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Wife says to her husband, do you love me? And he says, with all of my heart, with all
of my being, with everything that I am. She said, I want you to tell the world.
And with that he leans into her ear and says, I love you.
She said, I wanted you to tell the whole world. He said, I just did. You are my whole world.
The story almost creates the experience it describes. And preaching at its best does
that. The example this evening in the chapel may have not been the best. But it was an
attempt at making the words of the Gospel an experience in our lives which I think is
at the heart of all preaching let alone mission preaching. I always preach from the Gospel.
That's just my---my style I guess. I know Ryan talked earlier about his preaching from
a psalm. Others may use all the readings, I just use the Gospel and I try and crawl
into it---what is it saying to me about the presence of God in my life---that's the key---
what is it saying to me about the presence of God in my life. Tonight I was trying to
say tonight is even when the presence of God is a whisper, it still broadcasts. And when
I find myself--it you wan-- not hearing it very well, when I find myself maybe in trouble---when
I find myself discontent when things are not coming together, it may be that the voice
I'm looking for is still there and I need to lean into it more. So in the very ordinary
and every day of my life the experience of the presence of God speaks to me. That is
the one thing I think we have to offer in all of our preaching is God. I think a lot
of preaching is about warmed-over Anne Landers. A lot of preaching is about some moral point
or other. Preaching is about some point of dogma-- preaching is about almost anything
that comes into a person's head. The one thing we have is God. And how is that the person
sitting there listening to us--- the experience of God which is already in their lives---and
I like Frank's point on that --- the experience of God that's already in their life --- how
do we illuminate it? How do we invite them to see even in all the stuff they may be struggling
with---it is not when the experience is over that the Spirit of God reveals itself--- it's
in the midst of the experience. Joan Chitister put it well--- better perhaps than I can put
it--- I'm going to read a piece of what she says...What did I do with my glasses? Oh here
they are. Frank DeSiano thinks they're a little too yellow. I don't care.
(laughter)
Seeking God is the universal human question. It is common to all cultures. It is the fundamental
human project. It is the common denominator of all human enterprises, it is common to
all human beings. Necessary to all human endeavors. Essential to all human effort, and ultimate
in all human activity. What is more, it is the ONLY reason that makes any sense whatsoever
out of religious life. Religious life is not just another way of life, it is the way of
life intentionally organized to pursue the human experience of God. I kind of jokingly
said if this is the last conference I ever come to as a Paulist and if I left you with
nothing else that is what I would leave you with. Maybe it'd be too highly personal---
that is--- the fundamental quest of my life and I'm sure it is yours too. So I just want
to highlight it. Nothing else makes sense. That's the fundamental quest. And quite frankly
right now I'm trying to hear that voice in a way I hadn't heard it before. February---
next month, I'll be 70 years old. I've been doing missions for a long long time. And I
kind of want to hear how it is--- I've talked to my friend Father Michael McGarry a little
bit about this--- Where is this voice that is buried--- that is buried sometimes--- that
is in every conversation bringing me to. It's the essential core value of my life--- that's
it. And I want to pass that on and I want to say that to you. Nothing else makes sense.
Didn't St. Paul say that everything else is just trash compared to it. Another little
quote by our Holy Father--- he's very popular these days--- The dogmatic and moral teachings
of the Church are not all equivalent. The Church's pastoral ministry cannot be obsessed
with the transmission of a disjointed multitude of doctrines to be imposed. The proclamation
of the saving love of God comes before moral and religious imperatives. He puts it another
way. Now that's what I think we're all about and however we want to put that through a
prism--- whatever prism we might want to put it through --- which is the Paulist prism---
this is at the heart of it. This is the core of it. Period. A guy named A.N. Wilson---
whom I just looked up. He just has a nice quote--- he's an English writer-newspaper
columnist. The gospel truth--- take it or leave it--- the paradox is growing or shrinking
numbers do not tell you everything. The gospel would still be true even if no one believed
it. The hopeful thing is that where it is tried, where it is imperfectly and hesitantly
followed, it works. The reason I wanted to quote him is apparently he is a rather well
known agnostic and sort of an anti-Church guy. It's palatable and remarkable power to
transform human life takes us to the position of believing that something very wonderful
and deep began with the birth of Christ in the world. So that's just to further reinforce
that whole thing. It's about God and it's about trying to create the experience of God
that already exists in people's lives through our preaching. I think one of the best compliments
I ever got after a mission--- a guy walks up to me and he says "Well, I maybe I'm not
such a heathen after all." Wonderful--- that somebody could see in their life the activity
of God present--- confirmed and affirmed. What are we all about? That's what we're all
about. Not teaching the catechism. Not when we preach--- thats a whole other thing. You
know, the catechism, papal doctrines, letters from bishops... Tomaso said it--- and it's
all about this experience of God and how does it touch us first because we know that. Ok.
