September 2011 Blog Posts (7)

My name is Rochelle and I’m writing for the first time on Catholic Networkers.   I’m a wife and mother of thirty-eight years and a cradle-Catholic.  I teach 5^th & 6^th grade CCD, lector, sing alto in the choir and am the Formation Director of my Secular Carmelite community in Milwaukee, Wisconsin.  I work online as a contractor for a Midwestern university as an adjunct teaching assistant.  I grade and evaluate students’ writing and assist them in improving that…

Last time I gave an overview of the seven core competencies I believe each parish should master to become a truly evangelizing parish.  Here they are:

Invitation

Conversion

Pre-Sacramental Education

Sacraments

Post-Sacramental Education

Faith Milestones

Ministry Formation

Now, I want to spend some time with each of them and explore what they mean to the parish, but more importantly what they mean to each of us as pew-warmers.

The…

Last Friday I remarked to one of my business associates that we should have a “Capital Day” in addition to Labor Day.  After all, binary economics (in which I am [not] the world’s leading expert) divides the factors of production into the human and the non-human, or “labor” and “capital.”  That being the case, and since advancing technology is rapidly replacing human labor in the production of marketable goods and services, it becomes essential that, as Leo XIII stated, “The law, therefore,…

I am in the midst of a life transition.   I left my job, went on a pilgrimage to France and Spain, signed up for a certification in Spiritual direction and decided to redecorate my apartment.  I am doing all of this while I am building my coaching practice for others in transitions who want to consider how to integrate their faith with their life choices.  Both my pilgrimage and the redecorating are teaching me a lot about faith, work and God’s abiding presence.   

I went to…

Take the time to appreciate what you have and to make a renewed commitment to go get what you deserve if you know you are not maximizing your potential.

God Bless.

So far we’ve seen that evangelization is nothing more or less than this generation’s response to the Great Commission at the end of St. Matthew’s Gospel.  Accordingly, all decisions made in the parish should be made with this mandate in mind.  We should ask ourselves, “Does this action, inaction, program or policy advance our work in response to the Great Commission or not?”  If it does, it will be something the parish should be pursuing and if it doesn’t, it is not what our parish should be…

Visiting a lumber yard today awakened me to gratitude for the work every person does.  This was not my first lumber yard visit but it was my first visit to a lumber yard  where there are hundreds and hundreds of felled tree trunks that were being moved around, sawed, chopped and sanded.  The sight of all those trees…