Watch this helpful webinar from the Center for Learning for a discussion of strategies to improve your current liturgy preparation practices. Preparing the liturgy for your parish or school can be overwhelming, especially during the seasons of Advent and Christmas. Whether you work months in advance or finalize your choices hours before Mass, there are ways to do it better.
What does “better” look like?
Preparation strategies aligned with rubrics,
communication practices that keep members of your liturgical ministry informed and aligned,
efficient use of your time and energy that maintains a sense of health and balance, and
most importantly, liturgical celebration that fosters the full, conscious, and active participation of all the faithful.
Watch the Center for Learning's Adoration webinar with hosts Matt Reichert, Dr. Glenn Byer and Fr. John Thomas Lane, SSS for a practical review of the essential elements of adoration and exposition of the Blessed Sacrament outside of Mass. A FREE downloadable guide will be made available and will include templates, sample prayers and scripts, suggested music and other helpful resources for you to use in your community.
Each leader's experience of the parish liturgy committee is different. Some have a committee that runs like a well-oiled machine, others want to avoid committee meetings at all costs, and many don't have a committee at all. In this conversation, panelists Timothy Johnston and Rita Thiron discuss the importance of a liturgy committee, how to form one, how to plan and run a meeting, and how to make sure the committee is effective in their work. If you are a liturgy director, music director, pastor, or other liturgical decision-maker, you won't want to miss this conversation!
Among all the topics we could encounter in our field, "liturgical assessment" might not be the spiciest. But, it's certainly among th emost important. We devote a lot of time, energy, and emotion to planning good, effective liturgies for our community. Why? Because we know that good liturgy matters. That's why we should take the time to carefully evaluate our liturgies to see what's working and to find opportunities for improvement. Join our panelists as we discuss the ins-and-outs, dos-and-don'ts of liturgical assessment. You'll come away with tools, guides, and rubrics as well as a new-found appreciation for the topic!
Join OCP’s Center for Learning for this must-watch webinar on first communion liturgies led by Center for Learning director Matt Reichert and Dr. Donna Eschenauer, associate dean of St. Joseph’s Seminary in New York and author of First Communion Liturgies: Preparing First-Class First Celebrations. Dr. Eschenauer teaches liturgy and sacramental theology and she served in pastoral ministry for over 20 years. She offers a wealth of knowledge on how to think about this special liturgy and how to prepare beautiful first communions that adhere to the proper liturgical principles and focus on the children’s participation in the sacrament.
Join Center for Learning director Matt Reichert in this webinar for those ministering in merged or clustered parishes. In the last several years, an increasing number of dioceses have implemented mergers, closures, or groupings of parishes under a shared pastor. This affects everything in parish life, but one of the primary ways Catholics interact with and experience their parish community is through participation in the liturgy. So how can liturgical leaders navigate these seismic changes, and how can liturgical life help these new iterations of parishes build their own local culture, identity and belonging? Watch the webinar, join the Center for Learning community and discover other resources at learnwithocp.org to help you start answering these important questions for yourself and your parish.
The faith lives of young people today differ greatly from generations past, yet our parishes often assume their experiences, knowledge and preferences are the same as they were 20 or more years ago. What challenges, opportunities and realities surround the liturgical experiences of young people in your community? How do we address participation, involvement, liturgical catechesis, interest in devotions and other important topics? Especially in this time of Eucharistic Revival, how can we catechize young people to the beauty and importance of the liturgy? Watch the recording of the Center for Learning’s webinar “Age of Opportunity: The Liturgical Life of Young People” to learn more about this important topic.
