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The inner word

08 Feb 2015 - Fifth Sunday in Ordinary Time, Cycle B

Both the epistle and the gospel this week provide “call stories” for reflection on vocation. Saint Paul describes the nature of his mission, and Jesus affirms that preaching and healing are the reasons for which he has come. How do you understand the “obligation,” to use Paul’s term, God has given you in your ministry? What is your purpose?

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The inner word

12 Oct 2014 - Twenty-eighth Sunday in Ordinary Time, Cycle A

Have you ever practiced a form of street ministry, the kind that takes to heart the gospel mandate to “go out into the main roads and invite to the feast whomever you find”? Not for the faint of heart, no doubt, but stretching the envelope a bit on your comfort zone will do you some good. It can broaden your horizons and deepen your compassion. Well worth the shoe leather.

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Iranians elect to protest

21 Jun 2009 - Preaching the News for Sunday

In this Sunday’s first reading the Lord addresses Job out of a storm. In response to a storm of protest, Iran’s supreme leader reversed course this week and ordered an investigation into allegations of election fraud in last Friday’s presidential election. Earlier having called the reelection of Mahmud Ahmadinejad a “divine assessment,” Ayatollah Ali Khamenei Monday directed a high-level clerical panel to look into the charges of fraud. The move was not enough to placate supporters of opposition candidate Mir Hossein Mousavi, who have daily taken to the streets of Tehran to protest. Tuesday the country’s most senior Islamic cleric, an opponent of Khamenei, threw his weight behind charges that Ahmadinejad’s reelection was rigged. “No one in their right mind can believe” the official results from Friday’s contest, Grand Ayatollah Hossein Ali Montazeri said of the landslide victory claimed by Ahmadinejad. Montazeri accused the regime of handling Mousavi’s charges of fraud and the massive protests of his backers “in the worst way possible.” In an effort to quash media coverage, the Iranian Ministry of Culture and Islamic Guidance issued a ban on foreign news reporting of rallies in Tehran, revoked the credentials of those with temporary visas, and ordered them to leave the country as soon as possible. Cell phone service was cut in the city. To counter these restrictions a U.S. State Department official Monday emailed the social-networking site Twitter with an unusual request: Delay scheduled maintenance of its global network, which would have cut off service while Iranians were using Twitter to swap information and inform the outside world about the mushrooming protests around Tehran. The State Department said its request did not amount to meddling in Iranian affairs because the department did not contact Twitter until three days after the vote was held and well after the protests had begun. Source: Articles by Warren P. Strobel and Jonathan S. Landay for McClatchy Newspapers, Mark Landler and Brian Stelter for the New York Times, and Hashem Kalantari and Fredrik Dahl for Reuters

twitter ministry of culture and islamic guidance ali khamenei hossein ali montazeri tehran mir hossein mousavi fraud mahmud ahmadinejad election iran state department

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Faith communities hit by economic downturn

11 Oct 2009 - Preaching the News for Sunday

The psalmist this Sunday calls on the Lord to "prosper the work of our hands." Faith communities, however, are finding little prosperity from the effects of the economic recession, a new survey said. Hard times are forcing closures of congregations and schools and the downsizing of staff and ministry programs. "In 2010, I think we're going to see 10 or 15 percent of congregations saying they're in serious financial trouble," said David Roozen, a lead researcher for the Faith Communities Today multi-faith survey, which measures congregational health annually. "With around 320,000 or 350,000 congregations, that's a hell of a lot of them." Before the stock market tanked a year ago, 19 percent of U.S. congregations described their finances as excellent, down from 31 percent in 2000, according to the poll. Mainline Protestant churches were among the most vulnerable to the downturn. But Roman Catholic dioceses for years have been struggling with maintaining their aging churches, paying salaries and health insurance, and funding settlements over clergy sex abuse. With the hit to investment income and a drop in donations, they are now freezing salaries and cutting ministries and staff. The Archdiocese of Detroit, at the heart of the economic meltdown, had a $14 million shortfall in the fiscal year that ended in June 2008. The National Catholic Education Association is still measuring the toll on its schools but expects grim news from the hardest hit states after years of declining enrollment. "Some schools that were on the brink--this whole recession has just intensified that," said Karen Ristau, president of the association. Religious leaders said the next year or so will be key in determining which organizations survive the downturn intact. Even if the recession ends soon, religious fundraisers said the uncertainty donors feel will not lift immediately, prolonging the difficulties for congregations, schools, and ministries. Source: An article by Rachel Zoll for the Associated Press

ministry karen ristau national catholic education associatio archdiocese of detroit faith communities today david roozen congregations denominations churches recession church giving church schools

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Your mission, should you choose to accept it

