“Almost all problems in the spiritual life stem from a lack of self-knowledge.” St. Teresa of Avila
Along with 30 priests from our diocese, January 29– February 1, I began a 2 year program entitled, “Good Leaders—Good Shepherds”, offered by the Catholic Leadership Institute This is a national program which been in existence for 11 years. The 12th bishop of Pittsburgh, David Zubik is on the board and strongly encourages all his priests to embrace the call to be good leaders, after the Good Shepherd, Jesus Christ. He believed that it would be beneficial and helpful to all of his priests in order to equip them with the skills necessary to meet the challenging demands of ministry today. The rewards are that we would be more holy happy and healthy shepherds of engaged and vibrant parish communities, to lead effectively with Jesus Christ. This is the 3rd Cohort of priests in the Diocese of Pittsburgh to attend this program. I am glad to be in this cohort, as they keep fine-tuning the skills for this process.
The class is divided into 6 modules:
1. Self Preparation for Leadership: Discovering your ‘DiscPosition’, values, persona (masks), and core.
2. Leadership in Self Context: Time and life balance, self-motivation, solicit and receive effective feedback.
3. Leadership in the One-to-One context: Give effective feedback, conflict resolution, behaviors and versatility among parish leaders.
4. Leadership in the Team Context: Facilitate team dynamics, solve problems and make decisions in teams, structure effective meetings. Leadership in context of coaching clinic.
5. Leadership in the Organizational Context
6. Leadership in the Relational Context
In Module 1, our Learning Leaders were Lucille Smith, a widow and mother of 3 children, from the Diocese of Harrisburg, PA; Fr. Ed Dover, a priest from the Archdiocese of Los Angeles, CA and Tim Gavin, a Learning Leader, and a married man from the Philadelphia area. Since I have always enjoyed being a life-long learner, I embraced this call fully, to learn new things and lifeline skills, in order to fall in love again with the vocation that God has called me to in His priesthood. In any walk of life, we must continue to grow. If you don’t know where you’re going in life, any road will get you there.
In the Program of Priestly Formation, 5th Edition, USCCB, 2006, paragraph #238, it states: “To be a true ‘shepherd of souls’ means standing with and for Christ. In the community, the Christ who teaches and sanctifies and guides or leads the community. The grace to be a shepherd comes with ordination. That grace, however, calls for a priest’s personal commitment to develop the knowledge and the skills to teach and preach well, to celebrate the sacraments both properly and prayerfully and to respond to people’s needs as well as to take initiatives in the community that holy leadership requires.”
There is a nice cross-section of priests in our cohort. We learned to be respectful of our personality type after taking a diagnostic assessment. We also had a cross-section of people from work, social and family members do an evaluation of how they perceive us. Lo and behold, Bishop Zubik and I just happen to share the same personality type! It is important to honor who you are and honor who others are. It is important that we don't stereotype or box people in to one label. Each ‘DiscPosition’ works for us and against us. However, our values direct our behaviors. There are 4 basic personality types: extrovert/introvert, and controlling/accepting.
In the fall of 1980, at the tender age of 18, I began the discerning process at St. Paul Seminary, to be a priest. 33 years later, in 2013, at the age of 50, I am coming to get re-tooled, re-equipped, and re-committed to this vocation. Sitting at my table were contemporaries of my seminary days. One comes to a healthy appreciation and respect that we serve the call to serve God’s people in different ways and places. Despite the challenges and changes; joys ad frustrations, hopes and disillusionments, one rejoices that God uniquely called us to the ordained ministry to serve the Church.
There was time for Morning and Evening Prayer, Mass, socialization and meals together. They even served popcorn at the movies we viewed, which were: “Oscar Romero, the Bishop of San Salvador” (19, “12 Angry Men” starring Henry Fonda (1956), “The Lion King” (19..)
On the last day there was ‘Honorable Closure’. They asked each priest: What did you learn? What will you remember? What can you apply to your ministry? I was most inspired by the brother priest who had the courage to say, I’ve been at a parish for several years now. And I felt that I was in over my head there, inadequate and ill-equipped for the large number of souls in that parish. I was a bit apprehensive about leading a large pastoral care team.
After brooding, loathing, going in circles, and feeling out of his comfort zone, after the first week of the Good Shepherd program, a light switch went off in him, that a new revelation that God put him there for a reason and God will not allow opposition to have the upper hand in his life. That, God, who called him, is with him in the struggle, in times of doubt, fear and discouragement.
God is with us IN the struggle, and has our backs. Even in times when we feel, like Peter, that our efforts are futile and meaningless. We can all become impatient like Peter, easily discouraged, and ready to throw in the towel. Yet, the Lord just wants us to go back and be faithful even when we don’t see apparent or visible results for our efforts. Confession reminds us that God doesn’t give up on us, and we must not give up on others. It’s never too late for salvation.
At the end of the week we were asked to write our own Mission Statements I was asked to share mine with the class so I thought I would share it with you:
“My purpose in life is to use my enthusiasm and care, to help others grow in faith, in Jesus Christ, and His Gospel, for themselves and others, so that they would embrace the Great Commandment to love God and neighbor, most fully in every day life. And that we would pray for each other, as we seek to serve each other out of love for Christ, more gracefully and faithfully, day by day.”
