​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.
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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?

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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.'
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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

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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​
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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
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#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.
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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.
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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).

The final session of Proclaim 2016 was a plenary one, with a Discussion Panel made up of many of the keynote speakers and workshop presenters.

The Discussion Panel consisted of:
Fr David Ranson, Parish Priest of Wahroonga and Vicar General of Broken Bay diocese (DR)
Cardinal Donald Wuerl, Archbishop of Washington (DW)
Bishop Nicholas Hudson, Auxiliary Bishop of Westminster (NH)
Dr Susan Timoney, Secretary for Pastoral Ministry and Social Concerns for the Archdiocese of Washington (ST)
Jude Henessey, Confraternity of Christian Doctrine (CCD) Wollongong (JH)
Sophy Morley, Diocesan Pastoral Coordinator and the Coordinator for Liturgy in the Diocese of Sale (SM)
Professor Brother David Hall, dean of the La Salle Academy at Australian Catholic University (ACU) for Faith Formation and Religious Education (Br D)

(As usual, expect that these notes will be rough, but will give you the gist of what was discussed.)

Fr David Ranson (DR) facilitated the discussion panel.

DR: Thank you for all the questions that have been submitted. We will focus on the themes that were found in those questions. The American priest and sociologist Andrew Greeley, wrote that ‘the Catholic parish is one of the most ingenious communities that human skill has ever created. Its overlapping networks of religious, educational, familial, social and political relationships has created … “social capital"’. No other community can accompany the human journey in such an effective and sustained way. Would you agree that our definition of parish is changing? It still has a mostly geographical definition, but increasingly membership is more by affiliation.

ST: Urban mobility is both an opportunity and a challenge. Diversity of experience in a parish is a sign of vitality. We see parish as our spiritual home, and want the newcomers to be able to claim it as home too. If the community is changing rapidly, then more flexibility is needed. We need to both extend welcome, and to honour the history of our parish.

DR: How do we keep cohesion between the newcomers and the old timers? The latter feel displaced and the former bring new energy, but how do we maintain the identity of the parish?

DW: By getting them to realise they share the same values. We pass them on through community life and the welcoming nature of our communities. Pope Francis tells us that parish is supposed to be flexible, and to be able to grow and develop. I read Andrew Greeley's 'The Church in the Suburbs' during my college days.

DR: Perhaps the opposite situation is faced by those in stable rural communities, whose challenge is how to keep the message fresh.

SM: We do have large parishes in country Victoria, but they are remote. I travel to each parish. They are mainly 'anglo' parishes. There is an asylum seekers support group liaising with Melbourne. Through the Marist Fathers there is some solidarity with the East Timorese. Rural parishes have strong bonds of community. When other races and religions come into a small community, most people have no idea what to do with them. But this is only due to ignorance. With the Sudanese the breakthrough came through song and story, they love to sing and they love to hear and share stories. Once you get the connection, it all works.

NH. With 214 parishes in the Diocese there is lots of mobility. So we have to be more strategic. We have to ask ourselves, 'How are we meeting the needs of all groups in the parish?' With constant demographic change in each 12 month period, we need to take the pulse systematically. Are there large groups that don't come to certain activities, or some who come to some activities and never to other ones?

DR: Let's talk about parish collaboration.

JH: Wollongong diocese resides along a coastal strip with parishes close together. We are looking at clustering. But how to form the smaller communities into one community is a big challenge. We've visited the megachurches in the USA, and they look at areas on maps that are within a 30 minute driving circle firstly to pick locations without competition and secondly to make small groups viable.

Br D: The future requires collaboration, but brutal realities have to be faced. Who will get the youth? Who will get the young professionals, and by extension, the money? To make it work requires lots of respectful dialogue. It is a good concept, but less attractive in its reality.

DR: What does the sociological reality of communion look like in a parish?

DW: Communion is a spiritual reality, a grace of God poured out on us. Baptism is the foundation of communion, but it has to be manifested and expressed. What do our congregations do when they gather geographically or ethnically? They do what the first parish did, as described in the Acts of the Apostles: Acts 2:42: the disciples anointed by the Holy Spirit prayed, listened to the teaching of the Apostles, grew in the bonds of communion, and celebrated the Eucharist. How does this communion happen? Through solidarity, working together and collaboration. It takes practical day in day out effort. Our challenge is to find ways to manifest the presence of the Holy Spirit together so that everyone feels a part of it and is invited into it. At the same time we recognise that members don't have to be 'in everything'.

DR: St John Paul II in Novo Millennio Ineunte spoke about the need to promote a spirituality of communion and said that our external structures of communion rely on this inner reality.

NH: We are here because Pope Francis has a dream for a missionary option. He tells us in Evangelii Gaudium that if we respond to the call to evangelise that we will really experience joy. But we need to include the most marginalised, because joy is also found with the poor. Our structures must serve communion, and then that communion fuels mission. Vision without strategy is hallucination. Goals without means for achieving those goals – are illusory. We must organise our parishes as teams. Pastors need to acknowledge that they can't do all this alone. Laity acknowledges that we can't possibly do this without our pastor. What can you do with a reluctant pastor? Persevere with the Evangelii Gaudium vision, and choose 2 people to go and say to Father, 'We cannot do this without you'.

