​A few days after the last blog post I was driving home from something and as I reached the garage a stray thought appeared, 'You know those monthly small steps, it would be a whole lot easier to do them as a group, and a whole lot likelier that they would happen'.

My guess is that Saturdays between Morning Mass and Vigil Mass is a good time because it would suit those who work Mon-Fri, it would suit retirees who no longer like going out at night, and theoretically would be easier for parents with children to take turns at attending.

Your circumstances will be different, so adjust accordingly.
We have a 9am Saturday morning Mass, and a 5pm Vigil Mass.
The 9am Saturday morning Mass is preceded by the Morning Prayer of the Church and followed by a short time of Exposition of the Blessed Sacrament that culminated in Benediction around 10am. During Exposition, the Confessional is open for business.
After Benediction the Rosary is prayed.
We also have a large meeting room equipped with Audio Visual stuff, in the same building as the Church.

For our circumstances, that means morning tea starting around 10.25am in time for the Monthly Plenary Council Steps to begin at 10.45am should work. Start with a prayer calling upon the Holy Spirit and a prayer invoking the aid of Mary, Help of Christians.

Part 1: Missionary and Evangelising (30mins)
Either get a past graduate of an RCIA program in the parish to come and tell his/her conversion story in 15-20 mins with the remainder of the 30 minutes filled with question time or general discussion time. However it is going to more likely be question time, since apart from the conversion story itself, you will want to ask questions about what helped or hindered that 'journey home' and what were the catalysts that started opening up his/her heart and mind, and what they think would have been helpful to them as a newbie at Mass.

Alternately find one of the first Monday Journey Home programs from the Coming Home Network. They have the first half hour as testimony and the last half hour for question time. Find one of them and together watch the first half.

Part 2: Inclusive, Participatory and Synodal (30 mins)
In every parish there are people with hearing aids, low vision, walking sticks, wheelchairs, others recovering from surgery, or who have special needs children, or who are battling depression and treatment for cancer. Ask one of them, or two of them with the same set of difficulties to come, and to talk about their regular routine in getting to and from Mass, any struggles they have during Mass, anything they think would make access and participation easier for them. Use any remaining time of the 30 minutes as question time or discussion time.

Over time this should lead us to a greater awareness of the needs of others, a deeper compassion for each other, and maybe some simple practical improvements.

Part 3: Prayerful, Sacramental and Eucharistic (10 mins)
Send everyone off into the parish church for 10 minutes of personal prayer.
(Since not everyone is going to make it to the time of Exposition before Benediction)

Lunch Time (30 mins)

Part 4: Humble, Healing and Merciful (30 mins)
This is alone time with God and the aid of a notebook and pen.
Think about the people in your life with whom you are not at peace, write down their names, and ask for God's help to forgive them, and then seek forgiveness from God for holding onto resentments. Then pray a prayer for each person on that list, asking God to bless them and bring them closer to Himself. If there is anything practical that God prompts you to do for one or more of them, write it down, and make it a priority to do it.

If any time remains, make a list of everyone you know who is sick, seriously ill or suffering, and then pray for each one of them individually.

Part 5: A Joy-filled, Hopeful and Servant Community (30 mins)
With the same notebook and pen write down three blessings of the past week or month that you want to give God thanks for, and then write a paragraph about a time in the past month where you knew God was active in your life (eg saved from an accident, a chance meeting with someone who had the exact answer you had been looking for, an unexpected supernatural peace after hearing disturbing news). That should take no more than 10-15 mins, then share it with 2 or 3 others in the group, and listen in turn to their blessings and stories.

It is only when we stop and look back that we can more clearly see where God has been active in our lives. Gratitude leads us to joy, and sharing our reasons for gratitude increases our trust in God – which leads to hope.

Afternoon tea break (20 mins)

Theme 6: Open to Conversion, Renewal and Reform (1 hour)
From the Gospel passages for the next 4 Sundays, select a single chapter, and have copies of that Gospel chapter printed out. Give everyone a copy, and then direct each one to find a place to be alone with God, to slowly read through that Gospel chapter and then ask God what dreams He has for you, what things He would like to see happen in your family life, work life, ministry life, community life, and write down any ideas and out-of-the-blue thoughts that come, and write them down in your notebook. You may need to start by writing down your own dreams, and then ask God if they align with His dreams, or if they are big enough to match the dreams He has for you. Towards the end, place all the dreams in His hands and ask Him to confirm for you which ones come from Him and which you should work on, and which ones are not from Him and which you should gently let go of.

Conclusion: Come back together and pray a simple prayer, (eg Our Father) as a conclusion, and then invite anyone who would like to take the option to stay and talk, or who would like someone to pray for them to remain.

In more condensed form that looks like:
Morning Tea 10.25am
Conversion Story + Q&A 10.45am
Disability & Inclusion Story + Q&A  11.15am
Personal Prayer 11.45am
Lunch 11.55am
Praying for Relationships in tension 12.25pm
Sharing our Blessings 12.55pm
Afternoon Tea 1.25pm
Dreaming with God 1.45pm
Conclusion 2.45pm (prayer requests and having a chat might take that to 3.30pm)

A monthly period of recollection is something the Church encourages with a partial indulgence, and a monthly day like this would qualify.

Of all these things, if you could only do a few of them, make Dreaming with God and Praying for Relationships in tension the priorities.

If you wanted something like this to form the backbone of your parish response to the Plenary Council, go for it. You wouldn't even need to wait for the first session of the Plenary Council to begin. It is something that could start quickly and with not much to do for set up (pray, find speakers, set up meeting room, arrange tea & coffee, provide pens & paper, print off Gospel chapter, work out whether BYO lunch or a tray of pre-prepared sandwiches would suffice)and not much by way of cost.
​
Small do-able steps inspired by the 6 Themes, like the ones above, can have a very big long term impact.

​The discernment part of the Plenary Council is supposedly in full swing, although it seems only group submissions are being accepted. Since I don't have a group, and it would be a dishonesty to submit something from a group of one, I will blog it instead.

My catalyst for writing is reading through some 20 pages of a group submission a relative of mine has been involved in. Those some 20 pages cover the 6 themes, with a reasonable amount of overlap between the themes. Having actually read other submissions from the consultation stage, online and offline, it is substantially representative of what the discernment groups have been receiving.

The other catalysts are the recent message from Queen Elisabeth II that repeatedly mentioned small steps as necessary on the way to greater good, and some videos from Dr Henry Cloud on YouTube about leadership: in particular the notion about focussing on what we can actually control, and giving people permission to work on those things they can actually control even if it is as seemingly small as smiling at your customers.

As I see it, there's a problem with all the 'we should do this', 'we should have that', and 'we need/must do this's that form the backbone of most submissions -
a) it all sounds like it is going to be done by an eager group of nameless people with infinite resources, time and talents
b) it doesn't take account of the already depleted/overextended people currently trying to hold together all that the parishes are already doing
c) by and large it lets 'me' off the hook.

So I am going to do something novel and look at the 6 themes from the angle of what small step or steps could someone in the pew actually do towards making the vision of those 6 themes a reality. Lots of people doing one small step, and encouraging each other to do that one small step, could make much more of a difference than we ever would have thought possible.

All of them need to be, 'Hey, yes, I could do that!'

Just choosing one step from each theme would be a very good start.

Theme 1: Missionary and Evangelising
•Take the time to think about and write about a time where God was very active in your life; what was the situation, what did God do? how did you know it was Him? what changed in your life because of this. 1 Pet 3:15
•Pray a short prayer every day for a friend or relative to be given a life changing encounter with Jesus
•Simplify your life so that there is room in it to take up a hobby that brings you in to interaction with people outside your parish community
•Once a month sit down and watch an episode from The Journey Home programme produced by the Coming Home Network https://chnetwork.org/about how God brought someone home to the Catholic church. Doing that will teach you that God is active in everyone's lives, and give you some simple ways to explain why Catholics do what they do if someone asks you.

