Transcript Document

Enter the Mystery…
Out to the Highways
& Hedgerows
How to invite & welcome
in God’s name
An opening conversation
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Who is absent from parish life?
What groups of people do not feel
welcome in your parish
OR just stay away?
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Why aren’t they with us?
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PastoralPlanning.com │ 23rd Publications
Who’s absent
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People who are in an “irregular
marriage situation”
People who feel shame about decisions
they’ve made
People who feel the church is out of
touch or no longer loves them
People whose faith has grown cold
PastoralPlanning.com │ 23rd Publications
Luke 14:15-24
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Jesus tells a story:
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This guy throws a huge
dinner party.
He invites a group of
locally important folks,
but, one by one, they
make excuses and don’t
show up.
Luke 14
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So he sends his servants
out to invite in people from
the neighborhood.
“Go out to the highways
and hedgerows,” he tells
them, “and tell people that
I really want them to
come to the table that
my home may be filled.”
All are invited
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With God, we are all welcome.
God loves us all.
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And the love is unconditional
Meaning truly without conditions
The message we want to send is
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You belong to us because you belong to
Christ. We welcome you. We treasure you.
We do not judge you.
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All are invited
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Only in God can we find true human
happiness
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The teachings of Christ
The Grace of Christ
Learn about self-giving love
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Forgiveness, generosity, hospitality
Nothing else makes us happy
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Conversation
What prevents us from welcoming
people with (fully) open arms?
OR
Why do people stay away from us?
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How to Invite & Welcome
in God’s name
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Two Steps:
1. Sweep in front of
your own doorstepto be sure you’re
ready to welcome
2. Train your own
people how to reach
out
PastoralPlanning.com │ 23rd Publications
How to Invite & Welcome
in God’s name
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We have to think about our own house
first –
a sort of parish examination of
consciousness
Do we really want to reach out?
Is this really our goal? Are we ready?
To what will we invite people?
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In other words…
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If you were writing the ad
for your Catholic parish
right now…
What would it say?
To what do we invite people?
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Mass on Sundays?
Social events?
Small group faith formation?
Projects to
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Feed the hungry
Visit the sick and imprisoned
Protect the vulnerable?
Or what?
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Sunday Mass
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A weekly pause from the busy-ness of
daily life…
…to reflect and be together with God
Families or households bond as they do
this together
God works through the sacraments to
touch and heal us
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Even if we don’t realize it at the time.
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Sunday Mass
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But not to earn eternal salvation
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Some people who do attend weekly
Still live in darkness
Not about earning grace
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Grace is FREE
People who rarely come to Mass still have
grace operating in their lives
God does not stop loving them
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Sunday Mass
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But to cooperate with Grace
We do need the liturgy in our lives
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It shapes and forms us
It leads us to the Paschal Mystery
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To dying and rising in Christ
Self-giving love
We are fundamentally changed
Our inborn hunger is fed
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The inborn hunger
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We all have an inborn hunger for
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Meaning
Purpose
In a word, for God.
This is why we want to invite and
welcome
In God’s name
PastoralPlanning.com │ 23rd Publications
3 elements
in the process
of drawing people in
#1 Feeling invited
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We talked earlier about why people
don’t always feel welcome
We are tempted to say that these
people make their own choices:
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That they choose to be outside our fold
By choosing what they do in life
But really, who among us is worthy to
be here?
PastoralPlanning.com │ 23rd Publications
Why is this hard for us?
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We tend to sort people by their sins
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Some we accept
Others we reject
We worry that having them at liturgy
might somehow taint or desecrate the
Eucharist
Matthew 8:8
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Who is really worthy?
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Matthew 8:8
‘Lord, I am not worthy to have you
come under my roof; but only speak
the word, and my servant will be
healed.’
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We need not worry
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Christ is our host at Mass
We act in his place
Who does Christ welcome?
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All who need healing
Sinners and saints alike
In a word, Christ welcomes all
How dare we do any less?