DR: We live in an age of migration, and many of our priests are from cultures alien to our own. This has the potential for richness, but also the potential for great difficulty. How should we deal with the difference in culture between the pastor and his community? There have been as many responses to this situation as there are communities, and we acknowledge that religious orders are helping a lot. A key factor is the quality of the induction of our foreign priests. It has to go much deeper than a 2 day course, and we need to allow more time for this induction process to take place.

ST: There are 21 language Masses each Sunday in Washington DC. We share a lot of catholicity and we all share Marian devotion. The challenge is how to weave devotions and practices together. A pastor is ineffective without the collaboration of parishioners.

JH: Wollongong has lots of cultural groups and chaplains. They are part of the richness of the body of Christ.

SM: This is a challenging experience for our parish communities, but we find that once the pastor begins to share his background stories then things soften. We held a day for clergy. Around 1/3 of them were from overseas. So we asked this 1/3 to tell the others what it was like to be a priest in this diocese. That broke down a lot of barriers. We have developed close links with a Nigerian diocese. Fear is normally our first response. We have to get out of our comfort zone and appreciate that these priests from overseas are on fire with Jesus Christ and the Holy Spirit.

DW: As integration begins to happen, it becomes easier. We need the virtue of patience. We have so much migration and so much merging going on between cultural experiences. The perfect vision should not become the enemy of the good reality. Small steps will get us there.

DR: We are called to be centres of inclusion. I've heard of a Tuscan village where the altar servers have mental disabilities. They stand at the Eucharistic prayer and have their elbows on the altar. How can we become more inclusive?

Br D: Inclusivity is a wonderful concept, which is now politically correct. It is good up to the point that it is cute, fun and OK, but when it brings confrontations…? Zacchaeus wanted in, and Jesus was seeking to find the lost. Are we courageous enough to bring them in? 'I'm going to have dinner tonight at his place.' I have to be open to being changed by those included. We must dialogue, and be open to be changed by the other. We need to be very honest with each other. The cycle of partial inclusion, followed by a road block (obstacle to further inclusion) and an 'I'm out of here' has to end. However there will always be limits to our ability to be inclusive – because of what we stand for, and we need to be absolutely honest about those limits with those on the way in.

DR: How do we advocate for the poor? What is the prophetic role of the local parish?

SM: Advocacy requires walking with people and making ourselves vulnerable. They might have personal issues that are threatening to us. If we look at the Emmaus story we see that Jesus didn't jump in, but that He first asked questions and let them talk. It is necessary for us to meet people where they are at and find out their passions. We are inspired by places like Paris and parishes that don't lock their doors, but leave them open so that the beautiful artworks can touch the soul. In our parish there were migrants who wanted to work hard, so we developed an unemployment help service – a project which is still going on. Other groups came together to help with finance and budgeting. These works did draw people in gradually.

DR: Whom is the Jesus you love and worship? In Benedict XVI's essays on Christology we see Jesus first at prayer. If the world looks at us at prayer, who does it see?

DW: We hope they see what we claim to be: the Body of Christ worshipping the Father thanking for the Spirit and rendering thanks that we are One in that Body. Coming to Mass expresses what we already are through Baptism, and is always an expression of the faith we profess in the Creed.

Bishop Comensoli: We thank our guests and our panel for what they have shared with us. Our thanks goes too to all of the workshop presenters and booth holders. Thanks to the many volunteers present here at the conference and to the other volunteers who worked in preparation for it. This huge team have been evangelising us through service. Thanks too for the representatives from the dioceses of Ballarat and Maitland Newcastle who have been with us. You have been through much pain, and you are hope and encouragement to us. My personal thanks to Daniel Ang and Natalie from our diocesan Office for Evangelisation. Bishops with ideas are dangerous and you made those ideas reality. I acknowledge the Bishops Commission for Evangelisation and thank them for all being here. We are committed to Proclaim 2018, but whether it takes place on the east coast or on the west coast is still to be decided.

David Patterson expressed thanks to the Australian Catholic Bishops Conference, the sponsors, Chatswood parish, exhibitors, volunteers, musicians and the Concourse staff.

Daniel Ang: It is coming to an end, our wonderful three days together. To the over 500 delegates who came, thank you for your grass roots work. Thanks to Bishop Comensoli for his confidence and trust and for taking Proclaim 2016 on as a continuing gift to the Church. Special thanks to my personal staff Natalie and Jenny. Thanks to our two MC's David and Alison. We now call upon the Holy Spirit to help us to return and to do.

Hymns, prayers and a blessing followed, together with a reading from Luke 5:1-11

Now it happened that Jesus was standing one day by the Lake of Gennesaret, with the crowd pressing round Him listening to the Word of God, when He caught sight of two boats at the water's edge. The fishermen had got out of them and were washing their nets. He got into one of the boats - it was Simon's - and asked him to put out a little from the shore. Then He sat down and taught the crowds from the boat. When He had finished speaking He said to Simon, 'Put out into deep water and pay out your nets for a catch.' Simon replied, 'Master, we worked hard all night long and caught nothing, but if You say so, I will pay out the nets.' And when they had done this they netted such a huge number of fish that their nets began to tear, so they signalled to their companions in the other boat to come and help them; when these came, they filled both boats to sinking point. When Simon Peter saw this he fell at the knees of Jesus saying, 'Leave me, Lord; I am a sinful man.' For he and all his companions were completely awestruck at the catch they had made; so also were James and John, sons of Zebedee, who were Simon's partners. But Jesus said to Simon, 'Do not be afraid; from now on it is people you will be catching.' Then, bringing their boats back to land they left everything and followed Him.

