Eucharist

Eucharist Overview: Phase 2

August 16, 2023 by Pathway Admin

The focus during Phase 2 of Beacons of Light is establishing a compelling vision for the future, one that will be the reference point that everyone in your Family of Parishes will strive for in the coming years. The Eucharist principle states clearly that not only is Mass the source and summit for the whole Christian life, but also Sunday Mass is the essential moment for building up your Family.

During Phase 2, leaders will discern, articulate and share your vision for your Family of Parishes. Then, as a Family, you will have a chance to consider what impact that vision will have on the liturgical and sacramental life of the parishes.

Phase 2 will also be a chance to continue forming a worship staff for your Family (to support your director of worship, already promoted from within or hired in Phase 1), as well as a Family Worship Commission to help your individual parish commissions begin to relate to one another.

Finally, you will be invited to consider some specific initiatives to help increase vitality in your liturgical life, including formation for liturgical ministers and parishioners, analysis of your Family Sunday Mass schedule and shared liturgical experiences for your Family.

“Create a vision for a Eucharist-centered parish, form a Family Worship Commission and Family Worship department of staff.”

0.1 Eucharist – Confirm Vision Assessment Complete

August 16, 2023 by Pathway Admin

To prepare for Visio Day, it is beneficial to have an understanding of where your Family of Parishes stands in relation to each of the vision points in the Eucharist principle. Use the Family Vision Assessment Tool to isolate which vision points are strengths and which need attention as part of establishing a comprehensive Vision for your Family of Parishes. See the Vision Assessment Tool.

0.2 Eucharist – Reinforce from Phase 1

August 16, 2023 by Pathway Admin

If your Family of Parishes does not yet have a director of worship serving on your Family Leadership Team, it is important to complete that step before moving ahead to Phase 2.

Also, if you have not assessed your Sunday Mass schedule in the past year, it is important for your worship staff, worship commission, and pastor to do so. Here is information to assist you. After the next October count is an opportune time to again revisit this exercise, so as to help your Family grow in conformity to Parameters 4, 5, and 6.

1.1 Eucharist – Visio Day

August 16, 2023 by Pathway Admin

Visio Day provides an opportunity for your Family Leadership Team (FLT) to learn the importance of creating a vision for your Family of Parishes and how to best create, communicate and enact that vision within your Family. This one-day workshop will not create the final vision for your Family of Parishes but will jump-start that process and prepare you for the Family Visioning Process.

Some Families of Parishes participated in Visio Day early in 2023. We encourage all other Families, not engaged in the Catholic Leadership Institute’s Next Generation Parish process, to attend one of the two sessions scheduled for fall 2023.

Learn more.

1.2 Eucharist – Family Visioning

August 16, 2023 by Pathway Admin

The Family Visioning Process follows Visio Day and is a comprehensive process to create a vision statement for your Family of Parishes. This process is designed to define your vision, build consensus around the vision with key leaders, and assess the impacts of that vision for each Beacons principle within your Family.

Refer to Leadership 1.2 for details on the Family Visioning Process.

3.1 Assessing the Liturgical Schedule

July 5, 2022 by Pathway Admin

Some of the most complicated decisions parish leaders have to make are about scheduling — and in particular, the Sunday Mass schedule. Nothing disturbs a long-time parishioner more than changing “his Mass” or asking her to come at 10:30 a.m. instead of 10 a.m. Plus, imagine the hassle of changing bulletins, websites and weekly alarms on smartphones.

Yet, forming a sustainable schedule for Mass and other liturgical and sacramental celebrations within your Family of Parishes is an important thing. Thank you to the many parish leaders who took the opportunity, even during Phase 0, to adjust their Mass schedules — in some cases, a change long overdue, but still not easy.

Ideally, changes to the Mass schedule for a Family of Parishes would not take place immediately on July 1, 2022. Hopefully, this would involve deliberation, analysis of status quo, consultation with the faithful and good discussion among the pastoral council, worship commission, staff and others. This work might best happen after your pastor has been in a place for a few years and other aspects of your Family unification have successfully taken place.

However, delaying this work may not be possible for a variety of reasons, in which case it will become a Phase 1 activity for your Family of Parishes.

Three of the parameters for pastoral planning within the Eucharist pathway relate to liturgical scheduling:

The regular Mass schedule for a Family of Parishes may not assume more than two Masses per day per priest.
A regularly scheduled Mass for the Sunday precept must have annual average attendance of at least 50 percent of the church capacity.
The regular Mass schedule must provide the opportunity for priests to spiritually prepare for and be present to the community after Mass.

Click the button below to read more about what these parameters mean and why they matter here.

In creating a liturgical schedule for your Family of Parishes, you may need to make changes to existing schedules. Please refer to the archdiocesan Sunday Mass Schedule Policy for the parameters around this work.

One of the great advantages of reducing the number of Sunday Masses when Masses are only filling a fraction of the church is that you will have a fuller worship space. This article by local theologian and pastoral minister Emily Strand might be useful to convince a skeptic about the value of reducing the Mass schedule, or it might be good reading for a worship commission and/or pastoral council as they contemplate undertaking this difficult work. Consider inserting it in your bulletin during the process of Mass schedule changes, and/or share it with the faithful on social media for them to reflect upon it.

If you would like assistance in analyzing your present liturgical schedule for your Family or thinking through options for a future Family liturgical schedule, please contact the Office for Divine Worship & Sacraments. We are glad to consult and partner with you in creating a sustainable schedule.