Imagine that you are now pastor of your parish. What are the top three things that you would change about it?

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  1. Implement the “no glass or pottery instruments” feature of Redemptionis sacramentum.
*2) *Request that all readers and EMHC’s re-enlist, givng me the opportunity to vet questionable marriages and to and ask them to sign the equivalent of a mandatum as the Bishop of Baker Oregon did a couple of years ago.
  1. At six-month intervals, introduce the Ordinary of the Mass in Latin & Gregorian chant. January: Kyrie, July: Sanctus, January: Agnus Dei, July: *Pater *noster, January: Gloria. (I might choose never to implement the *Credo *depending on how well people handled the rest of the Mass.
  2. Begin adult catechesis starting with a weekly feature in the bulletin: *Does the Catholic Church REALLY Teach THAT? *
*5) *Drill the altar servers to build up their skills, knowledge and confidence. (Processions are conducted at 20 miles an hour in my parish!)
 
Three things which I think will bring about even more improvements if implemented.

-More confession times. I like my pastor, but I don’t care for the way he plays down confession. Regular confession is the is one of the best things you can do to have a better spiritual life, IMHO.

-Bring the tabernacle front and center. This might prove logistically difficult as the church is designed with a sort of “chapel” for the tabernacle and there is no real place for it in the sanctuary. It took me like a month of going to Mass there to actually figure out where it was and which direction I should genuflect in. That shouldn’t have to happen.

-24 hour Adoration one day a week, with Exposition and Benediction. I went to a parish that did this and they saw the fruits of it. Being a college student I used to love to go to Adoration at 2 am. It’s a powerful experience. Currently we have it once a week for only 3 hours and Father is rarely there to do Benediction at the end. A EMHC has to put the Eucharist back in the tabernacle. At least it is there, but I would like to see more of it.

I love my parish. We have a great parish life and lots of activities…however, I feel that sometimes we don’t know WHY we are making ourselves so busy at church. These things would help bring the focus back to Jesus.
 
Lepanto said:
Imagine that you are now pastor of your parish.

What are the top three things that you would change about it?

How well do you think your changes would be accepted by the parishioners?

If you sense some resistance, how would you go about implementing your ideas?
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If I could change anything in my parish, actually, I would add something. Before or after Mass, I would like to have a question answer period about the Liturgy or Catholic Teachings by a well versed Apologist, if not the priest. Also, I would review the music. I understand things need to be in keeping with Church Doctrine; however, sometimes the music seems so Blah…for lack of a better word. Also, would be nice to have confession offered before or after Mass, instead of a 1/2 hour on Saturday.
I’m not sure if any of this would work. The Priests are already doing double duty. The main thing I would like to see would be Catechesis. I think there are so many “fallen away” Catholics, because the Non-Catholics supposedly know more about what “Catholics” believe, although it’s not accurate.
 
Cindy_Oliver said:
Also, would be nice to have confession offered before or after Mass, instead of a 1/2 hour on Saturday.
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Ooo–I like that! And I actually know of one parish that has that! Of course, at that one parish the priest still lives in a rectory on Church grounds so I bet it’s easier to do.
 
ChristinaM said:
Three things which I think will bring about even more improvements if implemented.

-More confession times. I like my pastor, but I don’t care for the way he plays down confession. Regular confession is the is one of the best things you can do to have a better spiritual life, IMHO.

-Bring the tabernacle front and center. This might prove logistically difficult as the church is designed with a sort of “chapel” for the tabernacle and there is no real place for it in the sanctuary. It took me like a month of going to Mass there to actually figure out where it was and which direction I should genuflect in. That shouldn’t have to happen.

-24 hour Adoration one day a week, with Exposition and Benediction. I went to a parish that did this and they saw the fruits of it. Being a college student I used to love to go to Adoration at 2 am. It’s a powerful experience. Currently we have it once a week for only 3 hours and Father is rarely there to do Benediction at the end. A EMHC has to put the Eucharist back in the tabernacle. At least it is there, but I would like to see more of it.

I love my parish. We have a great parish life and lots of activities…however, I feel that sometimes we don’t know WHY we are making ourselves so busy at church. These things would help bring the focus back to Jesus.
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Cindy_Oliver:
I would love exposition of the Blessed Sacrament as well. Maybe Churches could alternate in a central area? Like your idea!
 
Someone mentioned priests hearing Confession before Mass.