28 Apr 2013 - Preaching the News for Sunday

As this Sunday’s reading from the Acts of the Apostles demonstrates, Paul and Barnabas were the quintessential evangelizing missionaries, logging thousands of rugged miles in their tireless effort to bring the good news to new lands and peoples. Pope Francis wants the same missionary spirit to permeate the church today. “Mission” he notes, “is key to ministry.“A church that does not go out of itself, sooner or later, sickens from the stale air of closed rooms,” he said in a letter to his fellow Argentinean bishops gathering in the city of Pilar for an assembly he would have led had he not been chosen to lead the worldwide church.Pastoral ministry should always be missionary and its ministers must be courageous evangelizers not afraid to go out "into the deep," the outskirts of existence, to bring the "sweet and comforting joy" of faith to people today, the pope said.Pope Francis went on to concede that at times, like anyone else, in going out the church risks running into accidents. But he added “I prefer a thousand times over a church of accidents than a sick church.”Francis said that the church typically suffers from being self-referential, of only looking to and relying on itself. He spoke of a “narcissism that leads to a routine spirituality and convoluted clericalism” and prevents people from experiencing the sweet and comforting joy of evangelization.The pope concluded his letter with a special greeting to the Argentinean people and a fraternal embrace for his fellow bishops, asking them to pray so that “I do not grow proud and always know how to listen to what God wants and not what I want.”Homily hint: Pastors worldwide report positive responses from their congregations to the pope's refreshing candor and warmth. Might the church be experiencing a moment of new opportunity, a time for a renewed sense of mission and outreach within our own communities and, in the spirit of Paul and Barnabas, beyond? Source: An article by Emer McCarthy for Vatican Radio

church Pope Francis ministry mission catholic church pastoral ministry

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Your mission, should you choose to accept it

28 Apr 2013 - Preaching the News for Sunday

As this Sunday’s reading from the Acts of the Apostles demonstrates, Paul and Barnabas were the quintessential evangelizing missionaries, logging thousands of rugged miles in their tireless effort to bring the good news to new lands and peoples. Pope Francis wants the same missionary spirit to permeate the church today. “Mission” he notes, “is key to ministry.“A church that does not go out of itself, sooner or later, sickens from the stale air of closed rooms,” he said in a letter to his fellow Argentinean bishops gathering in the city of Pilar for an assembly he would have led had he not been chosen to lead the worldwide church.Pastoral ministry should always be missionary and its ministers must be courageous evangelizers not afraid to go out "into the deep," the outskirts of existence, to bring the "sweet and comforting joy" of faith to people today, the pope said.Pope Francis went on to concede that at times, like anyone else, in going out the church risks running into accidents. But he added “I prefer a thousand times over a church of accidents than a sick church.”Francis said that the church typically suffers from being self-referential, of only looking to and relying on itself. He spoke of a “narcissism that leads to a routine spirituality and convoluted clericalism” and prevents people from experiencing the sweet and comforting joy of evangelization.The pope concluded his letter with a special greeting to the Argentinean people and a fraternal embrace for his fellow bishops, asking them to pray so that “I do not grow proud and always know how to listen to what God wants and not what I want.”Homily hint: Pastors worldwide report positive responses from their congregations to the pope's refreshing candor and warmth. Might the church be experiencing a moment of new opportunity, a time for a renewed sense of mission and outreach within our own communities and, in the spirit of Paul and Barnabas, beyond? Source: An article by Emer McCarthy for Vatican Radio

church Pope Francis ministry mission catholic church pastoral ministry

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Homily stories

22 May 2011 - Fifth Sunday of Easter, Cycle A

We moved out of our family house, where I had spent my entire life, during the summer before I left for the college seminary. It really was the only home that I knew. It was torn down at the end of that summer so that a high-rise apartment building could be built on that site. So there could be no going back home for me. My parents' new house was never more than a place to stay when I came in from school the next eight years. After ordination, I lived in a number of rectories, but none of them could I call home. So for me, home remains a memory growing more distant as time passes. I am able to live with that. We all need a spiritual home, a place where we are comfortable in prayer, in service, in reflecting on finding the presence of our loving God. We look to that dwelling place that Jesus promises us in the gospel. But we also work at building a place for ourselves and others during our journey to God. That home is the church, not a building or edifice, but the living presence of our risen Christ. It is for ourselves and for our world. That presence, as we read in the Acts of the Apostles, is made real through the service and ministry we share with one another. Guided by the Spirit, we build the church that is at once our home and the foreshadowing of our dwelling place in heaven.

Authors Father Dominic Grassi

family house act of the apostles church Service ministry

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The inner word

15 Nov 2009 - Thirty-third Sunday in Ordinary Time, Cycle B

In the Letter to the Hebrews Saint Paul contrasts two types of priesthood: one that is futile and one that is effective. How often do I feel my ministry is futile? In what ways am I effective? Jesus is the priest whose sacrifice is effective once and for all. Do I align myself and my ministry with what I know about Jesus? This week the readings convey a sense of imminent crisis, a realization that life has come to a point of fundamental decision. Do I recognize those decision moments in my own life? How about in the lives of people I encounter in my role as minister?