We were sent to serve the needs of the Church and to strengthen our bonds of communion.
……………………………………………………………….
My response

The panel covered some very pertinent questions that I think most of us would have liked to have heard more in depth discussion on.

One of the things that came home to me as I talked with people at the conference was the dichotomy between the experience of the speakers (mostly leaders and curial officials from large well-resourced dioceses and archdioceses) and the situations of the delegates (mostly pastors and parishioners from regional and remote parishes with extremely limited resources).
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For Proclaim 2018 I would very much like to see speakers from ordinary non-Cathedral parishes in Australia that have been growing at healthy rates. If time was spent this year finding those parishes and learning their stories and sharing them, the protagonists of them would be just as big drawcards to the next Conference as any 'big names'. I'd like less people to go away despondent because they know what needs to be done, and know what is possible in bigger places, but can't see how to apply it in their own context and more people to leave with true hope 'that if Kincumber, Mount Isa and Geraldton can do it, by George, so can we!'.
 
This is the last issue in the Proclaim 2016 series.

​This Pentecost, 4 Jun 2017, is going to be an extraordinary one. Read the long version of why here. The short version is that this year marks 100 years since Fatima, 50 years since the start of the Catholic Charismatic Renewal, 120 years since the Pentecost Novena requested by Leo XIII began, 1950 years since the martyrdoms of St Peter and St Paul, and it is within the time frame of the Azuza Street prophecies.
 
If, as believers in Jesus, we are going to take back the strongholds of the enemy, then we need a massive outpouring of the power and gifts of the Holy Spirit. Nothing less can bring lasting change, but we have to do our part and go deeper in our relationship with God, and call out to Him for the gift of the Holy Spirit from the deepest places of our hearts and recognition of our need for Him.
 
It is a lot easier to do that together, than it is to do it on our own. So let's pray this Pentecost.
 
What do we pray for? Our deepest need is for charisms of preaching and teaching. When someone preaches under the charism of preaching, we forget who the preacher is because he has made Jesus real for us and we are enabled to focus on Jesus and our hearts are touched by Him. This is something far beyond any natural gift of rhetoric. When someone teaches under the charism of teaching, we feel that it is Jesus Himself teaching us. This brings about an infusion of divine understanding in students and is far beyond any natural gifts of teaching.
 
Why do we pray? Can you think of the last time any preaching or teaching 'cut you to the heart' cf Acts 2:37? Or made you feel that God was talking directly into your heart? How often do we make our way home unmoved by what we have heard and unable to recall it even a day later? Without these precious charisms of the Holy Spirit we cannot extend the Kingdom of God. Paraphrasing Romans 10:14-17: Faith comes from what is preached and taught, and since people cannot begin to believe in Jesus unless they have heard of Him, and they won't hear of Him unless a preacher or teacher is sent, we profoundly need the Holy Spirit to empower and send us. For this the Holy Spirit needs willing helpers, and the gauge of how willing we are is the depth of our prayer and asking.
 
What matters is that Jesus is preached, and that Jesus is taught. Believers of any denomination or non-denomination can agree with that. There are people that the Baptists can reach that the Anglicans cannot, and vice versa. There are people that the Presbyterians and Uniting Churches can reach that the Catholics cannot, and vice versa. But together we can unite in praying for these charisms of the Holy Spirit for us all.

When: Sunday 4 June 2017. Formal prayers from 1pm-2pm. Informal prayers from 2pm onwards.
Where: St John the Baptist Catholic Church, Woy Woy, NSW (wheelchair accessible)
Who should come? Everyone, but especially those with a ministry of preaching or teaching, and those who regularly intercede for others in their prayers: That's priests, deacons and pastors, catechists, Sunday School teachers, Kids Club teachers, Children's Liturgy teachers, primary and secondary Scripture class teachers, those who prepare children and adults to receive sacraments, those who teach newcomers and those who help adults grow in faith. If you long to be used more powerfully by God to bring people to Jesus through your regular preaching or teaching, come!
I want to come, but I am unable? Find a friend who is coming, and give them a photograph of yourself to bring with them. They will act as proxy for you.

So that there is no visible confusion between preachers and teachers, we ask that priests, deacons and pastors wear some visible sign of their office eg, clerical collar, metal crosses on lapels of shirts etc

Please use #Letuspray2017 when you spread the news about this on social media.

Here's an A4 flyer to print and share:

And here's an 8 A4 page PDF of the Formal Prayers that will be used:

​And a larger print version of them (11 A4 pages):

Print them off, and consider praying some of these prayers daily in preparation for Pentecost Sunday.
 
PS. If you live more than 100kms away, you have full permission to use the same PDFs to host a Let Us Pray 2017 in your own region as long as you 1) try to make it as ecumenical as possible and 2) do the right thing with regard to music licensing.
 
