If You Pray Daily, Come Worship with Us This Weekend

The title of this article should be on a Big Sign in Front of Catholic Parishes.  

About twice as many Catholics pray daily as go to Mass weekly.  Every parish should be very happy to have twice as many people in the pews each weekend, especially people who have a relationship with God through daily prayer.  

People are being invited because of a desirable characteristic, their daily prayerfulness. Implied is a strong attitudinal and behavioral consistency between daily prayer and weekly worship. Those who pray daily should look forward to prayer with others on the weekend. And those who gather on weekends should be especially happy to welcome those who pray daily.

No questions should be raised about whether or not the person is Catholic, been baptized, confirmed or raised as Catholic, or registered in the parish. Nor about the person's age, gender, marital status, race, politics, etc. Nothing about welcoming back the disaffiliated, or asking people why they have not been attending.  

The Good News is that the parish is emphasizing the positive behavior of daily prayer when welcoming people to join for worship. No questions asked about how much daily prayer for how long, etc. Keep it simple; people who see themselves as praying daily are welcome at our weekend worship.

The sign should include a link to the:

 Parish Website Welcoming Page.

Miracles

This is my homily for today, the 23rd Sunday in Ordinary Time, Cycle B.  Todays' readings are here.

Jesuitical Podcast on Young Priests

 I sometimes listen to the Jesuitical Podcast on the America Media site.  The presenters are Zac Davis and Ashley Mckinnless.  They are informative, but with a light touch. Their latest podcast is titled "In defense of young diocesan priests" and several other topics are also discussed: Podcast: In defense of young diocesan priests | America Magazine 

They critique a general perception that younger priests are more conservative and rigid in their pastoral ministry. That has been a topic lately in several articles, including one in the New York Times.

"Joining them to discuss the countercultural decision to join the diocesan priesthood is the Rev. Wade Bass, a young priest who serves as pastoral administrator at Our Lady of Angels Catholic Church in Allen, Tex., a suburb of Dallas."

Practicing the faith in space

There is an interesting article on the NCR site on how a couple of Texas congregations are supporting their members on the space station: How a Texas congregation is supporting its members on the space station | National Catholic Reporter (ncronline.org)

"About 10 miles from Johnson Space Center, a Houston-area church takes a moment during Wednesday Bible studies and Sunday evening services to pray for two members who cannot be there."

"In fact, there’s no way on Earth for NASA astronauts Barry "Butch" Wilmore and Tracy Dyson to show up at Providence Baptist Church. They’re in space, orbiting the planet. More specifically, these two members are working on the International Space Station together."

"Like many astronauts before them, they brought along their faith when they launched into space."