Excellent Catholic Parishes: The Guide to Best Places and Practices

by Paul Wilkes

Book Overview

A directory of hundreds of recommended Catholic parishes also offers detailed examinations of eight Catholic parishes that the author believes are exemplary, evaluating each in such areas as social... This description may be from another edition of this product.

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0809139928
• ISBN13: 9780809139927
• Release Date: January 2001
• Publisher: Paulist Press
• Length: 272 Pages
• Weight: 0.75 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.7" x 5.1" x 8.3"

Customer Reviews

Fullness of Parish Life Found

Excellent Catholic Parishes: The Guide to Best Places and Practices Provides an inspiring survey of strategies that make a parish successful at fulfilling the prayer, "...Thy Kingdom come..." Eight different parish situations are presented, and the inspired, sometimes difficult, choices of the parish leaders are discussed, as are the responses of the People of God who make up the assembly in the parish. Encouraging, insightful, and hopeful to all who wish to improve parish life.

A Pleasant Surprise

Paul Wilkes makes the point that's it's okay to be Catholic and have a parish that's vibrant and successful. This work is a pleasure to read and relate to as it points out that to be Catholic doesn't mean boring or ineffective, but evangelical and outgoing. Words such as "unchurched" and "seeker" are heard for the first time within the world's oldest Christian church. What a breath of fresh air! Wilkes has done a tremendous job of research and explanation. I highly recommend this very readable book for everyone that is inside or outside the Catholic faith. If your parish is imprisoned with "that's the way we've always done it" then this is the book for you. "Let my people go" indeed. The Catholic faith is alive and well and ready for the future to serve all if we just give it a chance and get involved. Bring your highlighter with you.

Looking for ideas

"Excellent Catholic Parishes" by Paul Wilkes was an accident on my way to reading another book. I ordered it by impulse and enjoyed it the moment it arrived. I am always looking for new ideas. While the ideas for Catholic Schools wasn't huge, as a parish staff member, it was fun to read what other parishes are doing.

EXCEPTIONS THAT PROVE THE RULE

"Exceptions That Prove The Rule" may well be a suitable subtitle for this both encouraging and disturbing book.It wonderful knowing there are good things being done in parishes "out there" but it is sad realizing that not all parish staffs possess (or want to possess) the collaborative spirit to make a parish "work". Too often, staff members use a parish to try to fulfill their own varied needs rather than come to ministry prepared to "feed".

A MUST Read

Excellent Catholic Parishes is a must read for those already in parish ministry or those in the process of pursuing a place in the parish ministry setting. I was absolutely uplifted and inspired by this book. The parishes so eloquently portrayed in this book are exemplary in their particular strengths as pointed out by Wilkes and company. The vision of these parishes seems to be the key in making them so successful. I am grateful for all the time and effort Wilkes has put into such a project. This is a great learning tool for anyone who wants to grow and help lead the faithful to a greater spirituality by taking the Scripture of Sunday into daily living on Monday. Thank you for this gift.