By Owen Phelps, Ph.D. Director, Yeshua Institute Now that the quadrennial presidential election is over, we find ourselves on the threshold of a busy annual period jam packed with holidays and other observances. Nov. 24 is Thanksgiving Day. Nov. 27 is the first Sunday in Advent, a season that carries through Dec. 24 this year. Nov. 29 is Giving Tuesday, an observance scheduled right after our traditional post-Thanksgiving Christmas shopping binge; last year over 700,000 people donated over $116 million to their favorite causes. Dec. 25 is Christmas Day, when we celebrate the birth of our savior and the pr...

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There’s still time to register for either of two Catholic Vision for Leading Like Jesus Encounters in the Dubuque Archdiocese before the end of the year. They are scheduled at American Martyrs Retreat House in Cedar Falls, IA, and they offer participants the choice to attend on a weekday or a Saturday: Tuesday, Nov. 29, 8:30-3:30 p.m. Saturday, Dec. 3, 8:30-3:30 p.m. Dan Rohner, the archdiocese’s Director of Leadership Development & Pastoral Planning and also a Catholic Vision for Leading Like Jesus Master Facilitator, will serve as Facilitator. The fee to attend either of the Encoun...

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By Owen Phelps, Ph.D. As a child my first exposures to pastors were as different as I think it is possible to be: At St. Joseph Parish In Fond du Lac, WI, we had Msgr. Riordan. He spoke forcefully from a high pulpit that jutted out, ominously, above the Communion rail. His favorite verse, delivered in full throat, seemed to be Revelation 3:16: “Because you are lukewarm, neither hot nor cold, I will spit you out of my mouth.” Msgr. Riordan did not tolerate shorts on women or anyone joining the YMCA, and we were all more than a little intimidated by him. At Holy Cross Parish in Champaign, IL, where I mov...

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There’s still time to register for any of three Catholic Vision for Leading Like Jesus Encounters in the Dubuque Archdiocese before the end of the year. They are scheduled at American Martyrs Retreat House in Cedar Falls, IA, and they offer participants the choice to attend on weeknights, a weekday or a Saturday: Tuesdays, Nov. 15 and 22, 6-9 p.m. Tuesday, Nov. 29, 8:30-3:30 p.m. Saturday, Dec. 3, 8:30-3:30 p.m. Dan Rohner, the archdiocese’s Director of Leadership Development & Pastoral Planning and also a Catholic Vision for Leading Like Jesus Master Facilitator, will serve as Facilitator...

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By Owen Phelps, Ph. D. Several years ago our oldest child, Kristin, was in the first grade. She was an exceptional student, reading several grade levels ahead of her class, but she didn’t like the school she was enrolled in. When we met her teacher at the fall conference, we began to understand why. The teacher, a kind and caring woman, nonetheless was concerned that Kristin was not more eager to play with dolls and she wasn’t enamored with recess. “She would rather read,” the teacher said with more than a hint of dismay in her voice. Kristin was a normal kid who did like to play. But we ha...

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  Msgr. Mike Tierney takes only three minutes to outline how a parish can – and should – use collaboration to make sure its planning process is effective. Msgr. Mike concedes that it may seem easier for just the pastor alone or in company with staff to develop a plan and announce it to the parish. But he warns that it’s better to invite parishioners to participate in the planning process because the process matters when it comes to getting buy-in and active support from the whole parish for the plan. Msgr. Mike proposes a simple way to identify the core needs of a parish and to set a dire...

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By Owen Phelps, Ph.D. Okay, All Saints Day was yesterday. Isn’t it time to move on? Not yet, I’ll argue. The point of the feast is worth recalling for at least 48 hours – and ideally for much longer than that. A couple of weeks ago I was presenting the Catholic Vision for Leading Like Jesus Encounter for Catholic Charities in the Archdiocese of Galveston-Houston. We were talking about the importance of role models in our lives. Someone mentioned the value of having saints – meaning formally canonized saints – as role models. Then someone else spoke up and started talking about the &ldquo...

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By Owen Phelps, Ph.D. Have you ever heard of emotional agility? Probably not. I know I didn’t run across the term until very recently when I ran into the work of Psychologist Susan David, a lecturer at Harvard Medical School, who discusses the concept in her new book, Emotional Agility: Get Unstuck, Embrace Change, and Thrive in Work and Life.    I confess that I haven’t read the book yet, but I am intrigued by what she had to say in an interview in the e-newsletter Knowledge@Wharton. There she defines emotional agility as “the ability to be able to be with your thoughts, your e...

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By Owen Phelps, Ph.D. Recently I read an interesting article about burnout. It made the point that while people usually think that it’s caused by unreasonable work demands, that’s not the case. According to Christina Maslach, the culprit is usually poor relationships in the workplace. Maslach should know whereof she speaks. She is a psychology professor at the University of California, Berkeley, and author of the 22-question Maslach Burnout Inventory (“MBI”), called the “gold standard job burnout assessment." The MBI surveys three areas: exhaustion, depersonalization and pro...

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The Dubuque Archdiocese has scheduled three Catholic Vision for Leading Like Jesus Encounters before the end of the year, and six more in early 2017. The three scheduled before the end of the year are all at American Martyrs Retreat House in Cedar Falls, IA. They offer participants the opportunity to attend on weeknights, a full weekday or a Saturday: Tuesdays, Nov. 15 and 22, 6-9 p.m. Tuesday, Nov. 29, 8:30-3:30 p.m. Saturday, Dec. 3, 8:30-3:30 p.m. Dan Rohner, the archdiocese’s Director of Leadership Development & Pastoral Planning and also a Catholic Vision for Leading Like Jesus Master Facil...

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