Advise to Pastors

by Father Bob Bedard, CC

1. Be very convinced that God wants your parish to be transformed. He wants all your people baptized with the Holy Spirit. He wants divine fire to burn in you and in your church. He wants to place there such a strong anointing that everyone who enters the building will sense it and be blessed.

2. Preach the basic Gospel message, the call to surrender all to Jesus. As part of the homily, do it every Sunday. Ask the Lord each week for a new way to say it. Ask the people if they’re satisfied with the condition of the Church, their parish, their families and their own lives. Ask them if they think God is satisfied. Ask them if they believe He has power to turn those things around. Then, ask them if they’re willing to let Him do it. This is only one way to put it. There are many others.

3. Try to spend at least an hour a day in personal prayer (not including the liturgy of the hours or the rosary). Keep a journal. If you have questions to ask the Lord, write them down. Any time you think He is saying something to you. write it down too.

4. Give the Lord full permission to do with you and the parish whatever He wants.

5. Stop doing many of the things you’re doing. Don’t do paper work. Don’t lock and unlock the church. Go to very few meetings. Don’t conduct wedding rehearsals. Get your own visitors to the sick to make regular visitations to them. When Confession is required, go yourself. Don’t take responsibility for the physical ‘plant’. Don’t involve yourself with finances at all.

6. Get hold of a personal (not parish) secretary, someone who can be trained to think with your mind. He can answer most of your mail, make most of your telephone calls and bring your word to most of the meetings. Keep informed, but learn how to delegate.

7. Don’t ask for volunteers. Ask the Lord to point to the people He wants you to have. Volunteers may be making themselves available to fulfill needs of their own.

8. Never use the word “charismatic”. Although it’s a good and useful word and you may understand it very well, it simply scares a lot of people and divides congregations. Speak rather of the ‘way’ of the Holy Spirit and the incredible historical treasure of the Catholic Church. Avoid Pentecostal jargon such as “saved”, “born again”, “Spirit-filled”, “burden for you”, “pray over”, “back-slidden”, slain in the Spirit”, “God told me”, etc.

9. Find Catholic expressions that say the same things, like “sanctifying grace”, “spiritual awakening”, “prompted by the Holy Spirit”, “praying for you”, “pray with”, “in serious sin”, “resting in the Spirit”, “I think the Lord may be saying”, etc

10. Cast away all fear. It doesn’t matter what people think of say. We have to stop being people-pleasers. We have only to please God. Don’t be afraid of what the bishop may say or do if interesting things begin to be happening in your parish. Keep him informed. That’s only being fair to him. And, with very few exceptions in the U.S. and Canada, you’ll probably be quite surprised at how pleased the bishop may be when he hears what’s going on.

11. Ask the Lord for a holy boldness. In the Lord’s time, introduce the altar call. Don’t call it that. Call it something like ‘commitment time’. Have the names and telephone numbers recorded of those giving their lives to the Lord and have them followed up.

12. Seek relationship with other priests who are in the same spiritual space as you are. Ask God to lead you to them. Assemble with them on a regular basis, share your blessings and struggles, pray with one another and simply spend time together.

13. Insist on first-class liturgy. Find someone who can understand it and oversee the whole operation, music included.

14. Keep yourself healthy. Eat the right stuff. Get advice from a nutritionist. Exercise regularly. Your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit, a gift from God. Take good care of it and it will be an effective instrument in God’s hand much longer then most people, including you, would predict or expect.

15. Don’t lose your sense of humour. Make sure it comes out when you preach. Poke fun at yourself. Don’t take yourself too seriously. Always take God seriously, but not yourself.


If you’re a parish priest, believe me, Father, I’m on your side. I’ve been there. The above suggestions are based on my own experience and prayer. I’ve seen good things happen. They’re possible. The suggestions actually work. Give them a try. And let’s keep in touch.

I don’t imagine for a minute the above is a complete formula for parish renewal, but how about starting with this?