Now some of the hymns that we will use may be unfamiliar to you. Most have been chosen because they have been used by centuries of Christians before us. When we pray and sing these ancient hymns in a sense we truly pray and sing with those generations of believers who have prayed and sung them before us. So here are some recordings to listen to:
 
Veni Creator Spiritus
http://gregorian-chant-hymns.com/hymns-2/veni-creator-spiritus.html or
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VnUJWDEQDW4
 
Come Holy Ghost, Creator Come
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VSsQ8lfgF2M
 
Litany of the Saints, John D. Becker
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kId0NBvNiCk
 
Our Father (this version is sung very flat, but I couldn't find one closer to how it is actually sung)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3-QNZHL6gR8
This version is close, too, but it has a few extra notes and differences in syllable emphasis to how it is actually sung
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=egar8MKQrUA
 
Sub Tuum Paesidium (although it is odds on we will say and not sing this one)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ws2b7-6OmZ8
 
Magnificat – Amazing Grace tune
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MQjrrwoflEk
 
Holy God we praise Thy Name
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TVBQYnfkiBM
 
God can do it again
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PYPAcEDYNjU   (a bit flat)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mwo5zLP0Pek  (a big high)

​Frequently asked questions
 
Will someone who is uncertain about the whole charismatic thing feel comfortable?
During the formal hour of prayer from 1pm-2pm there will be nothing overtly charismatic. The closest we will come is during the prayers for various groups of preachers and teachers. At that time those present will be invited to pray in unison using English or any other language. For some people it is more comfortable to pray in their native language or in a prayer language.
From 2pm onwards - which is optional - we will try our best to respond to the promptings of the Holy Spirit and be open to any charismatic gifts.
 
Haven't I already received the Holy Spirit in Baptism, Confirmation (and if applicable Holy Orders)?
You have indeed received Him in those sacraments. No question about that. The question is not how much you possess the Holy Spirit, but how much does the Holy Spirit possess you? How much do we live under His direction and guidance? We can always grow in greater responsiveness and surrender to Him. The Holy Spirit is always willing to give us fresh gifts to help us grow in holiness and to build up the Kingdom of God Eph 4:11-13. Those gifts have results beyond what is humanly possible Acts 8:4-8. The Holy Spirit acts like a gentleman, and never forces His gifts upon anyone, but we are invited to ask for them. Luke 11:9-13, 1 Cor 12: 31a, 1 Cor 14:1
 
Why the Latin hymn to begin with?
Because when you are serious about calling on the help of the Holy Spirit you dust off the very best bits of your prayer arsenal. This hymn has been used for over a millennium and for the most important occasions. It is part of our shared Christian heritage. But even more than that the melody has a lot to teach us about the respect, adoration, intimacy, longing and reverence with which we should seek the Holy Spirit.
 
What's with asking the saints for prayer?
This is another of those very best bits of your prayer arsenal. It, too, has been prayed in various formats by Christians since at least the late 3rd century, and for the most important occasions. All of us at some time or other have asked our earthly friends to pray for us. If that is OK and normal, surely it is OK to ask our heavenly friends to pray for us. Jesus Himself said, 'For to Him all men are in fact alive'. Luke 20:38b We know that the pleas of the saints expressed by the Spirit are according to the mind of God Rom 8:27b, and surely that is truer for the residents of heaven than for our holy friends on earth. The scriptures teach us that while God can act sovereignly and sometimes does, He prefers to collaborate with us. Take that strange story in Ezekiel 37 about the dry bones as an example. God could have done it all Himself, but he kept giving words to the prophet to say. When in John 12:20-22 the Greeks went to Philip and said, 'We would like to see Jesus', and Philip went and got Andrew, and together they went to Jesus – was the glory of the mediation of Jesus decreased? Of course not! Wasn't Jesus more glorified and honoured this way than if the Greeks had gone to Him directly? Didn't more people share in the good work of bringing people to Jesus? Asking the saints to pray for us and to pray with us is concretely acting upon the belief we share as Christians in the Apostles Creed: 'I believe in the communion of saints'. This particular sung version of the litany of the saints is an easy tune to pick up.
 
Can saints hear prayer? Can they answer prayer?
1 Sam 28 where king Saul decides to consult a medium rather than one of God's prophets. He wants to hear from the deceased Samuel. In the dialogue that follows Samuel knows what is going on (so yes saints can hear prayers) and God has permitted him to bring an answer to Saul (albeit one that Saul doesn't want to hear). Matt 25:21 'You have been faithful over a little; I will set you over much' is a promise fulfilled on earth and in heaven. There are far too many Christian shrines dotted over the world with the testimony of crutches and other aids left behind when people were healed to deny that saints hear prayer. They hear our prayers just like any true friend would, they add their prayers to ours and take them together to God on our behalf, and when God permits they have a role in delivering God's answer back to us. Does it make you happy when your good friend gets honoured? Then why is it so hard to understand that it makes God happy when we honour His best friends? Is it hard to believe that it delights God to see His friends, earthly and heavenly, working together for the good of His Kingdom? Any honour we show them redoubles to God's glory, because God is the source and origin of their holiness.
 
Is the presence and intercession of Mary important?
Without her 'Yes' to God, Jesus would not have become incarnate for us. When it comes to collaborating in the works of grace, the mother of Jesus has no equal. She was there at the foot of the Cross of her Son when He entrusted all of the disciples He loves to her maternal care John 19:26-27. Who else but the woman overshadowed by the Holy Spirit in Luke 1:35 can best teach the believers in the Upper Room awaiting the promised Advocate about Him? Would the Holy Spirit do anything important without collaborating with His spouse? We take Jesus for our model. We know that He kept the commandments perfectly, and He kept the commandment to honour His mother. We honour her because Jesus honoured her first. He chose to involve her in all the most important parts of His life, and all of the most ordinary and hidden parts of His life too. With this example, how can we do otherwise? If God Himself wanted Mary at conception and birth of His Son, He also wanted her at the conception and birth of the Church, His body, the body of Christ. How then could we fail to take this Godly hint to invoke her presence and intercession at crucial times in the life of the Church?