Theme 2: Inclusive, Participatory and Synodal
•Be connected to what is going on at diocesan, national and global level by adding feeds from your diocese, Australian Catholic Bishop's Conference and Pope Francis to your favourite social media platform.
•Do something intentional once a month to learn about the actual experiences of people with disabilities. That could be online learning: http://disabilityandjesus.org.uk/ is a good place to start, as is the #actuallyautistic hashtag. Or it could be offline learning: having a chat to someone is the parish with low vision; or who wears hearing aids; or who comes to Mass with a walking stick; or visiting (with permission) a family of a special needs child.
•Once a month get to know someone's full name at church, and something about them, because to a certain extent most of us don't feel like we belong unless someone notices those times when we are missing.
•Understanding increases participation. Once a week read a page from the Catechism of the Catholic Church from the section on the Sacraments https://www.vatican.va/archive/ENG0015/_INDEX.HTM, or a page from the documents of Vatican II or a page from a papal encyclical.
•If you are not already contributing to the parish community in some way (eg. choir, church cleaning, St Vincent de Paul society, counting team, taking Holy Communion to the sick, welcomer etc) seek God seriously about what how He would like you to contribute your gifts and talents, and then act on it.
•Smile at everyone whom you come across at church, particularly anyone who seems to be struggling or who seems uncertain about the responses and when to stand, sit and kneel, or at anyone who has made the extra effort to bring their children to church.

Theme 3: Prayerful, Sacramental and Eucharistic
•If you do not already have a regular daily prayer time, commit yourself to 10 minutes of prayer a day.
•If you do already have a regular daily prayer time, increase it by 5 minutes.
•Find 5 minutes to spend quietly with Jesus in the Blessed Sacrament every week. That could be before Mass, after Mass, or a special visit during the week to an open church or Blessed Sacrament chapel.
•Find a prayer of Spiritual Communion that you like, and pray it once a week, or more frequently if you wish.
https://www.ewtn.com/catholicism/devotions/act-of-spiritual-communion-339
https://www.ourcatholicprayers.com/spiritual-communion.html
•Do you have a holy water stoup at home? Keep it filled with holy water, and bless yourself with it every time you leave home. If you haven't got one, get one, and use it.

Theme 4: Humble, Healing and Merciful
•Make a commitment to listen whole heartedly to anyone who wishes to share their burdens with you, and to only offer advice if they ask for it.
•Start a regular practice of contributing to the lives of those less fortunate than yourself. It might look like putting some money in to the St Vincent de Paul poor box each Sunday, or finding a worthy charity and setting up a monthly direct debit donation, or volunteering to regularly do grocery shopping for an elderly neighbour.
•Once a month to take a few minutes to think about the people in your life with whom you are not at peace, and to ask for God's help to forgive them, and to seek forgiveness from God for holding onto resentments.
•Choose a short prayer you like that you could pray every day for all those you know, or have been told, who are sick or seriously ill or suffering from mental illness – and pray it daily.

Theme 5: A Joyful, Hope-filled and Servant Community
•Make a list every day of at least 3 things you are grateful to God for eg. quality time spent with a friend, being able to hear the birds sing, an answer to prayer.
•Go looking for a story every week about how God has been active in someone else's life. You might find that testimony on a video or blog, in an autobiography or over a coffee with a friend; and let that story nourish the hope within you that God is just as active in your life.
•If you are in leadership, start regularly asking your team members the question, 'What can I do to help you reach your ministry goals?' It might mean getting a light bulb replaced, or recruiting a helper, or diffusing an issue of conflict, or similar. And do it to the best of your ability.
•If you don't already know them, find out the dates of your baptism, confirmation, first Holy Communion and do something intentional to celebrate them every year; and make special effort to celebrate and acknowledge the wedding anniversaries, ordination anniversaries and religious commitment anniversaries of those God has placed in your life.
​
Theme 6: Open to Conversion, Renewal and Reform
•Read a passage of the Word of God every day, or two chapters from the Bible every week. Soaking our minds in God's truth will gradually show us where we are out of alignment with His ways and strengthen our wills to get our lives into alignment.
•Make a commitment to going to confession (Sacrament of Penance) monthly.
•Find a prayer to the Holy Spirit that you like, and make it part of your daily prayer time.
•Make a commitment to setting aside an hour every month to ask God what dreams He has for you, what things He would like to see happen in your family life, work life, ministry life, community life, and write down any ideas and out-of-the-blue thoughts that come, and share them with someone you trust who can help you sort out which ones have God's touch on them.

​Unless you have been hiding under a rock, you will have heard talk about God preparing to act in a great and mighty way. This expectation comes from many places and is clothed in all types of language. In Catholic circles we have 'In the end my Immaculate Heart will triumph', and talk of the Warning and the Chastisement. There is the 1947 Wigglesworth prophecy that when the Spirit and the Word come together, there will be the biggest move of the Holy Spirit that the world has ever seen. Others talk of a promised billion soul harvest.

As Peter Herbeck reminded us back in 2016, 'Did you know that the Church has an infinite capacity for regeneration? Did you know that? Did you know that the Church has right now all the power, every resource it needs, to conquer every enemy strategy the enemy brings against Her.' And it is precisely when the Church is looking the deadest and most bedraggled that we can expect the resurrection power of Jesus to come upon Her.
There are heightened expectations at the moment for something like this to begin before the end of 2019, with Brexit when it actually happens, as some form of a catalyst.

Consider:
https://lanavawser.com/2019/10/30/i-heard-the-lord-say-the-last-few-months-of-2019-are-going-to-be-explosive/
and https://www.openheaven.com/2018/07/10/three-waves-of-a-coming-baby-boom-and-strategies-for-preparation-by-christy-johnston/

Now for the chicken and the egg paradox: Are we in the 'if and when it happens we will deal with it then' camp or are we in the 'is some of this dependent on us being like Noah and taking God at His word and doing some practical stuff in preparation' camp? Is our lack of preparation part of the delay problem?

Consider the following scenario: an act of God causes 1000 consciences to awaken and they all rush to your church community to get themselves right with God. What do you do?

And what if it is 10,000 people? That's a lot of people who will expect us to know what to do to help them all.

When the active presence of God manifests itself in a place, people have life-changing encounters with God, and no one, but no one, wants to leave a place that is experiencing divine visitation. So expecting people to go down the shops to get supplies just isn't going to work, you need to have the supplies stockpiled already. Call it 'The Noah Storeroom' or the 'When God Shows Up Cache' or similar, expect to get laughed at like Noah was, but do it anyway. Also think long term, God is wanting to add these people to your community permanently. There is also no guarantee that you won't be overwhelmed by God and unable to function as a leader, marshal or administrator, so talk to your teams and make them aware of what your strategy is for when the Flood of Grace comes. Ask God what that strategy should be.  

So here are some thoughts, just looking at things from a practical perspective and a decidedly Catholic one because we need to do more preparation than anyone else.

The number one thing people will want is the sacrament of penance, and lengthy confessions. There might be a humungous crowd, but they each need to hear the blessed words of absolution personally. While they wait for their turn they are going to need some refresher teaching on how the sacrament works, how to prepare, what to confess, why the given penance is important etc. Many of them will be in a blubbering mess, before, during and after they get into the confessional.

A practical thing to do is for dioceses and parishes to audit how many non-active priests are within their diocesan and parish boundaries, get in contact with them, and have them on some kind of group alert system. They may be retired, if so, keep in regular contact with them. They may have been laicised for various reasons, but in emergencies, and this would qualify for an emergency, they can exercise priestly faculties. You are going to need them hearing confessions. If you are a bishop, then you should start working out what needs to be done canonically now to get laicised priests as sacramentally active as possible, as quickly as possible, in such a scenario.

