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By Owen Phelps, Ph.D. Director, Yeshua Institute Welcome to 2021. We are so grateful to have you here with us. As we launch into a new year, we want to assure you that you won’t find any list of predictions here. Any prognosticator who didn’t just quietly retire after the surprises of 2020 has lost all touch with reality. But you will find a promise. And here it is: We are going to do our very best to help all of you, our readers, better connect your faith to your lives in 2021. If that happens, we will definitely be going against a trend. Active religious practice has been consistently declin...

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By Dave Coe Master Facilitator It was a sunny, early Saturday morning when the retreat master entered the room. After greeting the retreatants, myself included, he asked this question: “Are you happy?“ There was a collective, yet restrained, “Yes we are.” He asked the question again. This time our answer was a little louder: “Yes! We are.” His tongue-in-cheek response was: “Then please notify your face.” After our Blessed Mother Mary was told that she was pregnant with Jesus by the Holy Spirit, the Gospel tells us that ”as quickly as she could she visi...

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By Owen Phelps, Ph.D. Director, Yeshua Institute In a decade or two, when historians look back on 2020, they will see it as a year when the human race displayed the raw, redemptive power of collaboration and technology. And 2021 will be the first year in a decade when we reaped the harvest of that redemptive power. Unless … The iconic climax of 2020 was the development of not one, but many vaccines to push back the terror of Covid-19. The abundant harvest of 2021 will be all the suffering alleviated, the lives spared and the economies revived by the widespread sharing and application of those vacci...

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By Dr. Dan R. Ebener Fellow, Yeshua Institute Editor’s Note: This is the eighth in a series of articles by Dan Ebener on leadership in the Catholic Church. They are excerpts from his latest book, Pastoral Leadership: How to Lead in a Catholic Parish. Lay engagement means that parishioners are intrinsically motivated to fully participate in the life of the parish. To get engagement, leaders need to change hearts and minds. Like any other matter of the heart, engagement cannot be dictated.  Stewardship and evangelization are signs of lay engagement. Stewardship is giving from the heart. Evangelization ...

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By Owen Phelps, Ph.D. Director, Yeshua Institute What a difference a year makes. Just a year ago we Catholics were in the midst of Advent, preparing for Christmas. For most of us that meant doing what we have done for years and years. We brought out our traditional Christmas decorations, whatever they were, and unless we have moved in the last year, we put them in pretty much the same places they were in the year before. Mostly likely those decorations included a creche, perhaps one passed down to us from parents or other family members. Many of us went out to buy a Christmas tree, a family tradition. Or we ...

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By Owen Phelps, Ph.D. Director, Yeshua Institute If you’re looking for a breath of fresh air – and the fresh hope that comes with an energizing vision – I’ve got a suggestion for you. Get a copy of Let Us Dream: The Path to a Better Future by Pope Francis. Spend some time with this thin, 144-page hardcover book and see if it doesn’t inspire you to get through these dark times and be better prepared to be a disciple when we come out the other side. A confession: My copy just arrived yesterday so I haven’t read all of it. But I got a good start and then I skipped ahead to th...

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By Dr. Dan R. Ebener Fellow, Yeshua Institute Editor’s Note: This is the eighth in a series of articles by Dan Ebener on leadership in the Catholic Church. They are excerpts from his latest book, Pastoral Leadership: How to Lead in a Catholic Parish. Lay engagement means that parishioners are intrinsically motivated to fully participate in the life of the parish. To get engagement, leaders need to change hearts and minds. Like any other matter of the heart, engagement cannot be dictated.  Stewardship and evangelization are signs of lay engagement. Stewardship is giving from the heart. Evangel...

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By Owen Phelps, Ph.D. Director, Yeshua Institute I will praise you, Lord, with all my heart; I will declare all your wondrous deeds. I will delight and rejoice in you. Psalm 9:2-3b * * * If you are struggling with the notion of being grateful – really filled with gratitude – on the eve of Thanksgiving 2020, I’ve got a suggestion for you. Think of your brain as a radio tuner. A radio gets a lot of stations. But you can listen to only one at a time. The one you listen to is either the one to which the tuner is already set or one you choose. Our brains are pretty much like radio tuners t...

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By Dr. Dan R. Ebener Fellow, Yeshua Institute EDITOR’S NOTE: This is the seventh in a series of articles by Dan Ebener on leadership in the Catholic Church. They are excerpts from his latest book, Pastoral Leadership: How to Lead in a Catholic Parish. Emotional intelligence has been described by Daniel Goleman as a more accurate predictor of leadership success than technical or cognitive skills. In fact, your emotional quotient (EQ) is a better predictor of success in life and leadership than is your intelligence quotient (IQ). These four areas add up to emotional intelligence: 1. Self-Awareness (Mindf...

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By David Coe Yeshua Institute Facilitator There is a popular TV show where two brothers have been engineering, searching and digging for a lost treasure. Over the last seven years they have spent millions of dollars looking for this treasure – with only limited results. I see the show as a metaphor for life and our search for guidance, truth, direction –most of all, for certainty for ourselves and our loved ones. “I need to know!” Is there a hidden treasure? And if there is, how can it be found? The answer is “No,” there is no hidden treasure. But that’s good news. B...

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