crisis decisions ministry

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Exploring the word

18 Oct 2009 - Twenty-ninth Sunday in Ordinary Time, Cycle B

It’s awkward. You’re the priest (or deacon) and it’s your job to celebrate ordained life. The task has all the trappings of blowing your own horn, and humility dictates against it. But if you’re not going to do it this year, when the Vatican has given you every license and it’s “Priesthood Sunday,” then you might want to have a talk with your spiritual director about your reluctance. Yes, priests have been celebrated a lot and sometimes for all the wrong reasons. On the other hand it must be said this decade has hardly been the “decade for priests” in the public eye. Many wearing the collar would prefer to lay low and attract less attention. Yet all the good reasons you originally embraced this life still apply. The mission of the church is to bring good news to all the world. We’re not there yet. The people of God need faith-filled, wise, and joyful leaders, now as ever. The sacramental ministry is a beautiful calling, with the Eucharist providing “the source and summit” of Christian faith. Yet more and more parishes languish with an ever-shrinking opportunity for celebration. (I know a tiny factory town where Mass and confessions are available once a month—on a Wednesday. The next church is 90 miles away.) Preaching the word of God in the assembly is among the most privileged tasks that can be performed in the service of life. It’s the voice that calls Lazarus out from the tomb, week after week. If not you, then who? As an ordained minister of the church, you can do things that no one else can do, even apart from sacramental ministry. You have access to the hospital rooms, the corridors of suffering, the human heart, like nobody else. Everything you say and do for the good is amplified exponentially because the authority of the church speaks and acts through you. You are entrusted with the words of forgiveness, the balm of healing, the prerogative to name demons and tell them to get lost. If God’s compassion for a world in trouble stirs in your veins, look no further than the priesthood to become part of the solution—the divine solution, in fact. Just as every believer kneels down on a regular basis and seeks to amend his or her faults, there’s certainly much to reconsider in the fallible processes that supply us with church leaders today. All the more reason for people of good will to pray for the priesthood they would like to see: to support with their prayers local leaders as well as those far away. All the more reason for those with discernment to consider if that chaffing in the spirit isn’t a call to step forward and to be the change they wish to see. Related scripture links Paul’s acknowledgment: Gal. 2:9 Sons of Thunder: Mark 3:17; see also Luke 9:54 James’ martyrdom recorded: Acts 12:2 No honors and titles: Luke 11:43; 14:7-11; 20:46; Matt. 23:1-12 Catechism links Passion of Jesus: CCC 440; 536; 559-618; 1225

Authors Alice Camille

priesthood priests Service ministry

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Exploring the word

25 Oct 2009 - Thirtieth Sunday in Ordinary Time, Cycle B

Bartimaeus is that rare recipient of a miracle who immediately becomes a disciple of Jesus. Immediately, of course, is a favorite Marcan word. Things happen at once in this gospel or not at all. The urgency is not simply symptomatic of the breathlessness with which Mark tells his story. He convinces us that discipleship won’t wait. Make your decision and come away at once! Bartimaeus follows Jesus up the road—”on the way” in some translations, the Way being a code word for the Christian journey. Mary Magdalene, relieved of seven demons, does the same in Luke’s gospel. But most folks cleansed, cured, restored, and raised up in gospel stories simply return to their families and their routines. We can’t blame them. There’s a life interrupted they’ve been longing for, and it’s a powerful lure. Jesus acknowledges this impulse when he pronounces Bartimaeus healed by his own faith: “Be on your way!” Jesus bids him generously. Bartimaeus determines at once that “his way” is now the way of Jesus. Wherever you go, I shall go, he says with his feet. The story of Bartimaeus is special to pastoral ministers because it’s an off-the-charts success. Here’s a guy who seeks healing, receives his sight, and winds up with more clarity than most people who were never so deprived. He sees well enough to know which way to go, and that’s a lot. This week, as we honor those in pastoral ministry within the church, we cheer those on who offer this opportunity to many in ways that may seem less dramatic but are nonetheless life-transforming. Bartimaeus forever cries out from the side of the road, and pastoral caregivers are the ones who answer that call in Jesus’ name. Pastoral care is an opaque term to those who still think the priest-pastor does everything. Defined as “the self-realizing activity of the church’s shepherding concern” doesn’t inch us much toward clarification. The definition I prefer comes from Richard McBride: Pastoral ministry isn’t only about communicating theological principles but about applying them to concrete and changing circumstances. It’s where the rubber meets the road in the life of the church, where gospel values encounter real-life stories. It’s where you and I meet Bartimaeus at the side of the road and answer his cry. It’s not enough to dive in and catechize the poor fellow. First, we have to ask the prescient question: “In the name of Jesus, what do you want?” That makes the pastoral person distinct from the social worker. It’s what makes the Catholic hospital different from General Hospital, or the Catholic Worker more than a soup kitchen. Pastoral care is what we offer when we respond to the world’s need not from our limited compassion but through the depths of the heart of Christ. Related scripture links Garments and their significance: Mark 2:21; 5:25-30; 6:56; 9:3; 11:7-8; 13:16; 15:20, 24 Salvation by faith: 5:23, 28, 34, 36 Blind man gradually restored: Mark 8:22-26 Failure of the disciples: Mark 9:18-19, 28-29 Disciples cannot see: Mark 10:35-45 Catechism links Faith: CCC 185-202; 222-227; 548; 1814-1816; 2616; 2666-2668

Authors Alice Camille

following jesus follow Journey pastoral ministry

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