How to chose a parish???

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What should we look for when chosing a parish to go to? I mean, other lthan location…

I have 4 things that I look for-
  1. prayer life
  2. devotional life
  3. Commuanl/community life
and
  1. Sacramental life
 
jason3477 said:
What should we look for when chosing a parish to go to? I mean, other lthan location…

I have 4 things that I look for-
  1. prayer life
  2. devotional life
  3. Commuanl/community life
and
  1. Sacramental life
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Well, it’s not really close to the Lenten season, but our priest once said if you want to see how vibrant a parish is, show up at Stations of the Cross on a Friday night during Lent and see how many people attend.

My parish has over 5,000 people and our Stations of the Cross usually has a dozen people. 😦
 
You kind of hit it with #4, but I think within that it is important to find out how closely they adhere to Holy Mother Church’s recommendations for the Mass. How much do they love the Eucharist, and is it the center of the parish life? When the Eucharist is first, it’s hard to go wrong.

Who runs the church? “The people” or Jesus Christ?
 
how many people show up for adoration?

how full are holy day Masses?

what percentage of children who ought to be in CCD/RE/PSR, given the population of the parish, actually attend.

harder to find out, but very predictive: divide the ministry/apostolate slots by the number of people who carry out these lay initiatives. If the ratio is high i.e., most people doing at least 2 jobs if not more, that is an unhealthy parish, suffing from early onset SSP syndrome (Same Six People who do everything).
 
Since I still have school age children, I look for the parish that best represents the Church to them.

– are the homilies solid?
– is the catechesis solid?
– is the Church itself Catholic in appearance?
– are traditions practiced (Rosaries, Stations of the Cross, May Crowning, adoration)?
– is there at least one Mass without Catholic rock music? (they hate LT-type music and I don’t need to battle them to go to Mass)
 
All of the above are very important.

Does the Priest preach truth? Pro Life? Not afraid to preach about sin and get to confession? Does he rush through Mass or does he PRAY the Mass?

Where you find a spirit filled priest who preaches the truth and teaches the people, you are more apt to find what you are looking for.
 
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