Catholic Tools
Catholic Tools - Creative strategies to evangelize, catechize, and develop Catholic Youth, Young Adult, and Parish Ministry through integrating marketing, technology, and management practices.
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Posts by Catholic Tools
New Priesthood Logo
Feb 24th
Here is a new logo I am building for a vocation website. Click on the image to make it full size to see it.
The priest is in the middle with other men who are busy with their daily lives. I am trying to evoke the emotion that everyday men are called to the priesthood.
Please add a comment with any suggestions.
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Loading ...How to Become a Better Catholic Speaker
Feb 24th
Catholic
Who has attended a homily that put you to sleep? What about a talk on Metaphysics that made you depressed?
Now, do you remember that talk that made you feel like “Wow! I understand, I got it, and I am charged up ready to go.”
Practice Makes Perfect
As a Catholic involved in ministry it is important to be a good speaker. The Holy Spirit will give you the words (as often stated in Scripture), but as laborers in the vineyard we have our own responsibility, too.
That is what is so amazing about the Lord’s will. He allows us to enter into it and He uses our talents to carry out His message of Salvation.
Point made, don’t be mediocre, be Amazing.
3 Steps to Becoming a Better Speaker
1. Pray, Pray, Pray
Pray with the scriptures and spend plenty of time with the Lord. Once you have done that, just do some more. Yes, it’s that simple, but often overlooked.
2. Watch and Learn
There are so many excellent speakers who practice what they preach. Look at the way the stand, talk, use their hands, use notes, dress, tone of their voice, and material.
Glenn Beck does a great job at all of this. He has mixed WWF Wrestling with politics and come out with a great drink.
Watch his talk at C-PAC and follow along with pen and paper.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nz2u-xC1FMM
3. Read and Prepare
Books, articles, blogs, and writing. Make sure your material is solid and worthwhile. If your audience isn’t gaining anything, thinking about why they should pay attention.
Practice in front of your kids, family, or mirror.
Know Who You Are
Remember we can’t all be stellar like movie star, but when become the best in our area of expertise. If you young, talk about young topics and don’t expect to be as good as a polished professional.
If we are older, remember, you are weird to young people, but there are ways to use the “weird” for your benefit.
A good Example of “Old” speaking to “Young” is George Will at the 2010 CPAC Conference.
I first hear this talk on a podcast and thought, “Wow, he has a great ability to mix humor, politics, and figures, and he makes sense.”
His video might not be as good as his plain audio, however, listen to his jokes and delivery. Excellent.
Popularity: 3% [?]
(No Ratings Yet) Loading ...10 Topics for Young Adult Ministry
Feb 23rd
Young Adults
What to do for your next meeting can always cause heartburn. Instead use these 10 topics as a starter.
10 Simple Topics for Catholic Young Adult Ministry
- Vocation and Marriage – How to discern God is Not Calling me to Religious Life
- Work – Finding the Lord’s Will in My Cubical Life
- Mass Confusion – Shedding Light on Liturgical Confusion
- Confession – Why I’m to good for Confession
- Contraception – You can’t always get what you want
- Cohabitation – How to Find the Perfect Soul Mate
- Scripture – The Great Adventure Bible Timeline
- Theology of the Body - Christopher West and the Magical Mystery Tour
- Catechism – Father John Corapi and Your Mother Wears Army Boots
- Dating – How not to get picked up at Young Adult Ministry
As you can see I these are simple topics, because young adult are looking to grow in their faith, or just find themselves. Also controversial topics spark interest. I also tried to make up funny tag lines to go against the wave of boredom.
What works for you?
Popularity: 19% [?]
(No Ratings Yet) Loading ...10 More Topics for Young Adult Ministry
Feb 22nd
Social Networking, Catholic Style
Ok who needs more ideas for young adult ministry? Nobody likes a late night planning session, so these should help. They were influenced by Matthew Pinto. Yea, I think he does good work.
