Jim Gaffigan

Comedian Jim Gaffigan has 5 children; here's how he answers the "Why so many?!" question:

“Well, why not? I guess the reasons against having more children always seem uninspiring and superficial. What exactly am I missing out on? Money? A few more hours of sleep? A more peaceful meal? More hair? These are nothing compared to what I get from these five monsters who rule my life. I believe each of my five children has made me a better man. So I figure I only need another thirty-four kids to be a pretty decent guy."

Check out Jim Daly's blog - http://bit.ly/1mCXxFi
Photo by www.CoreyMelton.com

The Butterfly Circus

At the height of the Great Depression, the showman of a renowned circus discovers a man without limbs being exploited at a carnival sideshow, but after an intriguing encounter with the showman he becomes driven to hope against everything he has ever believed.

Fishers of Men

Fishers of Men is a film requested by the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops. This fast-paced film on vocations to the priesthood has been described as the best vocational film ever produced for the Catholic Church. 8 out of 10 seminarians in the United States own a copy of the film.

Order Fishers of Men from Grassroots Films.

Jeopardy PowerPoint

Answer: A well-crafted presentation for evaluating participant learning in a rapid, informative, fun way using one of America's foremost gameshows.

Question: What is a Jeopardy PowerPoint?

You can adapt the content on this PowerPoint with your own set of questions. The PowerPoint has particular features you will find useful:

• Allows contestants to choose any question on the board and return to the home screen.
• Includes two rounds with Double Jeopardy amounts in the second.
• Only needs to have questions and answers copied and pasted. Animation should not change.
• Stock content already in the presentation may be useable in many ministry settings for various ages.

Pit parents versus teens for Confirmation, quiz your RCIA class before they enter into the Triduum, pose the presentation as a review for students in schools, and use it as you please.

Download Jeopardy PowerPoint.

Fr. Chase Hilgenbrinck

Today in the Diocese of Peoria, Illinois, Deacon Chase Hilgenbrinck will be ordained a priest of Jesus Christ for the Roman Catholic Church. As a former professional soccer player, his story is compelling and has received much coverage. Below is an article from ESPN and a video from his diocese chronicling his decision to leave the soccer pitch for a life in the church.

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"For everything there is a season, and a time for every purpose under heaven." -- Ecclesiastes 3:1

EMMITSBURG, Md. -- Chase Hilgenbrinck is alone in the middle of the field, just outside the goal box, with his back to it. He's facing his teammates, who are standing several yards away, split into two lines for pregame warm-ups. One by one -- left, then right -- they kick a soccer ball his way, and start jogging in his direction. Chase deftly deflects each ball off to the side with a flick of his foot, setting up each teammate to launch a shot on goal.

It's been a couple months since he last put on a uniform. But it still feels comfortable. Natural. His mind drifts back to the last time he suited up: Sunday, July 13, at Gillette Stadium in Foxborough, Mass. He was a member of Major League Soccer's New England Revolution, facing Mexican club Santos Laguna in a SuperLiga game. Now, on the final weekend of September, he's preparing to play against a team from St. Joseph's.

St. Joseph's Seminary.

My, how things have changed.

We all have grand dreams when we're growing up. We don't just want to do something with our lives -- we want to be great at it. And for many of us, the ultimate dream was to be a professional athlete.

Chase Hilgenbrinck dreamed that dream. Three months ago, he was playing professional soccer, in his native country. He had reached the end of the rainbow. Only, at the end of the rainbow, he discovered another path he felt compelled to follow. So he gave it all up, at the very moment he had strived for his entire life.

Ironically, Chase never made national headlines during his pro soccer career. But he made headlines around the world when he ended it.

From the Associated Press, July 14, 2008:

"Hilgenbrinck accepted the calling on Monday when he left the New England Revolution and retired from professional soccer to enter a seminary, where he will spend the next six years studying theology and philosophy so he can be ordained as a Roman Catholic priest."

Click here to continue reading.