The best people to do the refresher teaching on the sacrament of penance will be those who are already on the parish sacramental preparation teams. Parish priests should talk with the parish sacramental preparation co-ordinator about how to handle such a scenario. They would already have some experience in ushering primary school children for their first confessions.

Do you have brochures for people returning to the sacrament of penance after a long absence? Start looking for good examples of them online, or get new ones written. Have them ready to print. Put all the links and files you need in a special folder on your computer, so that you can quickly find them all in one place. Have a back-up paper version in your filing cabinet.

Begin a stockpile of tissues, a stockpile of scripture booklets (like the ones they provide for World Youth Day pilgrims, with a Gospel, another book from the Bible and a Psalm or two) and a stockpile of toilet paper.

Talk to your parish team about setting up triage protocols, because you are going to need to quickly ascertain who has never been baptised, who can't remember if they were baptised, those baptised under other traditions, lapsed Catholics, fringe Catholics and committed Catholics. Baptism (and conditional Baptism), could reduce the strain on the confessionals, but you will need a diocesan approved video presentation on what living out the Nicene Creed means as a minimum preparation for the baptism of those who have reached the age of reason and beyond.

Purchase additional baptismal registers and baptismal certificates at both parish and diocesan levels.

Space is going to be at a premium, so as quickly as possible, get all the cars out of the parish car parks and make them pedestrian access only. You could have several groups learning from different group leaders across the car park - weather permitting. 

People are going to want Jesus. Setting up a monstrance with a consecrated host in the church will help with that. If you have a spare or secondary monstrance, set up an additional adoration space in the parish hall as well. You may need to set up wardens or guards from the ranks of acolytes and senior altar servers around those monstrances to keep order. People under the influence of religious zeal have been known to do some mighty crazy things, especially if that zeal is coupled with ignorance. 

People are going to need to learn how to pray. Having an area set aside with a Marian shrine/statue and a continuous Rosary being prayed with scripture meditations prior to each decade mystery will help. Stockpile inexpensive sets of rosary beads.

If the repentance is Holy Spirit genuine, then practical steps to change lives will be needed. Wherever you normally have the paschal fire for the Easter Vigil can be the place people can bring unholy objects to have them burned, bad magazines, bad books, crystals, occult items etc.

People in non-married relationships may come under the conviction of the Holy Spirit to get married. You will need teams of people to listen to them, to ascertain if they are free to enter into sacramental marriage, and then organise groups of couples for marriage ceremonies and renewal of vow ceremonies.

Purchase additional marriage registers and marriage certificates, at both parish and diocesan levels.

Under a move of God of such a magnitude, people are going to start manifesting the charismatic gifts of the Holy Spirit. Make sure you have literature and links on hand for them to be able to begin to understand what the Holy Spirit is doing in them, and how to co-operate with it. You are going to need protocols for how to discern and release prophetic words.

Some people may also manifest demonic influence. To deal with that, the diocesan bishop should have a plan in place. He is the chief exorcist of the diocese, and should have already appointed other exorcists. Training should begin now to enable more priestly exorcists to be appointed, and for all diocesan priests to be trained in what they are already authorised to do in such circumstances, and in what must be referred to those with specialist training.

Once the Holy Spirit activates hearts in repentance, then they will experience a hunger for catechesis. Start researching now to discover what good programmes are out there, and purchase or subscribe to them. Then when God's grace hits, get a quality video series set up for viewing in a large meeting room with automatic repeat.

Mobilise those who have been on team for RCIA (Rite of Christian Initiation of Adults) to be the 'go to' people for those that have specific theological questions or hurdles that they need to overcome in order to take the next step on their journey of faith.

You will need printed and laminated lists of good books for people to download on their mobile phones and similar devices on topics such as prayer, sacraments, catechism, charisms, scripture, conversion testimonies that are highly recommended. The last thing you want is for people hungry for catechesis to find online teaching resources that contain doctrinal errors.

It is our duty to help people get to the best sources of teaching quickly. Many people have mobile phones with internet capability, help them use that technology to help them get the recommended teaching that they need.

People on fire with the Holy Spirit are going to want to be active in evangelisation, immediately. Remind them that even St Paul went off to pray, fast and study first. Work out in advance a way to get them into teams to do the necessary preparation, preferably each with an experienced evangelist as a leader, and then send them out in teams. Each sent out team should return together for debriefing, further teaching based on their experiences, and prayer for those they reached out to.

Real repentance will want to express itself in acts of penance, viz prayer, fasting, almsgiving, service to the poor. It will be far better to give people direction on how to respond to this call to penance and reparation, than to leave them without guidance. Think now about how best such holy responses could be channelled to the greatest good, and pray for divine wisdom as you work on that. Consider where the greatest needs in your community are, and which local service organisations are the best ones with track records of integrity and effectiveness. Some people will want to go beyond what prudence suggests, and they will need to be helped so that they bank that fire a bit so as to become sustainable rather than flaming out quickly.

People are going to need to tell their stories about how God's grace rescued them. So you will need teams of listeners and recorders. The better stories should be publicly told, as ongoing encouragement to the church community and in praise to God. Discernment will be needed for who, when, and how such stories are to be released, and whether his/her conversion has deepened enough for it to withstand notoriety.

When such moves of God happen, it can get very chaotic and messy in a good way. The more we can help people ground the profound God experiences they have had in daily prayer, reading of scripture, and frequent recourse to the sacraments, and in the accountability of regular sharing of experiences in small to medium groups, the more fruitful and lasting that grace will be within them. But it takes all hands on deck to steward extraordinary moves of the Holy Spirit like this, far more than just the priest and a handful of helpers. Training up people now who could be effective leaders of small to medium groups would be very prudent.

Many ministry teams will need to go on 24/7 rostering initially, in shifts, especially the music ministry teams. Whatever normal was will have to be suspended for a while until a new normal settles.

The chances of big increases in people asking questions about the validity of past marriages are significant. Beginning to train extra people for the diocesan marriage tribunals would be a wise thing to do.

What needs to be prevented is a decision making bottle-neck focused on the person of the parish priest. Start thinking carefully about what decisions can be devolved to trusted people in senior parish leadership positions and which decisions absolutely must go to the parish priest, and what kind of communication structures would facilitate that. For common requests maybe a pre-prepared checklist of requirements for approval could be very useful. 

The more preparation gets done, the fewer people will dissipate the extraordinary grace and slip through the cracks unchanged and without being incorporated into the parish community of faith and into the mission of Jesus.

