‍burningheartsdisciples.org

Hello 

At Baltimore’s Pastoral Staff Day this month, a husband told me his wife had stayed home with a new baby.

All day, he was texting her what he was hearing. She kept texting back hard questions about suffering and God’s goodness.

I never met her. But three weeks later, I still find myself thinking about her and praying for her.  

She wasn’t in the room. But what happened there reached her, too. 

The attendance count can’t tell us what that day meant for their family.

That moment stays with me as parishes finish their October counts.

We count who came. Who returned. Who registered. Who stopped coming.

Those numbers deserve our attention. But they can’t tell us what happened because people came.

Did someone begin to trust Jesus with something they had been carrying alone? Did a conversation become a relationship that continued after the gathering ended? What followed when everyone went home?

We won’t learn those things from the attendance sheet. We have to make room to ask -and listen without supplying the answer we hope to hear.

In his September address to the Diocese of Rome, Pope Leo asked us to move beyond counting participation to evaluating whether our ministries are leading people to Christ.

 
That question deserves a place beside this year’s October count.

‍Kristin Bird

Executive Director



O‍n the Road

November 1 · St. John Nepomucene Catholic Community • Little Chute, WI
Raising Kids in a Digital World · 6–7 PM

Details for November 1

November 9 · St. Irenaeus Catholic Church • Rochester Hills, MI
Digital Parenting · 10 AM (Social Hall) & 6 PM (Church)
Talking to Your Grandkids About Faith · 1 PM in the Social Hall

Details for November 9