LPi Advances WeGather by Including Parish to Diocese Data Sharing Feature
LPi is pleased to announce that it has launched a new, multiple organization data sharing feature for WeGather: a fully integrated, Church Management & Parish Community Builder, cloud-based software solution built for the Catholic Church. This new data sharing feature will allow a hierarchy of aggregate data shared from parishes to their diocese providing the ability to measure the health of all parishes within the diocese as well as share data across parishes if desired.
Now What?
Each newly baptized man, woman, and child have become new creations in Jesus Christ. They have died and risen with the one who rose on the third day and whose empty tomb we celebrate every Easter. Easter Sunday morning, they awake after many months of RCIA and all have the same question before them: “Now what?”
Jesus Is Laid in the Tomb
We are called to works of mercy: feed the hungry, give drink to the thirsty, shelter the homeless, visit the sick, visit the imprisoned, bury the dead, and give alms to the poor. Can the person who does not believe in Jesus do these things? Absolutely! The question is what difference it makes that you are disciples of Jesus Christ.
Keep Volunteering Fresh
Cultivating a community of generosity is essential to a vibrant parish. Sometimes it’s difficult to get volunteers in the door and to keep them committed. Finding yourself with a volunteer shortage? Here are top to bottom tips for refreshing your volunteer process.
What Difference Does It Make?
Once we change our focus from what is below to what is above, even the smallest of our actions and the simplest of our thoughts take on greater depth, purpose, and meaning. Christ is risen! What does that really mean to you?
Jesus Is Taken Down from the Cross
It is easy to get tangled up in the world and lose sight of that which is eternal. The emotions and feelings we have in any given situation are gifts from God. Some would say we are most alive when we are in grief. However, it is also the ability to move from that point to a point of hope that makes us human.
Jesus Dies on the Cross
Jesus had to die so that he might rise again. It is the Resurrection that provides the meaning for the cross. Without Jesus’ rising, the events of the Passion are simply some grotesque sequence of man’s inhumanity toward man. We must die to ourselves so that Jesus can live through us.
We Find Him in the Cross
The power of this symbol has been diminished in popular culture. It is often used in fashion and simple wall art and on bumper stickers and T-shirts, sometimes with Christian clichés and sometimes not. But the cross is something so much more. It is a reminder of the pain, suffering, and death of one who loved us so much that he would give his very life for us.
Have Your Parishioners Had That Late-Night Conversation With Christ?
We’ve all been there. Maybe it was at a midnight study session with your college roommate during finals, or it was during a spiritual retreat, where you had a chance heart-to-heart encounter with another attendee. That soul-bearing, total understanding, “heart filled with joy because someone gets me” kind of conversation with someone who sees you as just a little bit remarkable and your journey as just a little bit special — it’s the way that Christ sees us.
The Antidote to Indifference
Although Palm Sunday’s ability to confront and confound our indifference can be startling and even frightening, the real grace of this celebration is in the opportunity it provides for us to renew our commitment to life in Christ. More than being some sort of extended passion play, the days of Holy Week challenge us to envision a life in which we take responsibility for our sins.
Jesus is Crucified
In the life of a Christian, reflections on the mysteries of faith are necessary to bridge the gap of time and space between the historical event of the death and resurrection of Jesus and its redeeming power today. This is the transformative power of Everyday Stewardship.
Generosity: A Look in the Mirror
Stewardship begins with the person in the mirror. You and I are accountable to each other, but at the end of the day, the only one who knows the true level of our generosity is God. As this Lent draws to a close, it is time to take a good long look in the mirror.
Jesus Is Stripped of His Clothes
What has ever happened to you that Jesus cannot understand? What pain can you ever feel that he has not felt? Who is this God we follow and call Lord? It is the God who cared enough for us that He dared become like us in all things, even unto suffering and death.