No homily today as I was at the International Catholic Stewardship Council Conference in Orlando (wow, that’s a mouthful).

I was really impressed by the enthusiasm of everyone there; they were very eager to serve God and help their parishes and dioceses grow. I loved the professionalism they brought to the whole event, to the presentations, and the organizational aspects of the conference. You could tell that the organizers and participants were very intentional in their manner, eager to greet and welcome people, and eager to form other disciples who in turn will form other disciples. I appreciated the fact that they weren’t afraid to talk about difficult topics like money, but discussed it from a spiritual vantage point, which makes all the difference. Perhaps the greatest blessing for me was to see how many parishes and parish leaders had a plan to form disciples and set very clear high goals for what a parish should be, what it should give its people and what it should expect from its people. In life, we tend to get what we aim for, so it’s no wonder that these parishes are reaping great fruit.

Speaking of conferences, here are two I’d really recommend: The Applied Biblical Studies Conference and the Defending the Faith Conference, both at Franciscan University of Steubenville. They’re back-to-back, so you can fly once there for both conferences, learn a lot of information and be inspired for 6 full days! Look at the line-up of speakers; and the cost, as far as conferences go, is dirt cheap. I went two years ago, and the one idea I came away with was: I have to start a blog. So the conference bore great fruit in my life. Seriously think about going this July 2015.