What is a charism? Why would you want any?
A charism is a free supernatural gift from God for the building up of the kingdom of God on earth. Eph 4: 7,11-12. Think of the difference between a hand held paper fan and an electric powered fan as an analogy between a natural gift and a supernatural gift. Both move the air around to make it feel cooler. The hand held paper fan has a limited range, and eventually your hand tires and you stop and rest. It does a good job for the one or two people within its range, but there will eventually be burn-out. The electric powered fan is plugged into a power source (the Holy Spirit) and switched on by prayer and consent. It can cool down a whole room, will not burn-out and the amount of power released is proportional to how surrendered our lives are to God – we can set it to low, medium or high depending on our surrender and co-operation with God's grace. Our free will is never compromised, we always have the choice to decrease the power, switch off, and unplug. When a charism is operating people see Jesus in action, and hearts are changed.
 
Maybe a story will help:
St Vincent Ferrer lived in Spain between 1350 and 1419. He became a priest of the Dominican Order. He had a special God-given charism of preaching. Many people were converted to God just by listening to him preach. St Vincent counted on God. He also asked for the prayers and penance of many people for the success of his sermons. He knew it was not his words or his talents that won people over. That is why he prayed before every sermon. But one day, when he knew that a very important person was going to listen to him, he worked harder than usual on his sermon. He ran out of time to pray. This sermon which he had prepared so carefully did not affect the nobleman much at all. God let that happen to teach Vincent not to count on himself. Another time, this same important person came to listen to Fr Ferrer preach. But this time the priest did not know it. He prayed and counted on God as usual. The nobleman listened to the sermon and was greatly impressed by what he heard. The nobleman explained it like this: ‘In the first sermon it was Vincent who preached. In the second sermon, it was Jesus Christ.’ From 'Saints for Young Readers' Volume 1, April 5
 
Is it OK to feel excited and scared at the same time?
Yes. God is very generous with His gifts, but He never ever forces them on anyone. Having a charism doesn't mean you are holy, but it can be a means to help you grow in holiness. Many of them only operate when God wants them to.
 
Do you have to have experienced 'the baptism in the Spirit' to have charisms operate?
No. Sacramental baptism or the desire for sacramental baptism is sufficient, together with a desire to bring people to Jesus and the desire to respond to the gentle promptings of the Holy Spirit. Often it feels like St Peter felt when Jesus said, 'Come' and invited him to get out of the boat and walk across the water in Matthew 14: excited and scared at the same time, but trusting in the One who says, 'Come'. There is an argument that Joel 3:1/Acts 2:17 implies that the promise to pour out the Holy Spirit on all mankind covers the non-baptised as well. At the same time it must be acknowledged that the asking and yielding/surrendering to the Holy Spirit that are part of the baptism in the Spirit experience have frequently been responded to by God with the outpouring of charisms.
 
So I don't have to worry about turning into a raving loony if I ask God to give me the gifts needed for me to serve Him better and be more effective at bringing people into His kingdom?
That's right. You will still be you, just more supernaturally equipped for ministry. And you will still need to do your part to provide the raw material for God to collaborate with (ie prayer, study, preparation of lessons and/or homilies, and seeking holiness). 

Let's dream for a minute about what a diocese would look like if each of its priests was in a place of ministry that played to their strengths. Less burnout. More joy. More effectiveness.
 
This is possible.

It no longer has to be a 'seat of the pants, gut feel, let's hope the Holy Spirit is inspiring our choices' set of decisions. It will still require prayer, and pondering, and skill, but the chances of getting the right match of priest to place of ministry are dramatically higher with the following tools.
 
…However you will still have to take into account musical and artistic ability, relevant hobbies, and attempt to match priests to socio-economic areas that they can relate to.
 
First Tool: Clifton StrengthsFinder – Catholic Edition. If you know the top 5 signature themes of your priests you will make better decisions. Think of them as transferable skill sets. 
 
Second Tool: Strengths based Leadership. The 34 possible signature themes can be split into 4 domains, Executing, Influencing, Relationship building and Strategic thinking. If all 4 areas are covered by a leadership team, then the place is going to hum. If one or more domain area is missing, the blind-spot areas will reduce effectiveness and cause troubles. For example, if you have two priests in a parish and neither of them has people skills (relationship building skills) attendance at Sunday Mass will fall and complaints to the bishop will increase.
 
Third Tool: Knowing how parish size impacts on the gifts the pastor in leadership needs to be effective. This gem was highly recommended by Fr Mallon in Divine Renovation. It is 14.5 pages long, but its implications are huge. A small parish will thrive with a pastor in leadership who is high in relationship building skills. A medium size parish needs a pastor in leadership with administration skills, who can do a bit of everything domain-wise. A large church needs a pastor in leadership with a drive for vision and mission, who will focus on preaching and strategy and do very little individual pastoral ministry. A very large church requires more of the same, with an emphasis on articulating vision.
 
This will make sense if we look at some mythical examples.

I grabbed a random number generator and found 5 numbers between 1 and 34, and then matched the numbers to the 34 signature themes in alphabetical order. This produced mythical priests A, B, C and D.
 