I wonder if, as the gas crisis gets worse, if we will see more of this. It seems a shame, after all, to drive to church for Reconciliation, drive home, and then drive back later for Sunday Mass.

OTOH, I don’t know how it could be done with several Masses back to back, like in my parish.
 
Cat said:
Someone mentioned priests hearing Confession before Mass.

I wonder if, as the gas crisis gets worse, if we will see more of this. It seems a shame, after all, to drive to church for Reconciliation, drive home, and then drive back later for Sunday Mass.

OTOH, I don’t know how it could be done with several Masses back to back, like in my parish.
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There is no prohibition against hearing confessions during Mass.
 
mercygate said:
There is no prohibition against hearing confessions during Mass.
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Been there, done that, got the tee shirt. 😃

But I only did it once. Because it felt like I was “cheating” by combining two sacraments at once…kinda like the rosary during Mass debate.
 
Cat said:
OTOH, I don’t know how it could be done with several Masses back to back, like in my parish.
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No, I think the Confession before Mass would be best. At least in my parish, we have to choose our Mass carefully if we want to avoid certain music. And I’ve heard that it’s the way with some of the other parishes–one is “traditional”, the next time is “folk”, and another time is “pop”. Even though the Masses are back-to-back each one is different–some are noisy (and must be avoided if the there are children or adults with particular health problems that require noise avoidance).
 
  1. Conduct Rubric lessons so that proper rubrics are enforced.
  2. Have only male altar servers.
  3. Make NFP mandatory for couples who wish to get married in my parish.
  4. Stress the beauty of confession and how it can be an effective means to relieve some of the stress of our lives.
  5. Have social functions for all in the parish and especially for the young ADULTS to choose a suitable mate.
 
Cat said:
Someone mentioned priests hearing Confession before Mass.

I wonder if, as the gas crisis gets worse, if we will see more of this. It seems a shame, after all, to drive to church for Reconciliation, drive home, and then drive back later for Sunday Mass.

OTOH, I don’t know how it could be done with several Masses back to back, like in my parish.
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Although confession before Mass is an ancient practice and is still done in many places, this would be difficult between Masses if there is only one priest.

In such a case, he’d have to appoint someone to make sure that everything is prepared for Mass so that he can walk out of the confessional 5 minutes before Mass and not have to worry about anything.
 
ethelzguy said:
I’d put “hot wires” on the front of the pew seats, that could be activated during the EP to gig those who are too lazy to kneel up straight and flop their fannies back against the pews. 😛
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I had a problem with a knee that caused excruciating sharp pain if I completely knelt. I have knelt as you described for months. Finally, it was better. It gets that way occasionally though. I have to be very, very careful. My point being is that you can’t always assume why someone is doing that.
 
BSHoop96 said:
I had a problem with a knee that caused excruciating sharp pain if I completely knelt. I have knelt as you described for months. Finally, it was better. It gets that way occasionally though. I have to be very, very careful. My point being is that you can’t always assume why someone is doing that.
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I just KNEW someone would say something similar as soon as I posted…okay, six pews held aside for the infirm 🙂
 
BSHoop96 said:
oooohhh, this is a good one!
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I started a “Did you know?” column in the bulletin and found out that ‘no they didn’t’ and, further more, they didn’t want to.

For the last two bulletins I’ve inserted a list of common “Catholic” words that most people don’t know, words that we of a certain age take for granted: chasuble, chalice, ciborium, etc.

Not to hijack the thread but did you know that in Quebec the most common swear words are not vulgar but sacred? Words like Host, ciborium, chalice, are all used in everyday speech as cuss words. It’s been that way for generations to the point where most young people don’t even know why they’re wrong, they don’t even know the meaning.

Last year the Church in Quebec started erecting big signs with a word like “Tabernacle” on it in huge letters, then below, in smaller letters, the definition of the word. They figure that if people are going to curse using those words they might as well know the meaning of what they’re saying.

washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/12/04/AR2006120401286.html
 
mercygate said:
    1. Begin adult catechesis starting with a weekly feature in the bulletin: *Does the Catholic Church REALLY Teach THAT? *
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I LOVE this idea!!! 👍 It’s amazing how many Catholics have NO IDEA what we are supposed to believe.
 
ethelzguy said:
I’d put “hot wires” on the front of the pew seats, that could be activated during the EP to gig those who are too lazy to kneel up straight and flop their fannies back against the pews. 😛
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Well, why don’t you concentrate on your own prayers and on the miracle that is happening in front of you, rather than on how everyone else is praying? 😛
 
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