I went through--- but I did want to make a very strong and very personal and very loud
testimony. That's it. That's what makes sense of our lives. Now we have a Paulist spin on
that I know but that's at the bottom. I went through and culled all the questions you'd
sent me and maybe DeSiano and wrote them out. There's 33 of them is that ok? No that's not.
I am not going to do that. One of the questions is what is mission preaching all about? For
me it's all about trying to make everyone I talk to another Paulist. How can they pick
up on--- that the interest of God doesn't end within the four walls of their church.
It seems to me we're always dragging that caboose with us. That we don't just tend the
flock that's before us. We always have some concern for the flock that's beyond. And this
is just a little side--- remember when we were in Columbus and we were already seeing
an awful lot of people. I measure it this way, every Sunday we went through 2 and a
half gallons of wine at mass. That's a lot of people. I know you guys see a lot of people.
But we wanted to reach out--- there were how many thousand students on campus? 56,000 or
something like that. Yeah we were seeing 4 to 45,000 people on Sunday we had 8 masses.
We decided that we needed to find the other--- how many did we figure at the time? 12,000
students on campus--- there were more Catholic students on campus anywhere than there were
at Notre Dame. And we used to have the president over from time to time whose name I forget
right now telling him he used to run the biggest Catholic university in the country--- But
anyway Paul undertook getting money from the Knights of Columbus. He wrote articles for
The Lantern which was the newspaper on campus about trying to lure more students over to
the Neumann Center--- the other people on the staff almost killed us. They said where
are we going to put them, what are we going to do with them? I just highlight that story
that that's always a piece of what it means to be a Paulist. Always thinking about the
people who aren't there. We're always talking about the people who--- yeah, who aren't there.
I think when it comes to Paulist preaching--- and I don't know if this makes us unique---
I think first of all because even what we're doing here now--- we take it seriously. Preaching
it's the core of what we do. It's just unimaginable to me when a priest says he doesn't have time
during the week to write a homily. What the hell are you doing? I wanna ask him. Do you
have your two cocktails at night? You see a movie or two? If you don't have time to
write a homily --- and I'm talking 8 or 10 hours a week--- I can proudly say this even
tonight, I have never gotten in the pulpit without writing it out. 43 years. Ever---
well not on week days--- but I have never gotten in the pulpit without a written homily.
That's how important I think it is. 8- 10 hours. So I think we take it seriously. I
think we try to relate it to everyday human experience. We take time with it. I don't
know what else might we throw out there with Paulist preaching? It's definitely a priority.
We take it very seriously. We're known for our preaching and you have to put a lot of
time and effort into it. You hear sometimes people say--- well, I've been ordained long
enough, I can just stand up and--- no. You can't. I don't care who you are. Walter Burghardt
used to say that he spent 4 hours--- this is a great Jesuit preacher--- 4 hours for
every minute in the pulpit. 4 hours for every minute. I know I'm banging this home but I
want to *** it home because preaching is really really really important. One of the
questions was comparing mission preaching from the past and now--- it seems to me that
we--- our community--- and Michael and I talked about this--- our community began with a lot
of outreach to people who weren't in the Church. That's faded. And missions were really up
until maybe Vatican II pretty much maintenance missions. We went in to kind of shore up the
local parish. I even did a long interview with Jim Lloyd who used to do missions both
in South Africa when we had a parish there and here and they were very thorough from
Sunday to Sunday they knocked on every door and parish. One of the ways they measured
the success of a mission in those days was how many confessions did they hear, how many
people did they reconcile--- Tom may want to add to this too --- Every now and then
they would try to add a week where they'd tell the pastor they're going to do for free
for non Catholics. I think there was only a very small number of people who actually
showed up. I think the way we now reach out if you want to people to people who are not
Catholic is through what Frank DeSiano does. I don't know if the parish mission is the
vehicle to do that. The people who come to parish missions now are usually the most active
people in the parish. I think Bruce and I and Frank we've talked--- that if you can
get 25 percent, Bruce of the people who actually come on Sunday, that's really good. Yeah 25
percent... Usually the smaller the parish the more people are going to come so you have
your most active people. If you can turn them on too--- be able to give a reason for the
hope that lies within them--- or as Frank wrote in the name of the Bishops in 1993---
to develop in ALL Catholics such an enthusiasm for their faith that in living their faith
in Jesus they want to share it with others. That's the pastoral letter Go and Make Disciples.
