Parish Websites

rantOkay, small rant alert…

Bad parish websites. They have to stop. Seriously.

I never fail to be amazed at how little time, attention and money is devoted to the websites of some Catholic parishes. It’s 2013 people! Bad parish websites are now simply unacceptable.

If you arrived at a parish for Mass for the first time and you walked through the front door and are greeted by 70’s decor, peeling paint and a sparsely populated notice board containing only out-of-date notices, what conclusions would you reach about that parish? Well, having no website or an extremely poorly produced or out-of-date website is the digital equivalent of that today. A parish’s website, or lack thereof, is the first impression most people will have of that parish.

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Praying for Osama

I meant to post this blog entry a long time ago, but it became one of the many posts to hide itself away in my Drafts folder. I came across it yesterday and, given the recent horrific events in Connecticut, I thought it was an appropriate time to finally post it.

An unusual prayer request

Back in May of 2011, there was a great stir after a parishioner of a parish in Florida requested a Mass to be said for the soul of Osama Bin Laden.

Osama Bin Laden

This request caused all kinds of uproar among other parishioners:

“I think it’s totally wrong, he doesn’t belong in the Catholic religion. For what he did to Americans, he doesn’t belong anywhere…”

“It’s unconscionable, it’s sacrilegious…”

While I can understand the gut reaction of those who objected to this proposed Mass intention, how compatible are these statements with the Catholic faith?

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Les Miserables. Go see it now.

It has come to my attention that not yet everyone has gone to see the newly released movie Les Miserables

I find this unacceptable. If this is you, please turn off your computer and go to the cinema straight away. Seriously, what are you waiting for? Power down and go watch it now.  Don’t worry, we’ll wait for you until you come back…

[Three hours later]

I know, I know, you’re welcome…  Wasn’t that wonderful?! Aren’t you glad you watched it? You cried your eyes out too, didn’t you? 😉 Now that you’ve seen the movie, I’ll feel free to continue with spoilers

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Growing in understanding

Question: “How do we grow in knowledge and understanding of Scripture?”
Answer: “Ask more questions”.

If you want to grow in knowledge and understanding of anything, asking questions is a great way to go about it! The sure and true way to stagnate in anything is to simply be satisfied with your current level of development and understanding and let yourself slowly atrophy.

So, if you want to grow in your knowledge and understanding of Scripture, ask questions about it! If you read a passage which contains lots of things in it that you don’t understand, get a good study Bible, find a Bible geek and keep asking questions until you’re satisfied with the answers!

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