...................................................
​I will add to this when I can, especially useful links and file downloads.
...................................................
​Examples of small booklets of scripture:

Act of Contrition
Three versions suitable for Sacrament of Penance
4 per A4 page

Prayer for a Good Confession
6 per A4 page

How to start (or re-start) praying the Rosary
With a crowd of people hungry for God, helping them learn to pray by learning to pray the Rosary and meditate on the various scenes in the life of Jesus is a good idea. This is also good as an inexpensive follow-up, for how to pray the Rosary at home.
Double sided, tri-fold A4 page

Miracle Prayer
This is a good prayer to lead people into a re-commitment to God with, or to recommend as a follow-up daily prayer for anyone who has just had a life changing encounter with God.
4 per A4 page  

Encouragement to return to the Sacrament of Penance
includes simple examination of conscience
​Double-sided, tri-fold A4 page

More encouragement to return to the Sacrament of Penance
includes excerpts from the diary of St Faustina
about how much God wants us to come and receive His mercy.
​Double-sided, tri-fold A4 page

Well known prayers in common use
Including most of the prayers required to pray the Rosary,
and other prayers that Catholics assume everyone knows 'off-by-heart'. i.e. this is a cheat sheet to help new converts and reverts get up to speed.
Single-sided A4 page

Stations of the Cross, Passionist version
True conversion is accompanied by a desire to reparate for sin, and praying the Stations of the Cross (any version) is useful as a start for satisfying that desire.
​Double-sided, tri-fold A4 page

Stations of the Cross, Everyman version
​In this version, Jesus talks to us as 'His other self' and encourages us to see how we can be united to His Passion in the regular events of every day life.
​Double-sided, tri-fold A4 page

Help for understanding charisms and manifestations of the Holy Spirit, and practical guidance in their use and ongoing development
If there has been a major movement of God, then the natural consequence is people receiving charisms of healing, prophecy, words of knowledge, discernment, speaking in tongues, deliverance etc. Chances are you will have significant numbers of people needing help to understand what God is doing in them and through them, and what is OK and what is not OK. This document which distills 50 years of wisdom from the Catholic Charismatic Renewal will help you get lots of people 'on the same page' quickly, and it will also reassure them that what they are experiencing is normal for the Holy Spirit.
If you haven't read it yet, read it now, so that you are familiar with the contents. That way you will be able to point specific people to the specific parts of the content that they need - when the time comes.
32 x A4 pages

Bible Study - Gospel of Mark
This is the shortest of the Gospels, and is particularly useful for helping people come to a decision about who Jesus is.
At the link below you will find a simple 16 week Bible Study of this Gospel with discussion starters.  
Resources - Study Group

​'Where is the Holy Spirit blowing in your local area?'

I put this question, or at least a version of it, to a well-travelled clerical friend of mine recently, and his answers were perplexing.

He mentioned a recent ordination to the priesthood. While that is truly wonderful, and an extraordinary grace for any parish; it is the fruit of the Holy Spirit's work over a ten year or longer period.

He mentioned the good work the nuns were doing in the parish. Again, that is awesome. But it too is the fruit of the Holy Spirit's work in the hearts of women born some 10 years ago or more.

Then he mentioned a rather exciting regional meeting of bishops from several countries happening within the next 12 months. Absolutely wonderful, and it will hopefully be very fruitful for the whole region, but that's the Holy Spirit's work at a hierarchical level and not a local level.

Next year his parish celebrates 50 years of existence. This is a wonderful opportunity to give thanks and praise to God for the blessings and achievements of the past 50 years. Many special graces can come from an event like this, especially if time is taken to think through how the Holy Spirit has worked historically in this local area with a view to discerning His longer term plans. But again, it's not really about what the Holy Spirit is blowing on at the moment.

Why was I perplexed? Because his answers focussed on the activity of priests, religious and bishops who are a tiny proportion of a parish containing thousands of lay people in it. Because there is a big difference between serving a parish and empowering and encouraging a parish to respond to what the Holy Spirit is calling them to do.

It is really difficult to co-operate with the Holy Spirit's plans if you are having trouble noticing where He has been active. A pastor is best placed to notice these things, because he usually gets the best information.

For example if there has been a noticeable uplift in the numbers of couples coming to talk to him about how to grow in their marriages – that's a clue that the Holy Spirit is working locally in the area of marriage. If you notice that, you can put more emphasis on marriage enrichment courses and programmes and can preach more on communication, listening, forgiveness and showing love in daily acts of kindness.

For example in confession there has been an increase in people returning to the sacrament of penance and confessing struggles with addictions of various kinds – that's a clue that the Holy Spirit is wanting to do a major work to set people free in this area. If you notice that, you can invite people into the parish who are gifted by God in setting people free from addictions. Also you can put on an afternoon of prayer inviting the whole parish to come and pray that their loved ones be set free from addictions, and see what happens. If it goes well, and people testify to God setting them free, do it again in a month's time.

But if you are not noticing and paying attention, how can you even begin to co-operate with what the Holy Spirit is blowing on?

Some things might take a bit more digging and research to uncover.

For example, do you know what spurred your recent batch of RCIA candidates to begin the final leg of their journey home to the Catholic Church? Maybe over half of them had an encounter with the Mother of Jesus. If so, put extra effort into the next major Marian feast day, do a parish novena leading up to it, put on a free movie about an approved Marian apparition on the feast day, and a talk about how to pray the rosary.

For example, do you know what spurred your newest arrivals at daily Mass to attend? Go talk to them and find out. Maybe they were all positively influenced by another parishioner. If so, go and talk to this parishioner about how God has been leading him/her and see if there is any way you can support them in their efforts (eg books, pamphlets, rosary beads to give away, or direction to good resources for the most common questions people ask him/her).

Other clues to the Holy Spirit's action in your parish could just come up in conversation, or could be relayed to you by staff members. For example two women having opportunities to meet with long estranged family members could be a clue that the Holy Spirit is currently working on the restoration of family relationships. Finding a third person in this situation would be a call to action. One way to partner with this movement of grace would be to let parishioners know that the next Saturday morning Mass would be offered for the restoration of family relationships, and use one of the Eucharistic Prayers of Reconciliation, the Proper set out 'for family' or 'for relatives and friends', and specially written prayers of the faithful.

Another way to get an idea of what the Holy Spirit is blowing on; is to have a listening session. What you want to do is to identify people in the parish who have solid prayer lives and sacramental lives and are in various service roles in the parish. Invite them in groups of ten for morning or afternoon tea. Then when you are together, ask them what God has been doing in their lives recently, and pay close attention to any patterns that emerge or murmurs of agreement when something is shared that the rest can relate to. If you hear common threads of God asking them to slow down and spend more time with Him, organise a one day retreat. If you hear common threads of God asking them to trust Him more, find some stories from the internet or elsewhere about how God worked wonders when people trusted in Him, print them off, and share them around as encouragement.
​
Obviously if you can pick up on the Holy Spirit's clues, what you do to partner with His action in your people's lives is going to be many times more effective than a 'let's try this new programme and hope it works' approach.

​There are a lot of 'high expectation' prophetic words flowing around online in Protestant and non-denominational circles at the moment. Gauging what is happening in prophetic word from Catholic circles is very difficult, because it doesn't get shared online unless there has been some heavy duty discernment. However the more I read, and ponder and pray, a possible interpretation emerges that has implications for both sets of circles.

Of course, I could be completely wrong, and maybe something even more wonderful is afoot behind the scenes.

Some of the recurring themes are increase, acceleration, breakthrough, harvest, letting go of the old and taking hold of the new, surrender and humility as the path to these treasures, an army prepared for battle, the opening of doors and deep wells, an invitation to more, an invitation to intimacy and lingering with God, hunger for God, sudden divine appointments and sudden divine alignments, new mantles of gifting and of authority, huge release of resources, growth coming from unexpected directions.

What if you looked at all of these themes through the lens of the journey home to the Catholic church?

Under this lens the need for acceleration makes sense. Why? The process of the journey home to the Catholic Church is normally slow and gradual stretching over 5, 10, and in many cases 20 years or more. With special grace that process can be accelerated.

The same can be said for the initial process of conversion to Jesus, it is usually slow and gradual too. Sudden conversions like what St Paul experienced are infrequent. But since the messages are for those who are already Christian, maybe God does want to accelerate the process of the journey home to the Catholic Church.
​
Part of that process is the stirring of the heart to want more of God, and to be dissatisfied with anything less. I'm going to quote from Nate Johnson here, because he describes it well:
I want to be honest...I haven't been satisfied for a long while now, and I could pretty much say I have been like this my whole life. Always peering around the corner, curiously wanting to see what was to come and living in the tension of what is now and what is to come. But there is a LONGING for more that myself and many others are experiencing right now which has been very different.
One morning in early December, I was so overcome with the presence of God that out of me came this cry of: "I want more Jesus, I want more!" I was not saying that He was not enough or that I was ungrateful, but it was something He was doing in me to reveal the untapped vastness of His person – His glory – that I was not yet experiencing or seeing others experience.
It was a dissatisfaction that ran so deep that it seemed like all other appetites evaporated or waned instantly in light of the hunger that was erupting from my spirit. God began to show me that in this season He is rolling back the curtain and the veil, so we can see what is available. He is calling the Church out of stagnancy and "church as usual" to develop the appetite we were designed to have...for the unlimited riches of His glory!