Dynamic Catholic Book Program

It all started with a very simple idea: 32% of the people at Christmas Mass only come to Church once a year. It’s our best opportunity to re-engage them. For years we have been letting them come and go with no real effort to win them back. What if it was as simple as just giving them a great Catholic book on the way out of church? It is. Books change our lives. Sometimes all it takes to bring people back to Church is the right book. Learn more about the Book Program.

What is the Dynamic Catholic Parish Book Program?
A simple and affordable way to re-engage disengaged Catholics and re-energize your parish.



How does it work?
1. You order a bunch of books.
2. At Christmas, Easter, or Ash Wednesday, friendly volunteers pass out the books to people as they leave Church.
3. You encourage people to read the book with regular and inspiring announcements.
4. You hear people talking about how the book is changing their lives for months, and months, and months…

How much does it cost?
We believe in keeping things as simple as possible. Order 500 copies or more for $2 per copy (including shipping). Orders 6 to 499 copies are $3 per copy (including shipping). See the titles in the Parish Book Program.

Interesting Facts
1. The Dynamic Catholic Parish Book Program (DCPBP) is the most successful New Evangelization initiative in the United States today.
2. Parishes that participate in the program three years in a row experience a 9.1% increase in attendance and a 10.4% increase in collections on average.
3. So far the DCPBP has served more than 4,000 of the 15,000 parishes in the United States.
4. 99.7% of parishes that participate say they will do it again.
5. More than 5,000,000 books and CDs have been distributed through the program.
6. Since its inception, the DCPBP has brought more people back to the Catholic Church than any other program in America.
7. The first book offered through this program was Rediscover Catholicism. First published in 2001, this book was on the Catholic Book Publishers Association bestseller list for more than seven years in a row (or 364 weeks) before the Dynamic Catholic Parish Book Program began. Today it is the bestselling Catholic book in America ever!
8. Parishioners who read Catholic books on a regular basis contribute four times more financially to their parish (and are three times more likely to volunteer at the their parish) than parishioners who do not.
9. In 2007, only one percent of American Catholics read a Catholic book. The DCBP has increased the number to 9.3% in 2012. That is a 900% increase in just five short years.
10. Spiritual reading has been central to our spiritual development since before the invention of the printing press. The great spiritual directors of every age have encouraged those they direct to read great texts that would lead to spiritual growth.
11. If only one person comes back to Church because you pass out books… and that person is forty years old, lives to eighty, and puts just $10 in the collection each week, he/she will contribute $20,800 to your parish during the remainder of his/her life. You would have to buy 10,401 books for it to be a bad financial investment. If just two people come back you would have to buy 20,801 books for it to be a bad financial investment. If ten people come back to Church you would have to buy 104,001 books to lose money.
12. 32% of Catholics only come to church once a year – at Christmas! After Christmas, Ash Wednesday and Easter are our best opportunities to re-engage Catholics.
13. Order less than 500 books for $3 a copy. Order more than 500 books for $2 a copy. Shipping and handling is included in these prices. 14. The books we offer for as little as $2 usually retail for $17.95 each. These are books, not booklets or pamphlets.
15. 43% of parishes call within two weeks of distributing the books to order more.
16. The largest single parish order ever was 10,000 books by Holy Spirit in Fremont, California.
17. St. Mary of the Annunciation in Mundelein, Illinois has participated in the program eight times, which is the record at this time.
18. In 2012, the Archdiocese of Minneapolis ordered 200,000 copies of Rediscover Catholicism to distribute at Christmas Masses, making it the largest single order in the history of the program.

Catholics Come Home

The CatholicsComeHome.org "Epic" national TV commercial, or Evangomercial (TM), features the history, beauty, spirituality, and accomplishments of the Catholic Church over the centuries. "Epic" is filled with religious images of the Mass and Sacraments, Catholic churches, Catholic schools and universities, Sacred Scripture and Tradition, the saints and popes of the Church, and much more, to evoke the expansive impact of Catholicism on the world and individuals souls throughout history and in the ages to come, and to invite fallen-away Catholic and non-Catholics to come home.