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If you need a tool for this
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eResource
Reproducible
“How to welcome”
Step-by-step
A lovely prayer to
use
#2 Feeling we belong here
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Belonging is a very strong feeling
We say, I’m from Minneapolis (or
wherever)
But we say, I belong to St Mary’s
What causes one to feel that he or she
truly belongs?
PastoralPlanning.com │ 23rd Publications
Belonging
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How do the people of a parish “choose”
each other?
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by
by
by
by
by
paying attention to them
knowing their names
greeting them warmly
chatting after Mass
inviting them to social engagements
PastoralPlanning.com │ 23rd Publications
Belonging
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This isn’t a “parish program”
It’s a part of “parish culture”
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Or it isn’t!
The way leaders speak of this
Creates a “culture of belonging”
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The language you use creates the reality
PastoralPlanning.com │ 23rd Publications
If you need a tool for this
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An eResource
The full plan for
a gathering
At which people
sense how much
they belong
A youth element
is built in
A brief review
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We come to the parish to feed our
inborn hunger for God
But what keeps us here are
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Feeling welcome
Feeling we belong
And #3: Being fed spiritually.
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#3 Being fed spiritually
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What feeds our spirits?
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The Sacrament itself
Being together: singing, praying, talking
Being “of one heart” with each other
Getting something we can take home and
apply to our daily lives
What else?
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Being fed spiritually
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Personal prayer
Scripture
A love for the poor
Forgiving the trespasses of others
Giving of ourselves in love
Sharing meals
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Small group life
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How are we fed spiritually?
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We talk together about faith
“Never discuss religion or politics”
The research tells us:
Small groups grow faith
People have to find their own group
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Friends, family, fellow parishioners
PastoralPlanning.com │ 23rd Publications
Small group life
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In the small group, we chew on life:
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Decisions -- big or small
Goals and dreams
Sick parents, partners, or children
Friends moving away
Our own sense of happiness and well-being
What we believe about God
How we are responding to the world around us
Our fears, failures -- or whatever
PastoralPlanning.com │ 23rd Publications
Small group life
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Faith happens within life
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This conversation
leads us to faith
Faith is inside our life
It’s not floating above our heads
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But in the very center of life
We see life through the lens of faith
which means faith lived out in daily life
PastoralPlanning.com │ 23rd Publications
If you need a tool for this
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Come to the Table
y Ven a la Mesa
Conversations about
faith - with a heart
for folks from other
faith traditions
Welcoming and
engaging!
Review
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Learn how to invite & welcome
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Help people feel they belong to us
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Feed them spiritually
How to Invite & Welcome
in God’s name
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Help our active members
to reach out
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Catholics don’t like to do this
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We don’t want to preach to others
Or knock on their doors
Or pass out literature
PastoralPlanning.com │ 23rd Publications
How did the early church do it?
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They lived a convincing life
And others noticed it
When they asked:
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Why are you so happy?
How do you cope?
What gives you so much hope?
Why are you so forgiving?
PastoralPlanning.com │ 23rd Publications
How did the early church do it?
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They cared for the poor
and sick
They were faithful in
their marriages
They were devoted to
their community
They seemed to be so
happy
PastoralPlanning.com │ 23rd Publications
How did the early church do it?
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Finally someone would
ask
At that point the
Christian would say
“Come and see what I
have found…”
And by grace…
PastoralPlanning.com │ 23rd Publications
The Call to Ministry
Lumen Gentium 10
The Constitution on the Church
We share in the priesthood of
Christ, baptized & ordained
This is what “discipleship” means
PastoralPlanning.com │ The Vatican II Center
Lumen Gentium 10
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Constitution on the Church
Article 10:
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Christ made the new people who would
gather in his name
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A kingdom of priests to his God and Father
The baptized are consecrated as a holy
priesthood
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That through their sacrifices and good work they
might bear witness to Christ
PastoralPlanning.com │ The Vatican II Center
Lumen Gentium 10
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The ministerial priesthood and the
common priesthood differ
But they are part of the one priesthood of
Christ
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The ministerial priest forms and governs
In the person of Christ, he brings about the
Eucharist
The faithful share in this Eucharist and live with
prayer and active charity
PastoralPlanning.com │ The Vatican II Center
What does this mean?