So that's what I try to do today anyway with the people who come. We make a big pitch at
the end of mass--- you may do too--- you know all the numbers, how many former Catholics
there were. I use Alvin's numbers, I don't know if they're still valid--- 90 million
people in this country who belong to no church, synagogue or mosque. Anyway to try and instill
in them any way through the missions an enthusiasm for their faith such that they want to share
it with others. Try and make them other Paulists. Anything you want to add?
No that's well put
But very few times do people come who aren't and it dawned on me that the vehicle we use
now to reach out are programs--- I did evangelization stuff--- you would've been in Erie today and
tomorrow, Diocesan-wide encouraging them to do what we used to do or hope to do on a parish
mission, you know, evangelizing. Frank dumped a day on me next Saturday out in Queens.
Frank: You'll love it.
Fr. John: And he sent me a lot of material. My God am I going to sound bright! What is
the terrain out there? I don't know, I'll just tell you this much, Bruce or Frank may
want to add--- I've been to 4 or 500 parishes and the Catholic Church in America is wonderful.
Ive preached up in Canada. I'm going back up to Nova Scotia--- church up there is wonderful.
Now we're talking to the better parishes obviously. Some dump is not going to have--- but the
Catholic people up there, they're generous they're wonderful, they're non ideological,
they want to raise families, they want to experience the sacred. They know there's more
to live for than the almighty-buck--- however you want to put it, there is an enthusiastic
core out there and they're the ones who come to our parish retreats. You know every now
and then---I can tell this story because--- oh, a year or so ago this lady was kind of
lingering and I said "can I help" and she said, "I'd like to go to confession". "Just
come over here," I said. So I said how long's it been since your last confession.
40 years.
Ooohh, I said, you need a few more minutes than I can give you. But that's pretty rare.
You don't get that. As a matter of fact, I don't hear confessions unless people ask.
You're much more diligent Bruce. Oh Bruce--- Bruce is incredible. You visit the sick---
honest to God--- I take a nap. The usual routine on a mission you may know better--- but we'd
love to have one of you students with us sometime. We preach at all the Sunday masses--- we preach
twice a day like a morning and evening.... usually with a morning mass. But anyway the
Church is just wonderful. Any crystal ball for the future? I don't know, I think we could
use a lot more theatre and I'm thinking of some of the stuff Steven does at Busted Halo.
Where's my buddy Ryan--- that street kind of stuff you like, that's good. Someone said
the great outreach that has taken great fruit at St. Paul's in New York for young adults
and gay people that Gilbert has manufactured--- he goes to where they--- you know---I don't
know... bars, theatres--- he meets all these people! He goes out and finds them, you know
like you have that street ministry you were talking about. I mean we gotta enflame that
stuff. Bell and I are always talking about going into Columbus circle and maybe setting
up a booth--- Ask a Priest or something but using more theatre more multimedia--- whatever
you guys can come up with. I don't know. You have to keep the thing fairly portable you
know you. Anything else right off the bat? You do them.
Bruce: In terms of reaching out?
Fr. John: Well, or how we might shape parish missions in the future.
Bruce: Home visitation is still a very good thing, especially if you're in a city parish,
a visit to the sick can also be a form of home visitation because then you bring in
the relatives.
Fr. John: But I'm thinking more of how would we reshape what we do during that time we're
doing a parish mission.
Bruce: Often times you might even get a tv spot.
Fr. John: Yes we do. Sometimes smaller places, radio and tv. And with all the electronics
though today! I know with what I do, I tell a lot of stories, you could easily illustrate
them with slides and stuff like that. I just don't have the talent to do it.
I'm just curious structurally--- I thinking the Paulist center in Boston and the two parishes
I work in--- the parishes are now small communities that form a parish. Do you do anything with
koinoinia groups? Do you deal with the whole mass or do you break it up? I'm wondering
if there's something about the smaller units that make up a parish that'd be a way to energize
those groups as well.
Fr. John: No, that is good, go ahead.