Does this feel to you like a hunger that could only be satiated with the Eucharist?

It does to me.

Another part of that process is the discovery of ancient sources of renewal that are available to all, but few people know how to find or to value them. For example, the places hallowed by the prayers and lives of the Saints, the writings of the Early Church Fathers, the writings of the Doctors of the Church, the Sacraments, sacramentals (medals, holy water, icons, scapulars etc), the hymns of St Romanos the melodist and St Ephrem. Could this be what the Holy Spirit is referring to in these words from Michele Stickells?

I saw an angel stirring the waters, then I hear, The angel is stirring up the waters of ancient wells, that have become dry and redundant. I see it's time that God wants to restore the wells that hold the ancient anointing, to bring forth the end time anointing that will bring revival. I also see mantles lying in the dust, waiting to be picked up; they also carry past and ancient anointings. The Holy Spirit is moving across the nations looking to see who will see what He is doing, and be ready to receive from past ancient anointings that have remained dormant and hidden for an appointed time, for it takes an ANCIENT ANOINTING TO RELEASE THE END TIME ANOINTING !!!

At the same time there are various calls to lay down our own agendas and ideas and those things that have worked in the past, and to pick up God's plans. Nate Johnston explains it like this:
I had a vision of a hot air balloon that is being fired up to take-off, but it was being held down by sandbag weights all around it. I heard the Lord say, "You have to lose your sandbags to ascend." Then I began to see many obstacles in the spirit that many of us experience when God is inviting us to ascend. To my surprise, they were not just fears, worries, and concerns, but they were more like concepts. They were things like holding onto old patterns and ways of thinking – not wanting to shift from the way God was moving to the new way He was flowing and taking us. These sandbags were also the mindsets of wanting to stay behind the wheel and control the direction of our lives, the process, and orchestrate the outcomes. Not yielding to the Holy Spirit stops the fruit from growing. It's an interesting thought that you can look like you are full of fire and ready to go, but without letting go of the old and surrendering to the shift, you stay grounded. LET GO, and watch Him build and increase you beyond your own means.

And Lana Vawser explains it like this:

I had a powerful encounter with the Lord recently and in this encounter I saw Jesus and He was inviting the Pioneers into the most beautiful room in the library of heaven. The interesting thing about this room in the library of heaven was the door was VERY SMALL. The door was tiny, so to “enter into this room” and to move into the invitation the Lord was releasing, there was a significant call to “lay down, and go low”. There was a deeper place of surrender, humility and yieldedness to the Lord that had to take place, it is not a place of “striving” to “be humble” but a recognition that He is Lord, and we are not. He is the One who we hand the reigns over to, to lead, to guide, to speak. We hand the reigns of timing over to Him. We hand the reigns of “the way” over to Him. We hand the reigns of how things are “built” over to Him, it was a place of such deeper surrender to Jesus and trusting Him in His way and timing. The beautiful thing is I could feel so strongly in the invitation to continue to ‘lie down’ and ‘go low’, is the plans, purposes and manifestation of what He is building is bigger than what is even being dreamt about by the Pioneers.

What could be harder or more difficult than to lay down any anti-Catholic sentiments and to yield any long held teachings that are not truly biblical? And yet what is more necessary for true growth and the finding of untold treasures of grace?

So if you are a Christian and odd things seem to be happening in your life that are pointing you towards the Catholic Church, receive them as invitations from God to the more that He has for you and start to investigate what the Catholic Church actually teaches. If you are looking for a starting point, remember that burning question that you shelved because you couldn't get a satisfactory answer? Take it out, look at that question again, and find out from reputable Catholic sources what answers the Catholic Church has to that question.

So if you are Catholic start talking and thinking about what your parish would need, and what would need to change if the number of people wanting to do the Rite of Christian Initiation of Adults (R.C.I.A.) multiplied by ten. What would you need to do if it multiplied by a hundred? Start working on increasing the budgets, recruiting and training additional R.C.I.A. team members, and gathering the resources that the spiritually hungry are going to need when they arrive.

Mary, Mother of the New Pentecost, Star of the New Evangelisation, pray for us.

The original question was: If you had an unlimited budget, and a talented team, what would you love to do to extend God's kingdom? It was only later on that it was discovered this question is easier to answer if you have actual budgets to think about (eg $100,000, $1 million or $10 million).

The following are some answers that other people gave. Maybe reading them might spark new dreams or rekindle old dreams in you. Perhaps you could be the Solomon that gets to put David's good ideas into action.

After talking with a Christian friend this morning, I am reminded that most of us are happy to take a somewhat passive approach with God, i.e. 'If God wants me to do something, He'll let me know about it.' Sure, there is truth in that. But this is the same God who often said, 'What do you want Me to do for you?' desirous of a concrete answer and not an underwhelming 'Whatever You want to do for me Lord' answer. This is the same God who asked Ahaz to ask Him for a sign, a sign coming from the depths of Sheol or from the heights above (Isaiah 7:11) and Ahaz refused to ask. If he had asked and received the sign, he would have had to take God more seriously in his life.

What if at this time in history God wants to do big things?

Unless there are people willing to dream big, to think big and to pray big, and to risk big, how are they going to happen?

Undoubtedly God can do these big things all by Himself, but He has shown time and time again that He prefers to work collaboratively with men, women and children who love Him.

The friend I spoke to today would spend the money on bibles and bible study materials, presumable to give them to those who cannot afford them and to encourage people to discover for themselves the Author who loves them.

Another friend would build a multi-storey building in a quadrangle shape (three sides, the fourth side open) to house all homeless people in.

My son would bring together a team to write and create decent and well-written television shows and movies for children and teens.

Another friend would like to build a village haven for the lost and the lonely. A place with village greens and swimming pools, where various lifestyles can be accommodated, and where everyone is respected and has a useful role to play in the community.

Another friend would send most of the funds off to charities and missions, and use the rest to reduce the debts of the local parish and local charities.

Another friend would devote resources to getting religious education in state high schools on a sure and sustainable footing.

Another friend would like to see a campaign to help people make more ethical decisions in their purchasing habits and to promote Fair Trade products. For example if I purchase a $3 T-shirt rather than a $40 T-shirt, it is very likely that the people making and producing the $3 T-shirt are getting ripped off. Some will say, it is because I have a low income that I need to purchase these cheap T-shirts. What gives us the right to say that our needs are greater than theirs?

A friend with lots of experience in giving real aid to those who are living on the margins would like to see programs for young people who fall through the cracks in the system, programs that will help them earn a living, show them that they are worthwhile and that they have a lot to contribute to society and to themselves; programs that would make employment achievable for all school leavers.

Another friend would like to see support systems created for vulnerable children.

But the big thing that came up as we were talking was mental health, spoken about by three people.

The first person mentioned it as a big need she could see, the mental health needs of children and teens that are woefully under resourced in our school systems eg How much good can a child psychologist achieve with funding for one morning a week for a whole school of 400 students or more?

The second person talked about how hard it is to obtain any long term treatment, even for adults. Help is often limited to a few days here and a few days there of hospital / institutional accommodation and treatment when a crisis occurs – which never gets to even scratch the surface of the underlying trauma/s contributing to the mental instability.

