NOTE: Quickly abandoning New Year resolutions is as common a practice as making them in the first place.  Here the author offers a perspective on why they deserve better – and how we can give them what they deserve. * * * By Penny Wiegert I did quite a lot of baking during the holiday season. I made several batches of bread and rolls using the recipe my grandmother used at her restaurant some 50 years ago. The best bread gets a good amount of kneading. As any baker knows, bread dough is the opposite of pie and pastry dough. For bread, the more it is handled the better; for flaky pastry, the less hand...

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By Owen Phelps, Ph.D. Director, Yeshua Institute St. Francis de Sales had a unique perspective on why we shouldn’t let fear shape our lives. Observing the saint’s feast on Jan. 24, Father Mike Mendl, a friend who is a Salesian priest and journalist, shared a link to a story regarding St. Francis’ keen insight. The story comes from Aleteia, a lay edited Catholic newsletter that reaches 11 million unique visitors a month. St. Francis affirmed that old adage about visiting a dentist – observing that the fear of future sufferings is greater than the suffering itself. But he offered a r...

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By Owen Phelps, Ph.D. Director, Yeshua Institute NOTE: At the start of January, we published a list of nine “core principles” of being a Jesus-like Leader. The article struck a chord with readers, prompting us to devote some time and space to drilling deeper into each principle. Here we focus on the second principle: All of us are leaders some of the time. * * * Often when we hear the word “leadership,” we think of people who hold prominent positions in large organizations. At the pinnacle of this image of leadership are the kind of folks who flew their private jets into Davos earlier th...

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Pope Francis had some heartfelt advice for people on the Feast of the Epiphany Jan. 6. In his homily at Mass in St. Peter's Basilica, he said we shouldn’t make the pursuit of money, a career or worldly success the purpose of our lives. Later, from his window overlooking St. Peter’s Square, he also urged us to resist “the inclinations toward arrogance, the thirst for power and for riches.” If his words weren’t a full-throated endorsement of S3 Jesus-like Leadership, it’s obvious we are on the same page with it comes to matters of personal development. Two-edged sword If...

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By Owen Phelps, Ph.D. Director, Yeshua Institute When it comes to leadership, Pope Francis and I have a few things in common. One, we both had leadership positions thrust on us at a relatively young age. Two, neither of us was adequately prepared for the challenge. Three, in our Lord's loving embrace, we can admit it. That awareness came to me as I contemplated the first core principle of Leading Like Jesus that we mentioned in our last Catholic Leader (Jan. 3 ’18). That story, outlining nine core principles of S3 Jesus-like Leadership, drew more interest and feedback – all positive ...

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You know what Google is. Everyone does, right? It is home to a bunch of nerds who write code and crunch numbers all day so that its parent company, Alphabet, remains one of the most valuable companies in the world. “Conventional wisdom about 21st century skills holds that students need to master the STEM subjects – science, technology, engineering and math – and learn how to code as well because that’s where the jobs are,” writes Valerie Strauss, writing for The Washington Post. You would think that Google would be the perfect model for this sort of thinking. And you would be wrong...

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By Owen Phelps, Ph.D. Director, Yeshua Institute The start of every New Year seems to trigger two phenomena: Pundits gaze into their crystal balls and tell you what the future is going to hold for you; and, The vast majority of people adopt a list of New Year’s Resolutions to improve on last year’s outcomes. Each trend comes with its own hazards. About the hazards Crystal balls are notoriously inaccurate and misleading. And Murphy’s Law says the more risk you take betting on a particular outcome in the future, the more likely something will come along to mess it up. As for reso...

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By Owen Phelps, Ph.D. Director, Yeshua Institute Last month I had the opportunity to speak to key selected leaders in a large Catholic healthcare network. I felt blessed to have the opportunity. But I knew it would last only two hours, so I had to hone in quickly on what mattered most about The Catholic Vision for Leading Like Jesus. I decided to develop a list of “core principles” that are absolutely inherent in the notion of Leading Like Jesus. After a good bit of prayer and thought, I came up with nine principles that you might want to take with you on your leadership journeys in 2018. 1. Leaders...

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If you’re one of the many donors who participated in our annual fund-raising effort between Thanksgiving and the end of the year, we want to extend to you our deep and sincere thanks. You will definitely be hearing from us soon so we can thank you individually and provide you with the documentation the IRS requires if you itemize deductions on your tax forms. But we don’t want to wait to express our heartfelt gratitude and to affirm how essential your assistance is to our ministry. In the new year we intend to take some radical initiatives to make the Catholic Vision for Leading Like Jesus available to...

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By Owen Phelps, Ph.D. Director, Yeshua Institute In this, our first edition of The Catholic Leader in 2018, we want to make a promise to you for the new year. The promise is simple. But its impact on you could be profound. Our promise is this: We will consistently provide you with superb reading and viewing about how to grow as an S3 Jesus-like Leader in this new year. That promise reflects a change in the way people are absorbing information today. Had we made the promise only a few years ago, we would have promised you our consistent effort to provide you with good reading. End of story. But today two t...

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