Bruce: A lot of the parishes I go to already have small groups through Disciples in Mission,
Renew, koinonea groups like Park Street and so forth--- but also I promote small communities
through Living the Eucharist especially--- Living the Eucharist and Renew, I'm still
involved with Renew. I push the small community as a follow up to the mission.
Ryan: I'm just wondering--- do you ever have Q & A type of things?
Fr. John: I do after we have--- they almost always share refreshments so I do that then.
But sometimes I begin the mission, "Anything from last night? Any other thoughts or any
other questions?"
Ryan: Do people engage with you?
Fr. John: They do, yeah. You know I try to talk about the experience, I try to be in
dialogue with them. I tell them that all the time. You know I'll give you some stories
about the experience of God--- but I said I want to hear from YOU, where does this experience
happen for you. One of the stories they like--- and this happened in Indiana, after the morning
talk I went down to the parish secretary and was just sort of talking to her when some
guy comes in--- and remember now, I'm a New Yorker and this is in Indiana--- and he comes
in and of course they all have a dying mother some place and that's what he had and he needed
gas money. So I called the secretary over and I says, "Let's just throw him out" She
said, "we don't do that here Father." That was good! I like that. You know in other words,
his story is supposed to be ours. If his story is our autobiography then you need to take
a little red pen to the narrative story you're operating out of. So I tell stories kind of
about myself and that experience and that's how it happens, and how does grace dump itself
into my life through a secretary you know, in Valparaiso Indiana.
Fr. Paul: So homilies go for 8- 14 minutes--- so when you give a session in the evening
what's the layout of that session?
Fr. John: I usually go for about 70 minutes.
Fr. Paul: But 70 minutes period? Or do you break it up in chunks? Small group discussion
in between?
Fr. John: No, no but it's not unlike we're doing now. I've actually cut it back a little---
and they still come back the second night. If they didn't then they come back the third
night. And the collections are good. But thank you for asking. Yea but it could be! It could
be more question and answer. Yeah by all means.
--- You said talking about God.... I find myself talking about the Spirit
Fr. John: Yea ok.
--- Do you see any difference....?
Fr. John: No. I'm sorry I just shot off, but no. In other words, so long as it's on that---
for me I understand preaching as illuminating--- the Pope says down here we have to ask ourselves
how we live this out first? Ok and I think that's the Spirit in us, yeah. How do we live
out the experience of God, it's the Holy Spirit... then how do I take that and invite the people
who are listening to me see---- I don't think we bring them God. Frank is a great help on
that--- but we help them see how God is already there in their lives--- and if people can
leave church feeling, "oh wow, I'm not going through this life alone, you know, in the
midst of all my trials somebody is still holding my hand---" that kind of stuff. But I would
say there's any difference, I just use that broader word.
Fr. Paul: Do you research the parish? Do you find out the demographics? Are they you know,
a lot of suburban parishes are all the same or....
Fr. John: The reason I'm laughing is pastors send me all this stuff and I put it yes. My
preaching in these missions--- and I hone this stuff--- is broad enough it'll fit anything
the guy wants. So I don't.
Yeah that's a very good question and pastors always want to--- they always tell me--- I
say, "well how big is the parish?" "37,000 families" you know, one of those...So now
I asked him well how many people actually sit in the pew on a Sunday morning. So we
go from 38,000 to about 800. And you know, I ask what kind of parish--- is it blue collar,
etc---
Fr. Paul: You know it strikes me that some pastors would send you materials
Fr: John: Yes
Fr. Paul: But the census bureau has much more information which is much more objective than
the pastor probably even knows about.
Fr. John: Yeah. But just to let you know I don't, I couldn't--- you know James is better
at this than I am. I don't tailor my material that much because it's really broad you know?
If someone can't understand the Valparaiso story, this woman telling me--- so I usually
follow it up with who's asking gas money from you? You know, how is the Spirit trying to
tickle your soul.
----You mentioned it was mostly maintenance type of folks, you know, the well involved...
how many young adults--- college age students do you see on a mission?
Fr. John: Almost none.
---- So how do we meet their needs because people keep saying to me you need to bring
in missions.
Fr. John: Steven will talk to you about that. It's a good question! First of all there aren't
that many in church to begin with. But every now and then some among them will say, I'm
home during the weekend, if I wasn't I would come. You know, whether they would or not
I don't know but there are very few young adults.
