Bulletin Letter for June 7, 2009
My Dear People,
Today we will do two baptisms: Vivienne Ahlborn and Caleb Trauth. I like doing baptisms in church. I especially like it when we invite all in the congregation to join in the simple act of welcoming the child by making the sign of the cross on its forehead. We look forward to some other baptisms later in the summer. Signs of new life and of youth coming to our parish. These are welcome signs.
This is also the time of the year when we prepare our annual report to the Chancery. It includes, of course, our financial performance. It also includes statistics, such as how many baptisms, adult and infant, how many marriages, how many funerals, how many professions of faith, how many first communions and confirmations. How many people are in our parish? How does this compare with previous years?
The report answers one of the questions we will be dealing with in our ongoing Results Accountability Training: How much did we do? That’s a relatively easy question to answer depending on what it is we choose to measure. Baptisms, marriages, confirmations, first communions, professions of faith, funerals -- there are clear guidelines for measuring these. The are regulated by Canon Law. There are other things we measure more or less well. For example, what is our Sunday Mass attendance. Jose Werle went up into the choir loft last Sunday and counted 180. Of course that number will depend strongly on the time at which the count was taken. What we don’t know is how regular people are in their attendance.
This leads us to a second question we will be looking at. In addition to asking, “How much did we do?” we will also ask, “How well did we do it?”
How would you measure that? The number of people who bring their babies to be baptized who continue to come after the baptism? The number of people who enter the church who are still with us a year or two later? These are some obvious ones. Others are more subtle and, for the moment, I will just invite your imagination.
Basic questions. Whom do we serve? What do we want for them? How do we know if we are making a difference? How much did we do? How well did we do it?
When I get into measurements, I remember and keep in mind as my guide something Pope Benedict said about the sacraments. In an interview with Italian priests, someone asked him how to judge the sincerity of people who come to the sacraments. He answered that he used to be very strict. Now, he said, as long as there is a glimmer of hope, he believes in being very generous. (This was in an article in the Criterion last summer.) I believe firmly in following the Pope’s advice. Let’s be very generous in giving what we have.
Love,
Fr. Larry
Today we will do two baptisms: Vivienne Ahlborn and Caleb Trauth. I like doing baptisms in church. I especially like it when we invite all in the congregation to join in the simple act of welcoming the child by making the sign of the cross on its forehead. We look forward to some other baptisms later in the summer. Signs of new life and of youth coming to our parish. These are welcome signs.
This is also the time of the year when we prepare our annual report to the Chancery. It includes, of course, our financial performance. It also includes statistics, such as how many baptisms, adult and infant, how many marriages, how many funerals, how many professions of faith, how many first communions and confirmations. How many people are in our parish? How does this compare with previous years?
The report answers one of the questions we will be dealing with in our ongoing Results Accountability Training: How much did we do? That’s a relatively easy question to answer depending on what it is we choose to measure. Baptisms, marriages, confirmations, first communions, professions of faith, funerals -- there are clear guidelines for measuring these. The are regulated by Canon Law. There are other things we measure more or less well. For example, what is our Sunday Mass attendance. Jose Werle went up into the choir loft last Sunday and counted 180. Of course that number will depend strongly on the time at which the count was taken. What we don’t know is how regular people are in their attendance.
This leads us to a second question we will be looking at. In addition to asking, “How much did we do?” we will also ask, “How well did we do it?”
How would you measure that? The number of people who bring their babies to be baptized who continue to come after the baptism? The number of people who enter the church who are still with us a year or two later? These are some obvious ones. Others are more subtle and, for the moment, I will just invite your imagination.
Basic questions. Whom do we serve? What do we want for them? How do we know if we are making a difference? How much did we do? How well did we do it?
When I get into measurements, I remember and keep in mind as my guide something Pope Benedict said about the sacraments. In an interview with Italian priests, someone asked him how to judge the sincerity of people who come to the sacraments. He answered that he used to be very strict. Now, he said, as long as there is a glimmer of hope, he believes in being very generous. (This was in an article in the Criterion last summer.) I believe firmly in following the Pope’s advice. Let’s be very generous in giving what we have.
Love,
Fr. Larry
Labels: Bulletin Letters
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