Priests: Don't Pray for Your Parish to Grow, Pray Instead that It Repents
Photo by Joshua Davis on Unsplash . This post's title might be triggering to some. I have been thinking about this for a bit and wondering if I should write this post or not. It is not my intention to trigger anybody, or worse, offend. My intention is also not to be flippant and purposely controversial. I truly mean what I wrote in the title, and I will explain what exactly I mean by it. Why Repentance? I will use our gospel reading for the second Sunday of Advent (Matthew 3: 1-12) to explain what I mean by repentance. The reading briefly describes John the Baptist's ministry, and two things become apparent in our reading of it, as we shall see. "I n those days John the Baptist appeared in the wilderness of Judea, proclaiming, 'Repent, for the kingdom of heaven has come near.'" The first is John's unequivocal call to repentance. He goes straight to the point and doesn't beat around the bushes. God has called John to prepare the way of the Lord...