Fr. James: Yeah I think it is hard--- they're the hardest audience to get at--- if the parish
has a vibrant young adult group already than a percentage does come. I'll talk about this
in mine, but when I give the opening pitch for the preaching for the weekend and since
I use songs and music in my missions, I always make that connection between our faith and
everyday life. I affirm that what they're listening to-- and this is almost no matter
what the homily is--- whatever you're listening to in the songs, what you're downloading from
your iPods and your listening on the radio--- that's as much apart of your spirituality
as a hymn that you're singing and that God is at work. And we're drawn to certain songs.
We want to hear them, why because they're articulating something that's going on in
our lives--- I'm restless, I'm angry or I'm in love or I'm feeling vulnerable. That's
what all these songs are about. And if you find yourself drawn to that, don't think for
a moment that's not part of your faith life and that God cares about what you're feeling
and what you're experiencing. Music helps us name that. So that's my special invitation
to the younger people. Again, if they're there in the pews I will get some. If they're not,
you know again, if they're parents drag them along or what--- but I am very emphatic about
doing that every mission I preach.
---You have to go where they are!
Fr. John: We don't do enough of that. You know. There's another Paulist, Bob O'Donnell
who goes to all sorts of places where these kids are and I know he's a good model, a good
example. I'm expecting the people I preach to to do some of that. We 150 or 130 or whatever
we are can't do it but can I get the people who are on these parish missions to do some
of it.
Fr. Bruce: I do get some young adults---or where I get more young adults, is in the Latino
community. Quite a few.
Fr. John: The only thing is---the whole theology behind it--- you know this is that long quote
from Paul... If people don't hear and we don't have people to preach how is anyone ever going
to believe? You know, I don't know how much we have to articulate the theology of this
whole thing. Frank can do it. But I just hope we don't lose this as a charism among us as
Paulists. I really do. I mean I think it's one of the things that distinguishes us from
you know the real work horses of the Church--- not that we aren't---- but the Diocesan clergy,
they don't do missions by and large, we do. I mean that's one of the things that distinguishes
us and even this parish out in Queens. How many parishes would have a day on evangelization?
Diocese do. But you know, 1 in 100 maybe. So I mean these pastors they feel so overwhelmed
already, many of them, that the whole thought of bringing in another 4 or 5 people let alone
what we're after--- so....is---- Alvin Illig used to sell it I think by saying for every
new convert you make you get 300 dollars a year in the collection. Oh I'd like to hear
a little bit more now!
---It's 3,000
Fr. John: Oh it's 3000 now?
---Think about it this way, if you get one new convert, it adds 3000 dollars to your
collection in a year.
Fr. John: Yeah so what motivates them. We come out of that entire tradition of you know
of Hecker---we do believe this message that we have is worth our lives. Because that's
what we've given our lives to. I think it's well worthit. I think it's a great endeavor.
You know at the very end I'm not going to have on my tomb, well he sold vacuum cleaners.
Not that selling vacuum cleaners is bad. That's what I want on my tomb, he was a preacher.
Fr. Tim: I'm trying to think of a way to connect your mission with the Paulist Associates
Fr John: Oh yeah, good!
Fr. Tim: In New York with beloved Kathleen McGrath and all the ladies who used to help
you to send out tapes--- I'm just wondering, if you go into a place---many of you do this
already---this is a question box. And you might refer parishioners who, you know, get
very motivated by what you say or have questions, here's a Paulist Associate or here's a team,
you know if you want to converse with them, write with them, how they might share the
Paulist charism--- I'm just wondering if there's some link with the Paulists Associates can
you say when I preach I want to make Paulists you know---
Fr. John: The best I do is I hand out a thing at the end that says we Paulists do this that
and the other thing and it gives the Busted Halo number and the vocation office. So that's
printed on the back. As an aside I don't think I've been to a single parish where people
don't ask me do I know Fr. Dave Dwyer. He's probably our most well known Paulists right
now, he's known really every place. Last memorial day he wanted a phone call for every state
in the Union which he got, and 6 of the 8 Canadian provinces. So he's out there you
know, he's broadcasting. I don't know, I just hope we don't lose it, I think it's really
exciting. That's what I want to testify to.
Fr. John Gainey: One of the things I notice in reading Paul Robichaud's piece on Hecker
that came out about his canonization--- was that it was very clear that Hecker was a missionary.
He went all over the flipping United States. In those days that wasn't easy--- preaching.
That's what he did. Telling stories and preaching. It seems to me that that model we had--- the
older fathers---that we had to plan seven mission sermons before we left St. Paul's
College. We also had to submit them.
