass.
Posted in Life Issues, Love & Truth, Prayer, Pro-Life
Tagged Abortion, iPad, iphone, iPod Touch, Life, Pro-Life, rosary
4 Comments
Our Rosary App for the iPhone reaches 25,000 downloads!
I want to take a moment to celebrate with you as our first iPhone application, “Mysteries of the Holy Rosary“, reached 25,000 downloads this week.
This free application is a meditation and instructive aid for those praying the Rosary. It does not replace your Rosary beads, but rather helps you focus on the Mysteries of the Holy Rosary.
As a new Catholic, I had a difficult time remembering which mysteries matched each day. Although many other great iPhone Rosary apps allow you to ditch your physical Rosary, I wanted to experience the beauty of those venerable beads, as a tool to meditate on our Lord. So I built this app specifically to require zero input. Just open it and it will automatically select the mystery that matches today. If you’d like more you can switch to other mysteries, focus in on the beautiful artwork, or see simple instructions on how to pray the Rosary.
If you haven’t had an opportunity to look at the app for yourself, you can download it at the iTunes App Store.
If you like it please consider letting others know by rating and leaving a short review on iTunes. And a special thanks to the 350 of you who have already done so!
Lent for Life: Education
During this season of Lent I’m walking through the four approaches to pro-life action as suggested by the USCCB’s Pastoral Plan for Pro-Life Activities. With each of the approaches I hope to discuss how we might get involved in tangible and practical ways to “respect, protect, love and serve life, every human life.”1
The Pastoral Plan for Pro-Life Activities begins with Education and offers some essentials for action:
- Biblical and theological foundations that attest to the sanctity and dignity of human life
- Scientific information concerning the humanity of unborn children, especially that made available by modern genetic science and technology
- American founding principles, as articulated in the Declaration of Independence, that reflect unchanging truths about the human person
- Society’s responsibility to safeguard every human life, to defend life by non-violent means wherever possible, and never purposely to destroy innocent human life
- Discussion of effective and compassionate care for those who are terminally ill and for persons with disabilities
- Information about effective, compassionate, and morally acceptable solutions to the very real and difficult problems that can exist for a woman during and after pregnancy, as well as help for those who suffer from the consequences of abortion
Posted in Life Issues, Pro-Life
3 Comments