Mythical Priest A:
Harmony/R, Analytical/S, Empathy/R, Individualization/R, Developer/R
That's 4 themes in Relationship building. If this priest had to take charge of a parish, for both to thrive it would need to be a small one.
Empathy is the number one skill needed to be effective in pastoral care.
​Empathy plus Harmony means you would shine in hospital based pastoral care.
But this person has even more than that. He'd be absolutely in his element in prison ministry, and ministering to those with addictions or dealing with domestic abuse victims.
If you trained him up to spot the 34 themes, he would be brilliant at getting parishioners into the ministries that God made them for.
 
Mythical Priest B:
Belief/E, Responsibility/E, Strategic/S, Communication/I, Command/I
That's no people skills, but a powerful leader who could take on a large complex parish.
Sadly without the people skills he's not likely to ever get a pointy hat.
He would be a very good preacher. However dissuading him from erroneous beliefs would not be easy, so it would be important to give him good formation from people he can respect.
Belief, Command and Strategic are the building blocks for a good exorcist, so it would be worthwhile sending him to exorcist school in Rome to test whether he is called to that ministry.

Putting Priest A together with Priest B as an assistant would cover all 4 domains, and they could bond over analysis and strategy. They could make a very effective team, as long as it was explained to both of them that they were chosen to complement each other, and how they could best connect with each other.
 
Mythical Priest C:
Discipline/E, Connectedness/R, Learner/S, Communication/I, Maximiser/I
If this person wasn't a priest he would have the raw material to be a best-selling author.
Having a foot in all 4 domains he could lead a medium parish.
However he would shine as a faculty member of a seminary, and could write a book a year. The rhythm of seminary life would suit him, students would enjoy listening to him, he'd be the one to keep the Old Boys union going and maintain contact with past students, he'd be very good at social media, and his desire to learn would fuel the next book while the maximiser will ensure it will be full of excellence.
He has the raw material to become the next Fr James Martin SJ.
 
Mythical Priest D:
Includer/R, Maximiser/I, Analytical/S, Activator/I, Restorative/E
Having a foot in all 4 domains, he could lead a medium parish too.
But if you really wanted him to shine, you would send him into broken parishes to get them on their feet again. He'd analyze the root causes, delight in the hard work needed to make the healing happen, get parishioners involved in the process, get started quickly and enthuse people to aim for excellence and show how possible it was to achieve. It is possible that he would be frustrated in any assistant priest role, because he needs to make things happen
 
Do you agree that if these priests were given places of ministry like these, that the mythical diocese they belong to would be a couple of steps down the road from maintenance to mission?
 
Conversely, can you imagine the disaster if you sent mythical priest B as parish priest of a small parish?

​For a print friendly version....

A major sponsor of the Conference was the Australian Catholic University (ACU), and Dr Clare Johnson the Director of ACU's Centre for Liturgy spoke to us briefly. The Centre for Liturgy offers Professional Development and Pastoral Training Programs as well as Academic programs. Part of that purview is Sacred Arts, although trying to get more information on that part of the programs proved elusive.

The first keynote address of the day was given by Dr Susan Timoney from Washington. You can find some of her thoughts on her blog, and via Twitter, and can learn more about her background on LinkedIn.

Dr Susan Timoney is the Secretary for the Secretariat of Pastoral Ministry and Social Concerns for the Archdiocese of Washington in the United States. In this capacity Dr Timoney is responsible for coordinating and implementations archdiocesan-wide evangelisation initiatives.

Her keynote address was entitled, 'The missionary mandate of the Parish: Christian life embedded in our neighbourhoods'

NB. These notes are rough, they do not contain everything she said, and will lack her particular emphases.

Good morning. I'm delighted to be here. I have a passion for helping people discover that what they hunger for most can be found in parishes and in relationship with Christ. I love parish life. I work with parishes to increase their capacity to evangelise.

verything depends on love, and we learn to give and receive love in the family and in the spiritual home that is the parish.

My dad had a life-long relationship with his parish, retaining it even after his parish merged with another one. He never lived more than 6 kms from the parish centre. He would say, 'As Iong as I can be buried from there – I will be OK.' Having lived on 4 continents, my life has been very different but I have always felt at home in the church wherever I have been due to the Eucharist and to the connectedness the Eucharist gives us to the universal church and everyone in it.

Parish is not principally a structure, but a family on fire with the Holy Spirit.

By nature a parish is situated in a neighbourhood and local. It is the home of 'resident aliens': members of a pilgrim Church. The mission of a parish is found living in the midst of its sons and daughters embedded in the life of a community. Embedded in the sense of how journalists were embedded with troops during the Afghanistan war.

The parish is a stable point of reference in the daily life of the Church's believers.

As parishes we need to be seen as contributing to the larger neighbourhood, and for that to happen attitudinal change is needed. Do we contribute to civic life or are we 'for members only'?

If as parishes we are inviting and welcoming we will become a bridge of encounter with the living Christ for others, and helping them deepen that encounter through worship, service, sacraments and education.

When some of our meeting room space is made available for public use by support groups like Alcoholics Anonymous, it can open doors for outsiders to encounter the life of the parish and through that to offer them the possibility of an encounter with the risen Christ. But it has to be done well and intentionally.

What could draw people back to our parishes?

A parish is called to serve the whole of the neighbourhood. St John XXIII had a vision for parish to be like the village fountain to which all would have recourse in their thirst. Before the days of running water in our homes, everyone would go to the fountain to get water and exchange community news. All of us thirst for God. Jesus is the One who quenches that thirst and we find Him in our Christian spiritual life.

