Mission Matters: June 7, 2016

This week’s “Parish Table Talk”: Reminder – Order of Celebrating Matrimony workshop; Bishop Barron on Social Media and the Church; Webinar on effective parish leadership; Comedy and Catholic faith; An atheist opinion on marriage; A thank you from the Retreat House; Evangelization at Camp GLOW; plus this Thursday’s blog post.

Watch for this Thursday’s Post: Parish Survey Series #8

12 Ways to Be the ‘Hostess with the Mostess’, by Daphne Daly, Director of the Office of Pastoral Planning.

Hello from Camp GLOW 2016 !

The Department of Evangelization spending time with our brothers and sisters at Camp GLOW at the O’Dwyer Retreat House. We come to give, but we always receive so much more! They show us the face of Christ, humble us, and fill our hearts with gratitude.

• Reminder -Regional workshop on the Order of Celebrating Matrimony:  The decree on the revised Order of Celebrating Matrimony will become mandatory in Liturgy as of December 30, 2016. Online registration for this  workshop is ongoing!  This regional event is organized by the Federation of Diocesan Liturgical Commissions (FDLC) and the Archdiocese of Baltimore and will take place at the Church of Resurrection in Ellicott City, MD on Wednesday, July 20, 2016. The workshops are intended for priests, deacons, parish musicians, and diocesan leaders who actively prepare couples for marriage and for the celebration of Matrimony.

• Social Media as a tool to evangelize:  In 2007, Bishop Robert Barron  found semina Verbi while planning a series of videos for his new Youtube channel. By “learning the game from inside,” as he puts it during this talk at Saint Vincent College, he has come to appreciate the impact of social media in today’s world and its relationship with the Catholic Church.  Can you also find the seeds of the Word in your parish’s social media strategy?

• A  special message from Michael Downes, Director of the Monsignor O’Dwyer Retreat House:

” The Msgr. O’Dwyer Retreat House held their annual $10,000 Raffle and Silent Auction on Friday.  We are very grateful to everyone who helped make it a great time and a big success. Thank you to everyone who bought a ticket, and to all who came out to buy an auction item, play one of our games of chance, and enjoy the delicious food!

A special thanks also to the House staff, the Board Directors, volunteers, supporters, and everyone who brought a spouse, significant other, or sibling to help, and to all who made donations.  A special thanks to Kate Kleintank who once again organized our efforts.We really appreciate everyone’s  support and help!

God is good, all the time, and continues to bless the Msgr. O’Dwyer Retreat House!

– Mike “

• Creating an Amazing Parish: If you would like to be more effective in meetings, achieve your goals, strengthen your team, and foster a healthy organization, register for this webinar with Pat Lencioni and Bill Weingartner, members of The Amazing Parish team, who will answer your questions on June 8 at 1:30 pm ET/10:30 am PT.

• The marriage of feeling: In this opinion piece by Alain de Botton, an outspoken atheist and philosopher, the author examines the “western understanding of marriage” by focusing on logic and sentiment, romance and tragedy, divorce and commitment, all without using the “G” word. Not once.

• The faithful comedians: Turns out that late-night comedy shows are lead by Catholics and the Pope absolutely loves stand-up comedy. In this comprehensive article about the rise of Catholicism in comedy,  you will see how entertainers are using their faith as an opportunity to express their Catholic beliefs. Critics say that this self-deprecating, tongue-in-cheek kind of humor works toward our mission of New Evangelization. What’s your opinion?

Questions? Feedback? Please leave a comment below