- Evolution and Catholics (Did Adam and Eve have Belly Buttons?)
- Separation of Church and State (What does it really mean?
- The Occult and the New Age Movement (Can I read my horoscope and stay free from evil forces?)
- Are you a Mormon? (When a black tie, white shirt man comes to your door? Who are they? A Seminarian?)
- Born Again Over the Weekend (Fundamentalism and Christianity. The Difference? What do they believe?)
- Jehovah’s Witnessess (What and Who are they?)
- Why Come Back to the Faith (Why be Catholic when I left at age 18?)
- What do we believe? (Just open the Catechism)
- Jesus (Who was he? What was his purpose? What does he ask of us?)
- Is the End of the World Coming (What it means and did I miss it in Y2k?)
Catholic Young Adult Ministry is extremely important to any parish. If you don’t have one just start with 2 people and grow. There is so much to talk about. Start your meetings at a local pub. Dinner, a beverage, and a small short talk to start discussion. Maybe even cover the first round.
Popularity: 11% [?]
(No Ratings Yet) Loading ...The Liturgy of the Hours
Feb 20th
Pray
Catholics often stop their daily devotions on Sunday.
Make sure you get to Sunday Mass and hopefully stay until after the final blessing, but before the song is over. But has this left many Catholics unsatisfied? What do our Protestant and Evanglical brothers have that we are missing?
They always carry the bible around and are talking about the Word? Maybe the Word is what we as Catholics are missing?
The Problem with Prayer
For some reasons many cradle Catholics have been left to believe that Sunday mass is all that they have for prayer. Sunday Mass is very important and spiritually filling, but many are missing out on the daily prayer that Jesus has called us to.
The Holy Sacrifice of the Mass is available daily at many parishes, however, many parishioners due to their work schedule or family life can’t make the one mass offered a day.
Maybe us Catholics would become more Holy if we prayed more. Listened to God. Made ourselves available to all the riches the Catholic Church has to offer.
It seems that Catholic don’t know what to do in between mass?
Opening up scripture for Christian denominations offers spiritual food. I believe they learn at a young age to pray throughout the day. Maybe it’s just the simple move of breaking open scriptures with friends and family.
Simplicity from Mary
Our Lady of Medjugorje gave a simple practice for daily prayer life.
- Eucharist
- Scripture
- Frequent Confession
- Fasting
- Rosary
I like and promote this simple little prayer exercise because of it’s simplicity. Just as Jesus said love God and neighbor as yourself when asked what the greatest commandment was.
Even this simple little 5 step plan can be expanded upon, but it gives a little structure and guidelines for daily living.
PS. You could take this little plan and turn it into a teaching on prayer for your Parish.
The Liturgy of the Hours
The Liturgy of the Hours provides a good opportunity to pray throughout the day. The structure is easy to learn, it can be like a bookend to start and end the day, it is personal, but also communal. Everything is contained in 4 books and over time because a beautiful rhythm.
Public and private pray are is considered one of the primary duties of the Church. The early Christians “devoted themselves to the teaching of the apostles and to the community, to the breaking of the bread, and to prayer” (Acts 2:42)
The Liturgy of the Hours is a prayer of praise and petition which sanctifies the hours of the day. This wonderful pray has been consistent since the 11th century combining Psalms, prayers, canticles and readings.
“The whole life of the faithful, hour by hour, during day and night, is a kind of leitourgia or public service, in which the faithful give them-selves over to the ministry of love toward God and men…For this reason the Hours are recommended to all Christ’s faithful members.” Pope Paul VI
The Liturgy of the Hours allows one to begin and end their day in prayer in union with the whole Church. It is easy, quick, and extremely fulfilling.
Just imagine yourself praying alongside of the entire clergy of the Church, united in petition and praise to God.
If you read nothing, read THIS
The Classical Liberal Arts Academy has a wonderful article written about the LOH and family prayer.
Another Resource for Learning the Liturgy of the Hours
And you can also ask a priest!
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