We live in a world of increasing secularisation. As a society we have to choose whether to push God further to the margins or whether we will rediscover the wonder of God.

Many of the people around us have never been presented with the Gospel. So because they have less 'baggage' many of them have an unusual openness. We need to remember that those not with us are not necessarily against us.

There are three groups we need to reach
•Those who don't know Him at all
•Those who have been hurt by the Church or alienated from the Church
•Those who are active but don't see themselves as evangelisers

Each year the Archdiocese of Washington runs two big initiatives. For Christmas, targeting the first group is Find the Perfect Gift. It is an invitation to get to know more about Jesus Christ in the lead up to Christmas, with reflections and news about Advent events and Christmas Mass times. For Lent, targeting the second group is The Light is On for You. It is an invitation to return to the sacrament of Penance, with guides and information and especially confessionals open and ready on all the Wednesday nights during Lent.

We need to make things available for ALL to come and see.
What is the Gospel asking your parish to do now, and who to reach out to?

We have a program for those who say 'I want to find out more about the Catholic Church'.

Are we better at keeping our parishes running than at going out to evangelise? Jesus was always on the move, seeking out each and every person. As the Gospel of Mark shows us, He was always going out and saying, 'come and see', 'come and stay'.

When Mass ends we are told 'Go forth', 'Go and announce the Good News'. That is the task of the laity, to embed the life of the parish in our communities. We are the eyes, hands and feet of Jesus to those at home; in our jobs and in all the places we go.

We have to become more intentional about inviting people. Go. Invite. Welcome. That's the plan.

Give people an opening to ask questions and get engaged in conversation. It can go like this: A neighbour of mine walks his dog. We stopped to chat.
He said, 'What do you do?'
'I work for the Catholic Archdiocese of Washington'.
'Oh, so you work for the Catholic church.'
'Yes.'
'Do you believe? Do you believe all of it?'
'Yes, it has the best answers to the most important questions.'
That was 9 years ago. Now he begins a conversation with me about anything Catholic that has been in the news.

We need to engage the missionary consciousness that was given to us all in baptism. We also need to assess the capacity of our parishes for evangelisation. How many in our parishes have been evangelised? How many are evangelisers?

We can go out, because He has loved us first.

By and large we seem to take our cues from the secret service; we are present, silent and watchful.

Institutions don't help the encounter with Jesus Christ to happen, but the people who work in them do.

Missionary Disciples
• Are co-responsible for the mission, and alive to the opportunities that present themselves around the kitchen table, at BBQs, and while getting ready for Mass.
• Are heralds of hope. When Benedict XVI visited America there were banners around the place with the message, 'People with hope live differently'. Recently I was talking with a young lady at one of our RCIA classes and I asked her why she came. 'I never have serious conversations with my friends. They are interested in the latest movie and pedicure etc. I am desperate for serious conversation about things that matter.'
• Share the Good News. We are always missionary disciples. If you look at the people who encountered Jesus in the Gospels, they in turn evangelised others.

Assess the quality of welcome.
Do the demographics in your parish reflect the face of the neighbourhood. Is it the same mix of people you see in the grocery store or not? Does the vestibule of your church have a 'welcome' vibe for any newcomer at your front door? Does it contain information helpful for a newcomer? How much do you speak in acronyms, eg 'YAM is having a sausage sizzle after the 6pm Mass next week.' Could you guess that YAM stood for Young Adult Ministry? Could a newcomer guess that that?

It matters how our communications with those on the fringe are framed. Is it like, 'We look forward to learning with you and your child in the sacramental preparation program'? Or is it like, 'You need to do X, Y and Z to get enrolled in the sacramental preparation program by ddmmmyyyy.'?

Is there a link between your parish and the community? Do you have brochures about your parish available in local cafes? Are some of your parish events being promoted through community email 'What's On' style lists? Do you have 'Come and join us for Christmas Mass' messages in the local newspaper?

Pope Francis believes that our parishes have great flexibility. “The parish is not an outdated institution; precisely because it possesses great flexibility, it can assume quite different contours depending on the openness and missionary creativity of the pastor and the community.”Evangelii Gaudium 28

Parishes are flexible and adaptive because they can respond to needs that are local. Effective responses require pastoral planning. A parish that is missionary knows that it is the work of every one and every ministry. To assess the calibre of a parish's ministries, compare them with what a secular organisation (eg Red Cross) achieves.

If your parish is located in a poor neighbourhood, then it is likely to have a food program. But thought should be given to how the parish could help those coming to the food program to encounter Jesus. Maybe one way is having the church doors open, and soft background music.

If your parish has a powerful preacher, record some of them onto DVDs and have them available as 'take home' material. At the same time have some 'How to learn more' material available too.

We take our 8th graders on a retreat day. We ask them what they want as part of that retreat day, and the top answer is Adoration of the Blessed Sacrament.

The Washington Archdiocese has developed an 'Indicators of Vitality' self-assessment tool for parishes. It consists of 12 questions covering each of the areas of Worship, Education, Community, Service, and Administration. The 24 page PDF guide to the Indicators of Vitality tool is here and is in both English and Spanish.

Worship: With regard to worship, how is your Mass schedule meeting the needs of your neighbours? We are finding that Sunday evening Masses are getting more popular.