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Some form of the word disciple appears in
the New Testament more than 200 times
Early Christians felt deep solidarity with
each other
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Galatians 3:28
All of you are one in Christ
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Hence our focus earlier on the Paschal Mystery
And on dialogue toward unity
PastoralPlanning.com │ The Vatican II Center
What does this mean?
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1 Peter 2:9-10
The term hiereus is applied to all in the
community
In Romans 12:1, a disciple is one
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who became a living sacrifice
drawn from the transformation in faith
that flows only from the sacrifice of Christ.
PastoralPlanning.com │ The Vatican II Center
Over time
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The distinction between ordained and lay
become very pronounced
Liturgy had become almost exclusively a
clerical matter
Luther tried to revive the idea of the
common priesthood
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But he went too far in regard to the
ministerial priesthood
PastoralPlanning.com │ The Vatican II Center
Vatican II
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Corrects this distinction
It placed the chapter on the People of God
before the ones on hierarchy, laity, and
religious
Just read article 9
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A gorgeous restoration of the baptized as the
People of God
“the dignity and freedom of the daughters &
sons of God…”
PastoralPlanning.com │ The Vatican II Center
Vatican II
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There are not two priesthoods
The call to discipleship flows from baptism
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We are all in the common priesthood
The ministerial priesthood is seen in relation
to the priesthood of the baptized
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To serve and support it
To lead and govern it (to bring “holy order”)
PastoralPlanning.com │ The Vatican II Center
We might ask
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What are the demands of authentic
Christian discipleship?
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Not limited to parish activity
The real task is to animate the world with the
spirit of Christ
Which begins at home
Always involves sacrificing oneself out of love
for others
PastoralPlanning.com │ The Vatican II Center
How to Invite & Welcome
in God’s name
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We want our active members
to live their Christian lives in a
convincing way
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What does this mean?
It means letting faith shine in daily life
without clobbering people with it
And without annoying them
PastoralPlanning.com │ 23rd Publications
How to Invite & Welcome
in God’s name
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No soap boxes!
No sermons!
No big public witness
at ball games!
Instead, a quiet whisper when the
moment is right:
PastoralPlanning.com │ 23rd Publications
The right moment
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Someone tells you about a big loss
A parent is worried about the kids
A friend is having financial trouble
Your child feels left out at school
You’re sitting on the porch and just feel
a sense of well-being and love
Something has made you very happy
PastoralPlanning.com │ 23rd Publications
And in that moment
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You might tell how you were touched
by the divine presence at some point
How you were motivated by your love
for the poor
How someone really reached out to you
in a time of need
How pausing to pray helps you
PastoralPlanning.com │ 23rd Publications
How to Invite & Welcome
in God’s name
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This might be in your kitchen
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A bowling alley
A golf course
A café or bar
Wherever you are with those
who hunger for meaning
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And who want to understand more
deeply
PastoralPlanning.com │ 23rd Publications
To organize this…
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Hold a parish event
Maybe a light meal
Afterward share some faith
And use the kit: How to Invite &
Welcome in God’s name
Algunas partes de este están también
disponibles en español
PastoralPlanning.com │ 23rd Publications
The kit
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A complete outline
A podcast from Leisa Anslinger
A self-directing PowerPoint
The talking points you need
A reproducible flier: How to speak about
your faith (without being annoying)
And a handout explaining what we hope
active members might do
Highways & Hedgerows
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Thank you for embracing the command
of Christ that we go out to all the world
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By going out to the world which is closest
to you every single day
Thank you for announcing the good
news
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Which is that you love those who are near
to you just as God loves us all
PastoralPlanning.com │ 23rd Publications