Mardi Gras and Lent are fast approaching, and Ash Wednesday kicks things off. Father gets to rub ashes on your forehead and offer the words calling you to repentance. The ashes symbolize repentance, mortality and atonement. Then Mass is over, and you leave church…and now what? Can I wash off the ashes? Do I have […]
We have all had that moment – you have a pile of paper documents in front of you and you want to scan them, turn them into a PDF, and move on with your life. Thankfully, in the age of smartphone technology, this is getting easier to do. You can scan like a pro. If […]
If there’s one strange benefit to the coronavirus pandemic, it has caused us all to slow down a bit. Many parishioners are still out of work, spending more time at home, or just rethinking their weekly schedule in light of a highly contagious disease. There is an opportunity here – the chance to reclaim Sunday […]
We live in the age of Web 2.0, an Internet culture dominated by two things: social media and apps. However, apps don’t always play nicely with each other. But you can force them to through the use of…you guessed it, just one more application. It’s called If This, Then That, or IFTTT for short. Here’s what it […]
The phrase “discernment of spirits” refers to what St. Ignatius of Loyola, founder of the Jesuits, calls “the motions of the soul.” These motions are felt by all of us – thoughts, images, feelings, desires, and repulsions that flow through us and shape who we are. But not many of our parishioners are skilled in […]
Some years ago, it was popular to create role-based email addresses at companies and non-profits, addresses like info[at]yourparishname.org or admin[at]yourparishname.org. However, since these sorts of addresses are commonly shared between several employees and sometimes fall into disuse, Internet users are moving back into the other direction: john[at]yourparishname.org, frtim[at]yourparishname.org, and so on. For your parish, that […]
We’ve been living in a new era of ministry – the coronavirus epoch – since early March of this year. Maybe you’re still energized, learning new skills, and re-shaping your ministry in amazing ways. But maybe you’re just tired. If that’s the case, it’s time to look at your work calendar and pick a day or […]
If you’ve ever needed to remove a background from a photo but didn’t quite know the best way to do it, we’d suggest a free online tool that our team uses all the time: Photo Scissors. All you have to do is upload your photo and let Photo Scissors go to work. Within 10-20 seconds, it […]
By now, most of us are familiar with the study that shows that the greatest single factor in a children’s practice of the faith as an adult is whether or not their father practiced Catholicism. In certain corners of the Church, there are some amazing men’s ministries that have sprung up to help men practice their […]
Since the coronavirus pandemic hit America in February 2020, almost every parish in the country has livestreamed or pre-recorded Masses. Several months into our “new normal,” the question is coming up more and more: how long should we keep these Mass recordings around on our Facebook page? The answer? Not very long. You should be […]