Education: Adult education needs to have a variety of opportunities and schedules. We found that a lot of men still wake up as early on Saturday mornings as they do for the weekday commute to work. So we offered a bible study group for men at 5.30am on a Saturday morning followed by 7am Mass and 150 men made the commitment.

These days it seems like people are busier, and lifestyles have changed. It is not that they don't have a desire for the things of God, it is just that it is seen as a luxury.

Community: How are we building fellowship and communion?

Service: These are our works of mercy. Who are the most vulnerable in our community? And how are we meeting their needs? Who is on the periphery of your community? The answers will be different for each parish. It might be those suffering as a result of domestic violence, it might be young adults, it might be migrants.

Administration: The goal is the best match of resources for ministry. Dare to change the conversation, and commit to praying and discerning where the Lord is drawing our parish community.

Moving a parish from maintenance to mission is not a short term goal. No one program will do it for you. Generally it takes around 100 years for a Council to bear fruit in the life of the Church. Because of Vatican II the 21st Century church is better fitted for preaching the Gospel to the people of the 21st century.

Evangelii Gaudium 28
The parish is not an outdated institution; precisely because it possesses great flexibility, it can assume quite different contours depending on the openness and missionary creativity of the pastor and the community. While certainly not the only institution which evangelizes, if the parish proves capable of self-renewal and constant adaptivity, it continues to be “the Church living in the midst of the homes of her sons and daughters”. This presumes that it really is in contact with the homes and the lives of its people, and does not become a useless structure out of touch with people or a self-absorbed group made up of a chosen few. The parish is the presence of the Church in a given territory, an environment for hearing God’s word, for growth in the Christian life, for dialogue, proclamation, charitable outreach, worship and celebration. In all its activities the parish encourages and trains its members to be evangelizers. It is a community of communities, a sanctuary where the thirsty come to drink in the midst of their journey, and a centre of constant missionary outreach. We must admit, though, that the call to review and renew our parishes has not yet sufficed to bring them nearer to people, to make them environments of living communion and participation, and to make them completely mission-oriented.
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Participants at the Conference were then asked to reflect and talk about the following two questions:

Q. What is the greatest challenge for evangelisation in your neighbourhood?
Q. What tools or encouragement might you take from Dr Timoney's presentation to respond to that challenge?

For our area it would be the commuters who regularly spend more than 3 hours a day travelling between home and work. It means that weekday and weeknight events in the parish are largely unattainable to them, and for a sacrifice of weekend time to be considered the offerings have to be truly excellent and not the mediocre 'going through the motions' stuff that seems to be the norm. To get them back, nothing short of excellence will do.
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My response

While I am convinced that there need to be better communication channels and personal encounter experiences between the parish and the community, I am not convinced that having non-parish groups meeting in parish premises is the way to go. That's even if it is done intentionally and with a plan for engagement with the non-parish group. With Rebuilt and Divine Renovation ringing in my ears, I know that such plans tend to be fruitless in bringing people to Jesus. Surely even the most basic bible study group or catechist meeting is going to be doing a better job at making disciples than a secular support group. Parish resources are too few to squander in the hopes that someone coming to a secular event might pop in and pray inside the church.

I also have Pope Francis ringing in my ears saying that the Church cannot and must not become an NGO (Non-Government Organisation). Our works of mercy must be full of the tenderness that is lacking in secular charities and must be offering encounters with Jesus as well as assisting those in need. How easy it is for a work of mercy to start the right way, and over time to become more bureaucratic and secular! Seeking government grants to assist with the funding tends to be the start of the slippery slope. The Saints got around the funding needs of their works of mercy through intense prayer and dependence on Divine Providence.

Getting the balance right between works of mercy and outreach, and between evangelisation and formation/catechesis is the challenge. They are more of those 'both/and' things that are so typically Catholic: 'faith and works', 'virgin and mother', 'human and divine', 'scripture and tradition'.

That said, the need to be more visible and accessible to the neighbourhood is crucial. Staffing information booths at the local agricultural Show, having a contingent at the local dawn Anzac Day services, recruiting a parish team for participation in charitable events (walkathons, Fun Runs) or sporting competitions, are options. As are posters in shop windows for guest speakers or Christmas and Easter Mass times in the local press and online.

I'd like to see something like 'The Light is On for You' initiative happening here, too. Having churches open for prayer and the Sacrament of Penance on Wednesday nights during Lent seems quite do-able, and would be helpful for commuters and shift-workers.

The story of the young woman desperately hungry for conversations about stuff that matters resonated with me. I'd prefer to have conversations at that level all the time, but they tend to be few and far between even in parish life. Our monthly study group on Evangelii Gaudium is one of those few places.

I did go looking on the Washington Archdiocese website for information on a 'I want to find out more about the Catholic Church' program. It sadly wasn't immediately obvious. It wasn't in the FAQ section. You had to go to Education/Adult Faith Formation/Faith Foundations to find it. I had to scroll to the bottom of the Home page to find 'Interested in Becoming Catholic', but that wasn't exactly the question I was asking, and the text on that sub-page didn't provide a link to Faith Foundations.

​Could someone visiting your parish or diocesan website be able to find answers to both questions: 'How do I find out more about the Catholic Church?' and 'If I am interested in becoming Catholic, what do I need to do?'
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In the next issue will be notes from the keynote speech of Daniel Ang on evangelisation strategies for Australian parishes.