Boy, does time fly. It’s been weeks since I wrote a post, and months since I did a Catholic PraiseCast podcast. I’ve been working overtime, but it’s all good. The PraiseCast podcast has a large audience, and they love to pray along with the show. While at Franciscan University, Fr. Bill Kessler a.k.a. The TechonPriest told me that the PraiseCast helped him during his 2:00am time in Adoration. That’s the best complement I could get.

The PraiseCast is actually the harder show to produce for me. Trying to get a show that flows takes a bit more of the precious little gray matter I have left to prepare, select music and host. But the work is worth it if it helps the listeners.

With all that rambling, I’m on the lookout for some new great Catholic praise and worship. So much today is just covers of popular non-denominational tunes. What is needed is good, biblically sound Catholic praise. Two new examples of that have come from Jon Niven and Matt Maher, who both just released albums in the last month. But I guess I’m greedy and I’m looking for more. (Do I need to confess that if I’m greedy for Catholic music?)

If you know of a Catholic band with some high quality Catholic P&W music recorded, tell them to join the CatholicJukebox.com family.

Those of us who have ministries where we travel, perform, speak, or sing spend most of our time talking to people. It’s easy for us to forget that we need to talk with people as well.

Some of us maintain our best friendships inside ministry circles. We need to put a little more time into talking to our friends outside of ministry. Invite them out for coffee. Make it a regular event.

Others of us maintain the majority of our friendships outside ministry circles. Spend some time meeting and chatting with others in ministry. They like coffee (or tea) too!

In each case it helps to maintain relationships with people who share common interests, but push the limits a little bit to provide perspective. Interesting and consistent conversation will feed all parties.

Who can you connect (or reconnect) with today? Call (email, im, have-your-people-call-their-people) now and schedule a meet-up!

It seems that I’ve settled into providing tips and resources for those in ministry (recall from earlier posts that all of us are called to minister in some way). For now, I like that groove and after a quick weekend vacation I’ve got a new tip.

Attend Mass Somewhere Else! Some of you are thinking “Bryan, I travel to different churches every weekend with my ministry.” That’s terrific, but those aren’t the visits I’m talking about. Go somewhere no one will notice you and where you have NO ministry work to do. Here are a few tips on ways to pick the parish.

• Go somewhere you think is dissimilar to your own parish for any reason (is the median age different, is the pastor completely different, maybe your parish has a school and theirs doesn’t, etc.) - be creative. Then find ways that the two parishes are alike.
• Go somewhere you think is similar to your own parish for similar reasons (see above). Then find ways that the two parishes are different.
• Go outside your diocese. For some people this will be easier than others. The closest parish outside of my diocese from my home is about a 90 minute drive. Some people will be able to drive 20 minutes, some people will have to drive 4 hours. Give this one a shot sometime.
• Go early, leave late. What are people doing? The fresh eye you have can tell you a lot about the faithful of your own community just by looking the life at another one.
• Look at ministries besides the one you participate in. If you’re a musician, watch the lectors; if you’re a deacon, watch the ushers. You get the idea.

These ideas originated from an experience I had in Pompano Beach, FL. In an unfamiliar parish where I had no formal ministry functions to perform, my eyes were opened to the life of the parish. Even if you’ve only got time to do this once or twice a year, I think it’ll be worth it for you.

I’m praying for you. God Bless!