The third person talked about how most drug and alcohol rehabilitation programs were developed with the needs of middle-aged people in mind. The prevailing paradigm doesn't suit the needs of young people at all. Expecting young people to have the patience to sit still in a circle and listen and do group therapy is ludicrous. However, smaller group chats while gardening, tending to farm animals, wood working or playing sport would get much further with the youngsters. The critical ingredient for success is trust, and the trust needed to help effectively takes a long time to build. Consider this situation:

There is a young man in his late 20s. When he was a boy he suffered abuse at the hands of his mum's boyfriend, and from leaders at a sporting club. He is able to say he was abused, but is unable to talk about it and process it. To have a ghost of a chance of beginning the healing process he has to get to a point of trust where he feels comfortable about starting to open up about such things. For someone who has been betrayed so badly, so often, this is not going to be easy at all. Getting to that point may take years.

Series 2 of the television show 'Unforgotten' brought home to me the long term effects that abused young people suffer. The three people whose stories we follow through the 6 episodes are all driven to help other people in challenging circumstances (legal cases, teen cancer ward, teens at high school in disadvantaged neighbourhoods). For all three, the long term relationships in their lives are not thriving because they have been unable to open up to the people who love them about the traumas they have suffered. Their spouses and partners know that they are holding back, and while they have been extraordinarily patient waiting for their loved ones to open up and trust them, the frustration is eating away at their relationships like slow release acid. Each of them carries inside them a huge reservoir of anger, a by-product of the abuse, and they are able to recognize other people who have been through abuse trauma by this anger. It takes an outside catalyst, and lots of detective work to bring evidence of the abuse to the spouses and partners, to tell what happened to their loved ones. For some it began this important  conversation, for others it was too late.

If these dreams for long-term effective help for young people with mental health issues speak to you, start talking about them with friends, and with religious, political, civil, and cultural leaders. Help them catch the vision, and the passion to do something about it.

So what's your dream?

Write it down.
Share it with those you trust.
Talk about it.
Dare to dream that it might be God's dream too, that He wants to help you bring into reality.

​There's a lot to like about Pat Keady's book 'Spearhead: Reshaping the Church to Engage the Word'. But there's a dangerous 10% which concerns me greatly. Let's focus on the good stuff first:

When I first heard about this book I was excited because there has been prophetic word over the last 6 months about God releasing anointing upon writers and songwriters, and this book began when Pat Keady woke very early one morning with an impetus to write from the Holy Spirit. So I really wanted to read it.

The font is easy to read, the paper has a lovely glossy feel and the graphic design layout is beautiful.

The first half of the book is particularly good. For anyone wanting an easy to digest synthesis of what God has been saying through Pope Francis and various parish renewal movements over the last 3 years, it is brilliant, particularly if you delight in Australian idioms. If you are deep in the trenches of parish renewal, in the first half you won't be reading anything new, but you might be reading it from a fresh perspective.

However, as a book to invite someone from the sidelines into the trenches, that's where its true value is to be found.

Two insights I found particularly helpful. The first is the story of Jonathan, son of Saul, and his armour-bearer from 1 Samuel 14 about how the two of them trusting in the help of God made a daring foray into enemy Philistine territory and began a battle that inspired traitors to turn back to allegiance to God's people and eventually involved the whole army of Israel in victory. A few committed people doing something brave and unusual, but filled with faith, can have a very big impact.

The second is an insight into the story of Pentecost, Acts 1, about how God met people where they were at by giving His Apostles and disciples the gift of the languages of the people. It wasn't about various languages now becoming a single language.

Pat uses this story to make his case that we have to learn the cultures of the groups we wish to evangelise, so that we can build a bridge – mainly through music – with which to present the Gospel. Now Pat is looking at the inculturation possibilities in the liturgy through music.

This is where my thoughts diverge from his. Pentecost didn't take place within the liturgy, it took place out in the streets, in the marketplace. I think we do the liturgy a disservice if we try to make it into a vehicle for evangelisation. Firstly, the liturgy only makes sense once a person has been evangelised and awakened by the Holy Spirit. Secondly, for the early church an invitation to the liturgy was the last thing you did with a newcomer, and not the first thing. Even today when I read modern stories of conversion the majority of people darken the doors of a church as one of the last steps on their journey home to Catholic faith.

Therefore we need intermediate steps between the secular world and the liturgy. In such intermediate steps lay preaching, testimonies and contemporary music that engages the culture of the groups you desire to evangelise find their natural home.

It is worth trusting the wisdom of Mother Church on this one, when she insists that ordained ministers preach during the liturgy. They have been anointed and set apart for this purpose and have a minimum of 7 years of study behind them. While it is true that many of them don't have an obvious gift of preaching, we have to allow God to be God, knowing that a homily that does not engage you and me at all might contain the very words that someone else needs to hear. Instead of the satisfaction of complaining, our energies are much better directed to praying that our priests do receive the charismatic gift of preaching and praying that they preach according to the mind and heart of Jesus, in full harmony with the teachings of His Church and to the maximum spiritual benefit of those that will be present when they preach.

I've got no troubles with lay preachers if they exercise their ministry before or after the liturgy, but not during it.

My definition of culture is different too. Again we do a disservice if we only think about culture in terms of liturgical elements, eg architecture, music (eg African drums), decorative motifs on vestments and liturgical vessels, artwork (eg Our Lady of China).

For me culture is expressed primarily in public, private and family devotional practices. That's the fiestas, the processions, pilgrimages, special food for feast days, grace before meals, traditions passed down in families and nations, preferred spiritualities of prayer (people from exuberant cultures will prefer loud praise and dance, people from reserved cultures will prefer reflective silence and Eucharistic adoration) etc.

A cultural group votes with their feet about what is important to them. In Australia we seem to like setting off fireworks at major celebrations, gathering friends and family around a barbecue, Anzac Day touches us deeply, we like singing Christmas carols in big groups, and 'don't interrupt me if the footy, tennis or cricket is on'. These are the areas where creativity and Holy Spirit inspired ingenuity can take something naturally wholesome and elevate it to something supernaturally good.

On the very vexed subject of liturgical music, here's my two cents worth. While hip contemporary music for all songs at all Masses might seem like the answer, it isn't. Let me count the ways. Firstly if your average congregation is aged 70+, you are going to alienate them. Secondly, from my studies of conversion stories it is experiences of the historicity of the Church that make a difference. Thirdly, when people decide to come home to the Church (eg cradle Catholics returning after an absence), a familiar song really helps. Be a wise musical scribe and bring out from the liturgical music storehouse music that is both old and new. We need to sing new songs to the Lord, no question about that, but we need a mix; hymns that have stood the test of centuries of time, hymns that have stood the test of decades of time, hymns that have become favourites during the past decade and the new stuff. In other words we need to show our Catholicity (universality) in our musical selections and not narrow it down to one genre and era. The new is good, and the old is good; use both.

I was so hoping to read about fresh new ideas for spreading the good news of Jesus. That's what I was hungering for. So I'll contribute my own weird and wacky idea instead. Many Australians love going to live sporting events. There's plenty of God-loving-Catholics who rush home after Mass to watch the footy on TV. So if you have a youth group, a Cursillo group, a covenant community group etc, that has lots of sports loving members, consider this:

Make a group booking at a sporting event. Get yourselves matching T-shirts to wear (a slogan like 'Ask me about Jesus' on them or similar would be good). Sit together. Be clued up before you go as to how to act if unusual things transpire. For example, if a fight starts on the field, you all drop to your knees and pray for peace and reconciliation; if a player gets injured, you drop to your knees and collectively pray for the injured player, his/her family and the medical people assisting them; if the crowd starts boo-ing, you sit silently and pray for conversion of hearts; as you go from your seat to the toilets, to purchase merchandise or food and drink, silently beg God's blessing on every person on your path there and back, and if someone stops you and asks you the reason for the hope that you have (1 Peter 3:15), give it to them.

