One of my professional side interests is ice  breaker type conversations and activities. I’m not necessarily the best at them, but since there are many times when I have to get to know people quickly in semi-awkward situations, I definitely have my go-to tactics. One of my favorites is to propose a mundane category,  come up with examples within that category,  and then make a bracket to determine the best whatever it is you’re arguing about. Take chairs, for example. Rocking chairs are the best, and Adirondack chairs are the worst, hands down. The other chestnut I lean on is almost the opposite: come up with a list of things the group hates, and then fiercely debate on which one is the worst. If you don’t know the other people in the group beforehand, you certainly will afterwards. 

What I’ve noticed about these conversations is that while people are passionate about their favorites and will defend them to the hilt, they are almost universally more intense about the things that they loathe. It’s almost as if it’s not enough for one person to hate something;  everyone must hate it. It’s easier (and more fun,   I would say) to bemoan the problems of the day rather than to focus on the good and how we can promote it. That same mentality creeps into the way we see the Church, and it’s at least a small part of the issues facing us today. You could have a fruitful conversation about the things people love about the Church and their parishes. But things would get heated in record time if you got a group of  average Catholics in a room and asked them, “What do you dislike most about the Church/your parish?” I’d be worried that I would learn some new words, to be honest.  

In today’s Gospel, Jesus teaches His disciples how to pray, and just as importantly, He      teaches them the importance on calling on    their Heavenly Father in all their needs. In emphasizing both the importance of persistence and the Father’s desire to give us every good gift, Jesus lays out for us a mindset that we should carry with us into every aspect of our lives. This is more than just “focus on the      positive, it takes more muscles to frown than to smile, etc.” Jesus is point blank telling His disciples that they should repeatedly take their cares and concerns to the Father with the real hopes of God changing our lives and redirecting our efforts. If fifteen years ago we had done nothing but complain about the fact that there weren’t many incoming vocations, we’d certainly be in an even worse spot right now. But there has been a vocations boom in the Archdiocese in recent years, in large part because it’s a renewed focus that we have been praying for constantly.  
 
There are nowhere near as many people in our pews today as there were fifty years ago. We’ve lost ground in many important metrics, and the problems inside and outside the Church look pretty dire sometimes. But Jesus doesn’t tell His disciples to sit around and argue about what they hate the most. He stirs them up to pray and to come before their Heavenly Father with open hands and every expectation that God will work things out, and He will bring us into the process and change our hearts along the way. If the Lord does not build the house, in vain do the builders labor. If we are not inviting God into everything we do and humbly submitting our cares and concerns to Him, then we are skipping the most important step of renewal.  
   
P.S. Thanks for saving my beard. All of you who voted for the mustache
are dead to me…