Easter Sunday, and the whole of the Easter season, is always an opportunity for the parish, but never more so than this year, given the past two years of our COVID experience. Whatever size or style of your parish you will be welcoming visitors and first-timers, not to mention parishioners returning to church for the […]
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Our hearts break for the Ukrainian people, especially the overwhelmingly sad suffering of children, painfully on display with the evening news. All of us in the Nativity community are praying for an end to the conflict and the restoration of national boundaries that reflect the autonomy of the Ukrainian people. But no matter what the […]
In July, the Vatican’s Congregation for Clergy issued an instruction on the “pastoral conversion” of the parish community in the service of the evangelizing mission of the Church. While the focus of the document was clearly on evangelization, it also made a number of important points regarding the reality of parish life moving forward. Here […]
This week, a couple of large and successful churches across the country took a step which I found unexpected. They announced that, in view of the pandemic, they would stay closed to in-person worship services through the end of the year. Some of this decision is explained by their large size (making it harder to […]
When our parish first closed its doors three months ago in observance of COVID-19 guidelines, everything we did in response seemed like a temporary solution to a temporary problem. We anticipated that our experimental forays into Zoom staff meetings, Masses said to a camera and empty pews, online small groups, and new social media channels […]
Everyone is excited about the prospect of getting back to church. Here at Nativity, we are reintroducing live streaming this weekend and inviting our staff to join us physically for Mass. If all goes well, we can begin welcoming back parishioners after a few more weeks of testing of our safety measures. But we do […]
Towards the end of his life Jesus friend Lazarus died. Jesus, as we know, raised Lazarus from the dead, his last and greatest miracle. But, that’s not the first thing he did when he arrived. The first thing he did was…nothing. Nothing at all. Scripture tells us he paused and wept. Jesus wept. John 11:35 […]
For God so loved the world that he gave his only Son,so that everyone who believes in himmight not perish but have eternal life. John 3:16 This weekend is marked, ecclesially, by the celebration of the Solemnity of the Most Holy Trinity. The Trinity, which is revealed throughout Scripture, tells us that God is a […]
When the initial quarantine began, we turned to technology to indiscriminately fill the gaps that had been created in our communication. Social media and online Mass broadcasts provided a means to reach multitudes of people at once with a single, all-encompassing message. This technology has borne some incredible fruit at our parish and we will […]
This post is the fourth in a series of resources dedicated to providing a potential road-map through the current COVID-19 crisis for your parish. We’ll be sharing with you what we’re doing, what’s working, and what isn’t. But honestly, we’re making it up as we go along, just like you. As always, our only credential […]