One thing Pat Keady does well is underline how all renewal has to start with us, with us taking God more seriously than we have ever taken Him before. Surrendering to His will; seeking the grace and power of the Holy Spirit; spending quality time in prayer and listening to Him; spending quality time reading from the Bible and studying His ways; making daily Mass and regular recourse to the sacrament of Penance a priority.

Another thing Pat Keady does well is talk about the difficulties faced by anyone who wants to try something new to further the kingdom of God. None of us like change, none of us are real keen on being challenged, so there's both this natural battle and the supernatural battle to contend with. Kick-back comes with the territory. This is true, but some kick-back is natural/supernatural resistance and some kick-back is 'hey, you are truly going the wrong way', and you need to pray for the wisdom and humility to know the difference.

He also speaks well about the times when everything just flows and the times when it is a test of grit and endurance through manifold difficulties. Lots of people in ministry need to hear his encouragement to keep on going.

In conclusion, yes it is a worthwhile book to read, however I personally would only invite someone to read it after first sharing the concerns I have about that 10% of content with them.

Here's the question: If God gave you access to $100,000 to spend on advancing His kingdom, what would you spend it on? How would your answer change if the amount were $1 million or $10 million? Assume that these budgets come with an administrative assistant, access to people with skilled talents and that diocesan approval is going to be easily given.

The $100,000 dreams

Pragmatically our parish hall, and our diocesan meeting facility in a rural locale, are both lacking air conditioning. They would both get far more use if they were air-conditioned. $100,000 would go a long way to getting both properties done. The parish hall already has the infrastructure for air-conditioning, it only needs the machines to be installed.

Get a StrengthsFinder based enterprise up and running. At least for a year's trial. $20,000 for office space rent, $40,000 to get 4 counsellors trained up ($8000 each plus airfares and accommodation), $30,000 for computers (6) and software, $5,000 for office fit-out (tables, chairs etc), $5,000 for StrengthsFinder books and questionnaires. However it really should be more like $55,000 for this last one to be able to offer the StrengthsFinder information free. So that's a $150,000 budget. Three pronged approach, business leadership, job placement and help for parishioners to find where God has gifted them and which teams they would be best suited to. Business leadership would be helping small business owners understand their natural leadership style and what gifts and talents they need on their teams. First consult free, second and third consults by donation, fourth consult negotiate a regular fee. Job placement, having worked out what is needed, if we know a person with those talents we ask the business owners to give them a go. Build up using the same free, donation, negotiate regular fee process. All parishioner consults for free, for both individuals and groups.

The parishioner based StrengthsFinder work could morph into a Monday-Friday training hub. Day 1 a modified Life in the Spirit Seminar, Day 2 doing the StrengthsFinder questionnaire and learning how the themes and talents fit together. Day 3 a silent retreat and writing in a journal; sorting it all out and praying day. Day 4 sharing the fruits of the retreat day with counsellors and in the group, with lots of brainstorming. Day 5 writing out a plan of action, sharing it, group prayer, celebration and sending time. Then 4-5 weeks later a single day of follow up, maybe on a weekend, with the group, to share experiences, to pray and plan some more.

Making 100 grants of $1000 available for young adults in our diocese to be able to go on week long silent retreats where they could take time away from the world to be with God and with the help of good holy experienced spiritual directors to be able to listen to what God is calling them to be, and work out how to discern that further and act upon it. Most young adults are unemployed and without the funds (personal or family) to be able to afford what such retreats normally cost. Do the legwork to find out where the most Holy Spirit led silent retreats are happening, and book regular places for the grants to be used at that place.

The $1 million dreams

Put an extension on our diocesan meeting facility in a rural locale: add a proper dining room with tables and chairs, add at least 2 additional smaller meeting rooms, upgrade the internet access, add on a full bank of easily accessed toilets (4 women's, 3 gent's, 1 disabled/baby change table). (To access the current toilet facilities you either have to negotiate a flight of stairs or take a walk to another building on the property).

Purchase a commercial property in one of the business hubs within the parish, and transform it into an interdenominational chapel, and invite faith communities from within the parish to man prayer for our parish and region on a 24/7 basis. We could keep the lights on and the rates paid with a small piety shop / information desk at the front and a donations box.

The $10 million dreams

Purchase several run-down properties in the same area, within the parish boundaries, and build a 12-20 bed Catholic hospice with a chapel and quarters for a live-in priest-chaplain. Currently you have to drive at least an hour away from our parish to get any form of Catholic aged care.

Back to that diocesan meeting facility in a rural locale: it has extensive grounds. Build a new accommodation block, with comfortable quarters for singles, married couples and families. By comfortable I mean pleasant, roomy, more home-like than motel-style, with air-conditioning, stable internet access, undercover parking, ensuites, and 2 or 3 communal laundry rooms. Set it up as retreat accommodation that is attractive, and set up an associated trust fund so that donations can keep the cost of accessing the retreat facilities possible to people and families on low incomes/pensions. Each parish in the diocese would then be allocated a number of rooms and days each year that were free, so that the parish priest could send those in need of retreat time as needs arose (to pray and seek God about a new project, to write new books or songs/music, to take time to pray about a big life decision, to find solace after a traumatic event, etc)

Purchase property, either to rebuild or to renovate, in order to establish a Study Centre for Christian Art. Run courses in Christian Art history (art, music, vestments, tapestry/embroidery, metalwork, sculpture, architecture etc). Have studio space. Have Gallery spaces. Have a coffee shop and book shop. Have accommodation for artists in residence and/or visiting national/international artists/experts. Run courses in developing Christian Art careers. Develop a reference library on Christian Art, where people can come and research (but not borrow). Have facilities for hands-on workshop spaces. It also needs to contain a Chapel, because true Christian art is founded on prayer, and leads back to prayer. Host and encourage travelling exhibitions. Once a year run a conference on Christian Art, with an associated Modern Christian Art exhibition with decent prize money. (Modern as is art made by living artists whose art practice helps people connect more deeply with God through the depiction of Christian images and themes). Have a minibus to assist transporting people to and from transport hubs to the Study Centre. Now what are the chances such a property could be sourced close to the diocesan meeting facility?

​..........................................................................................

Do I have more ideas? Of course I have. It is just that these ones are front and centre in my mind just now. Find the blog category 'Ideas', and read through the blog-posts associated with that category to locate more of them.

May the Holy Spirit blow and bring into being those ideas that are inspired by Him, and let all the others wither and decay. Amen.

The impetus for this blog-post is 3-fold, a confluence of a prophetic blog-post, a dove-tailing episode of The Journey Home, and the frustration of an opportunity lost to talk out these ideas with a local social media apostle.

For this one you need to do a little homework.

Firstly read Patricia King talking about the connection between cyber evangelism and the long awaited great harvest of souls. An excerpt: "I feel the Spirit of God inviting every Believer and ministry who has access to the internet to use this tool with intentionality for reaching the lost. Every effort small or large can make impact!"

Secondly watch the Kandice Longsteth episode of The Journey Home, and pay particular attention to how much of her journey was done online before ever talking to a Catholic or going to a Catholic Mass. Pay attention too, to the questions she gets towards the end of the episode.

There was another Journey Home episode, a repeat episode, which aired recently, Kelly Nieto's maybe, that also contained internet browsing as the first step where her journey home to the Catholic church began to accelerate.

There are a multitude of good Catholic resources available online, but there's also plenty of less useful stuff.