Fr. John Collins: I understand though amongst the students there is an enthusiasm in this
generation kind of for mission which I think is great. You know, we have to keep it up.
Even if you don't do it full time, you know that model that was floating around for awhile
with a Paulist and somebody else going out--- that was great. Because it allowed the Paulists
to do 2 or 3 missions a year--- it's too bad that model has kind of slipped out hasn't
it? There's nothing as good as doing priests retreats, I'll throw that out. I do those
from time to time. Or like Frank talking to a whole Diocese--- he gets a lot of the really
big invitations. But if you do a priest retreat you usually get missions out of it. I stay
away from nuns.
Fr. Bruce: What have you heard as to why more Paulists aren't full time preachers? Because
there are really basically 4 of us who are full time preachers.
Fr. John: I don't know. Among at least A generation which may be 2 ahead of these guys--- you
hear, I don't like living out of a suit case--- I like staying home--- I mean I've heard some
of that say from guys who have been ordained maybe 15 years or so... would you know? You
may have a better idea.
Fr. Frank DeSiano: I'd say as the 80s went on the idea of being an itinerant was less
and less attractive.
Fr. John: I mean you have to be up for it. You know, I am, James is, you guys are. How
many beds do we sleep in in a year? The really annoying thing is getting up in the morning---
Where the hell is the coffee?--- he says, "I don't drink it." How could you not drink
coffee? What's the matter with you? I ask one guy once, hey what's the meal plan? He
says meal plan, we don't have one. Can give you a bow and arrow and go out and shoot a
squirrel or something and then other times you get a suite. I've slept next to a boiler.
Fr. Frank Sabatte: You know one thing I really admire about what Jack and Jim and Frank---what
they all do--- but there's different kinds of missionaries. You know, we are all missionaries
and you know, I know I go into mission territory--- I don't you know, go far out of New York City,
but I go to mission territory and I think other Paulists in their parishes very often
do too so I think it's really you know, different callings for different people you know and
I think that's the beauty of it--- the beauty of us gathered here is that we follow that
calling. And thank God that you have and Jim has and so on but we all follow our call.
Fr. John: Yeah and when we talked about new shapes I really should've highlighted that.
You really cannot believe what Frank Sabatte has done---and I want to say with that Arch-Community
of New York--- you've been working on it ten years--- he's now a player. I mean people
know him. He's not just on the fringe of this stuff although some of the stuff is on the
fringe
(Laughter)
Fr. John: But I mean it shows at the parish. How many did you have last time? I mean Frank
goes to where these people are! That's another way of doing all this street stuff. We have
to think of--- no that's really important--- they may not know---
Fr. Frank Sabatte: The one thing I wanted people to know about the ministry is that
I do go to where they are. It's not, you know, I'm not just sitting on my *** having a bunch
of these cute (inaudible) shows--- we're going to people where--- I'll just say this--- where
the majority people are suspicious of institutional religion. Nearly all the Catholics I have
met identify themselves as former Catholics. But when a priest shows up, asks them about
their work, takes an interest in it, it really kind of throws a monkey wrench into the equation.
Suddenly, Gil and I have both heard this at the shows--- we can't believe you're doing
this. We can't believe you're allowing us--- you're taking us seriously. And these are
cutting edge people--- so, anyway...
Fr. John: No no it's really important for all of us to hear that. We're there. I mean
I think Hecker would just jump up and down those nights where you have all those people
there. Connecting with the culture. Every Paulist doesn't understand either what he
does. That's a great way--- I hadn't thought of that. Outside the mission box--- and also
Gil is a missionary. He goes all over the city and talks to all sorts of people. And
that's how this place thrives. Sunday night which was a really bad night in New York,
I stopped into the 5:15 because I know some of these people--- it was packed! How many
people would that be? 600? And they were almost all young adults!
Fr. Steven: So I think one of the other big reasons why we don't see more new missionaries
is because there is a familiarity with the rigor of priests becoming pastoral minister
in a parish, and you know what you have to do, you know where your money is coming from.
You know what your set up is. The other question might be for going into missionaries is A,
how do you get started, B, how do you sustain it as an ongoing ministry, what sorts of things
do you need to be aware of...You know some of those practical questions about marketing
and promotions and sustenance--- I don't think that that's --- it might be given as a side
talk or something in terms of our formation but it's not what's necessarily concentrated
on because our regularity if you will is in parish ministry.
Fr. John: That's at the heart--- I think James is going to address that.