Ascension Roundtable (your Catholic Ministry Podcast)

Today we are joined by Brother Isaiah, a Franciscan friar who lives in the Bronx. He shares how little by little, he came to love God, discover his calling towards religious life, and use his musical gifts to serve the Lord. He also shares three pieces of wisdom that will deepen your prayer life and elevate your ministry.

Allen has suffered through a lot of embarrassment in his life. So, he stopped trying to avoid it, and started trying to embrace it. Shortly after making this decision, he ended up saying his own name wrong during an audition – a situation that could have been a complete disaster, but was actually a great opportunity. This week, think of an embarrassing story about yourself, and, when the opportunity arises, embrace it by telling a friend. For inspiration, check out this article, Music Ministers Share Their Most Embarrassing Moments (https://media.ascensionpress.com/2018/09/07/music-ministers-share-their-most-embarrassing-moments/). "God knows we have lots of awkward moments as human beings, so just embrace it."

In the midst of a hectic fall schedule, busy Catholics need to do everything in their power to make time to be with God in prayer or adoration. Let go of your to-do list for at least thirty minutes a day and make prayer your top priority. If you aren’t sure where to start, read this prayer from Charles de Foucauld: Father, I abandon myself into your hands; do with me what you will. Whatever you may do, I thank you: I am ready for all, I accept all. Let only your will be done in me, and in all your creatures - I wish no more than this, O Lord. Into your hands I commend my soul: I offer it to you with all the love of my heart, for I love you, Lord, and so need to give myself, to surrender myself into your hands without reserve, and with boundless confidence, for you are my Father. "How can we be in love with Christ if we don’t spend time with him in prayer? How can we actually love those we serve if our hearts don’t belong to Christ?"

When Kanye West was interviewed in 2013 by the New York Times, he told the reporter, “I am so credible and so influential and so relevant that I will change things.” Allen says this is the worst mantra for anybody working in the Church, but it seems like there have been plenty of undercover Kanye Wests who have infiltrated the Church at so many levels. Here’s what we have to remember: if we want to change things and influence things, we need to be leaders whose main priorities aren’t gaining influence and credibility and being relevant. We need to be leaders who imitate Christ. He gained both popularity and notoriety, but never once made a decision based off of what others were going to think about him. Christ had one purpose—doing his Father’s will. As a leader, are you like Kanye, or are you like Jesus?

From his years of experience in youth ministry, Allen shares two things that kept him grounded when staff changes threatened to throw him off balance. It’s God ministry, we are merely stewards of it. When people leave, the ministry remains. There will always be people who need us to reach out and provide an opportunity to grow their relationship with Christ and the Church. Working with new people provides an opportunity to cast vision. Don’t look at it like another person you have to train or get caught-up, look at it like another person with whom you get to share your vision. "People come and go in Church ministry, but the parish remains and the ministry remains. So it’s God’s ministry, we are simply stewards during this time. Our job is to continue to pray and discern what God’s will is with that ministry while we’re stewards of it."

Happy 4th of July & An Important Announcement! by Ascension

One parish in Louisiana transformed their confirmation prep ministry by making three simple, yet powerful changes. Their teens went from begrudgingly memorizing answers about Catholicism, being confirmed, and then disappearing from church, to becoming active participants in their parish - truly on fire for the Catholic faith. Listen as Colin MacIver, a contributor for Chosen: Your Journey Towards Confirmation, shares this story of incredible transformation and the formula that made it possible.

Whether we like it or not, people leave parishes because of bad music. While music is not essential to the Mass, it has the potential to move people’s hearts and draw them closer to Christ. Today Steven Joubert (a writer, musician, and youth minister) explains why it is so important for every parish to invest time and effort in music. You may be surprised at how doing just this actually builds up parishes in other ways as well. To find out more about Steven or to listen to his music, visit StevenJoubert.com.

If you’re not praying, you’re not going to get very far in understanding your faith or being able to help others grow in theirs. Historical theologian Dr. Marcellino D’Ambrosio explains three prayers of the Church to help you deepen your own prayer life and help others deepen their prayer lives as well. Listen and come away with a better grasp of the Church’s teaching on prayer, as well as several very practical ways to incorporate these three specific prayers into your own life and ministry.

Dr. Kerry Cronin doesn’t just give her students essays; she gives them an assignment that requires them to ask someone out on a good, old-fashioned first date. It’s something she’s been doing for a while, and her experiment is featured in a new feature-length documentary recently released called The Dating Project. If you work with teens, college students, or young adults, you won’t want to miss what Dr. Cronin has discovered about hook-up culture and dating in today’s day and age.

When it comes to parish life, women’s fertility and health is a topic often relegated to a brief discussion during marriage prep, and then it’s either ignored or rarely touched upon again by anyone in the parish because of its sensitive nature. But this is a topic that everyone in Catholic ministry should be able to discuss to some degree, because at least half of the people we’re serving are women, and this is an area where our faith gives us a wealth of guidance! In a world where young women are often told that their fertility is a problem that must be fixed with birth control, we have the opportunity to share with them the beauty of God’s design behind their sexuality. Alex DeRose joins us again to give practical advice on how this topic might be addressed within different areas of ministry, and she also explains how it is an incredible opportunity to evangelize women. We’d Love to Hear from You Do you have comments, questions, or topic suggestions for the Ascension Roundtable hosts? Use the comment box be

How much do you know about Natural Family Planning? Today, nurse practitioner Alex DeRose gets real about NFP, a topic that can be uncomfortable to discuss and therefore avoided. But it doesn’t have to be that way. Not only does Alex provide an overview to help you explain NFP to others, she answers specific questions about the Creighton Model, NAPRO technology, and explains why NFP is not Catholic birth control. Whether this is the first time you have heard about NFP or you consider yourself to be a NFP expert, this episode will prepare you to speak about natural family planning to anyone you may encounter within (or outside of) your parish.