Many Catholic parishes have reasonable websites, but few of them are user friendly for outsiders wondering about what life is like on the inside. It would take so little to have an extra web-page entitled, 'Investigating Catholicism?' or similar and to then have curated lists of good resources for topics like Who is Jesus?, Mary, Authority, Sacraments, Salvation, Church History, the Mass, the Rosary etc. Lists with links to video, podcasts, books, articles etc that provide useful answers.

Making those curated lists should be easy. Chat to those who have been through the RCIA (Rite of Christian Initiation of Adults) over the past 5 years, and their team members and ask them which resources helped them the most. Write down their answers, make sure the links still work, and prepare lists and put them online.

But every path must intersect at some point with a person with skin on, a Catholic who can be the interface between the outsider and the local community of faith. This is where your Social Media Apostles come in.

Many outsiders don't know someone who is visibly Catholic. How will they find one? If they are already investigating the doctrines of the Church through online means, chances are they will either look for or stumble across someone online through a blog, an article, a comment, or a social media posting.

The primary way outsiders will find a local Catholic to connect with is through Facebook, because Facebook is the most locally connected of the social media sites. We need more Catholics who are willing to be visible Catholics to be online, particularly through Facebook.

What does that mean? It means posting and liking and sharing content that is more than holidays, pets and family gatherings. It means getting some Catholic content coming into your social media feed, eg from the Vatican, your local diocese, your local Catholic news service (eg The Catholic Weekly, The Catholic Leader) and international Catholic news services (eg Catholic News Agency, ChurchPOP), and then liking and sharing anything with quality.

Will you get negative feedback if you do? Sometimes. It is part of the cost of being a disciple of the One who died on the Cross for us.

Part 1 is get some curated Catholic content on parish websites for inquirers to find. Part 2 is getting parishioners active on social media. However, a part 3 is also needed, and that's a combination of regular training and encouragement: Training in helping people through the Catholic maze and encouragement to withstand the negative feedback: and encouragement to be patient and welcoming with any inquirers who make contact with them.

A monthly get together of parish Social Media Apostles would be enough.

At that monthly meeting you could pray for each other, and for all the inquirers who have made contact, (past and present) and you could also pray and ask God's blessing over your devices (phones, iPads, computers etc). At such a meeting you could also share any good content you found and discuss whether it should get added to the parish's 'Investigating Catholicism?' page. Obviously if the answer is 'Yes', waste no time in getting it added!

These three Parts can be begun now, and should be begun now, and with urgency, so as to get people positioned to welcome and handle influxes of inquirers as they begin to increase.

I'll finish with Patricia King's challenge…

'If 500 or maybe 1000 new believers were to come to the Lord in your church or area overnight, how would they be discipled? Your church might not be ready for this yet. In the coming harvest it is probable that hundreds of thousands and even millions will come to the Lord in one sweep of the sickle. Through the internet we can be assured that they can have access to all they need for foundational teaching, and through social media we can reach them relationally with pastoral mentoring and input.'
​
St Maximillian Kolbe, pioneer of mass media evangelisation, pray for us
Blessed Titus Brandsma, patron of Catholic bloggers, pray for us
Our Lady, Help of Christians, Star of the New Evangelisation, pray for us

...................................................................................
PS. When you curate your resources for inquirers, and find that there's a hole you can't fill - that's your cue to write some new resources or to commission some.

PPS. You are likely to have a lot of links to books on your inquirer's page, so investigate Amazon Associates. (links below). Small referral fees for promoted books could add up to a tidy income stream for your parish.
Beginner's Guide
Affiliate Link Tutorial​
................................................................................................
PPPS. I have added two new webpages, 'Could God be real?' and 'Could Catholicism be true?', and have begun to create lists of resources. You are welcome to use them as templates or starting points for your own personal and parish websites.

Write Non Fiction In November : #WNFIN Day 27
​
#TakeTheAdventChallenge

That's the idea that was my distraction at Christ the King Mass. A set of relatively simple social media challenges to do for each day of Advent; ones that open the heart to the good, the true, the beautiful and the noble and that aren't too preachy or too denominational.

If you find it works for you, take it and run with it and use the #TakeTheAdventChallenge hashtag.

December 3/Day 1: Jesus. He is the reason for the season. Post an image of Him that has meaning for you, and say why it touches your heart.

December 4/Day 2: Waiting. Advent is the season of holy waiting. Post an image of the kind of waiting you've done today (mailbox, phone, bus, train, taxi, oven, a crossed out calendar etc)

December 5/Day 3: Pray for peace. Write your own prayer or copy someone else's prayer for peace, and then share it.

December 6/Day 4: Hope. Find an image that speaks of hope to you (eg sunrise, bird in flight, a newborn baby, someone going through rehab therapy etc) and share it.

December 7/Day 5: Christmas past. Locate an image from a Christmas past, post it and say something about why you chose it.

December 8/Day 6: Mary, Mother of Jesus. Without her 'Yes' to God there would be no Christmas. Find an image of Mary that appeals to you and share it – together with why it appeals to you.

December 9/Day 7: Christmas ornament. Take a photo of your favourite and share it. (wreath, tinsel, heirloom ornament, Christmas stocking, decoration that goes on the top of the Christmas tree etc) Mention why you like it so much.

December 10/Day 8: St John the Baptist. He's the one God sent as herald for His Son Jesus. Your choice, you can either quote some of his words from the Bible or find an image of him to share – or both.

December 11/Day 9: Community service. Research either the Reconciliation times of a church near you, or details about a community celebration of Christmas carols, -and post those details.

December 12/Day 10: Pray for the sick, especially for those who will be in hospital over Christmas or who through illness will be prevented from being with loved ones. Write your own prayer or copy someone else's prayer for the sick, and then share it.

December 13/Day 11: Light. Find an image of something that gives off light which is meaningful to you, and share it and why it gives you a bit of a lift (eg candle, chandelier, street light, Christmas lights, campfire, lighthouse beacon etc)

December 14/Day 12: Bible verse. For many people this is the day when it all seems too much and too impossible to get everything done by Christmas. If you have a bible verse that keeps you going in tough times, share it. If not, share an inspirational quotation that has helped you in the past.

December 15/Day 13: Christmas carol. Which one has the most meaning for you? Share a verse of text from it or find an audio or YouTube rendition of it and post that. Mention why it is special for you.

December 16/Day 14: Pray for the grieving, especially for those whose grief is fresh and who are acutely feeling the loss of the deceased person from the Christmas feast. Write your own prayer or copy someone else's prayer for those who grieve, and then share it.

December 17/Day 15: Who is your favourite nativity character (or object) who is not part of the Holy Family (eg angel, shepherd, magi, star, donkey, ox, Herod, the cave, the manger etc) and Why? Do a post about that.

December 18/Day 16: Community Service. Research the Christmas Mass times or Christmas Service times of a church near you, - and post those details.

December 19/Day 17: Joy. Share an image of something that brings joy to your heart (a bunch of flowers, a child's smile, a child contentedly asleep, the sound of loved ones laughing, watching waves at the beach etc)

December 20/Day 18: Christmas card. Share the front cover of a Christmas card you have received that you really like, (or a gif or e-card image if you prefer).

December 21/Day 19: Star. Who has been a star, a guiding light in your life, who has helped you find the better path? Take a moment to honour him/her.

December 22/Day 20: Pray for travellers, especially for their safety. Write your own prayer or copy someone else's prayer for travellers, and then share it.
​
December 23/Day 21: Loved One. Recall a loved one with whom you shared a happy Christmas in past years, and who has entered eternity. Share a photo or a memory of them that resonates with you and which honours them.
​
December 24/Day 22: Take your own photo, or post an image you like of a nativity scene, and add some kind of positive Christmas message (Joyous Noel, Happy Christmas etc).