Dear Friend,

Welcome to Ministry Excellence, a weekly guide to help you thrive in your calling and maximize your impact in the Kingdom. This newsletter is designed to equip and inspire you to grow in your spiritual journey, leadership skills, and ministry effectiveness. Expect practical tips, insightful articles, and real-life stories that help you navigate the challenges of ministry with wisdom, compassion, and excellence. Together, let's build your ministry to a new level of success, transforming more lives while reflecting the heart of Christ in what you do.

In this issue:

New Pope, New Challenges for Our Ministries

The election of our new pope was an exciting and historical moment that we all witnessed together. For a day, we didn't think about the divisive issues. It seemed that the whole world was unified in the joy of getting a new Holy Father. But now what?

Pope Leo XIV, right from the start, is emphasizing unity as a central theme of his papacy. It's in his coat of arms.

His papal motto is: "Nos multi in illo uno unum", which translates to: "Though we are many, in the one Christ we are one."

The left side of the shield is a white lily on a blue background, representing the importance of the Blessed Mother in the ministry of unity.

The right side depicts the pope's Augustinian background. The flaming heart and the book that it's sitting on are symbols of Saint Augustine. The heart is God's passionate love for us as well as our passionate desire for truth (as St. Augustine famously said, "Our hearts are restless until they rest in You"). The arrow piercing it express the pain and joy of a love so strong. Meanwhile, the book is an Augustinian symbol for learning and the Word of God.

Unity requires passionate love, an insatiable desire for truth, taking the Word of God out into the world through our ministries, and our willingness to accept the pain that comes with division while celebrating our common ground.

Pope Leo XIV included in his inaugural address a commitment to and the calling for all of us to heal divisions within the Church and foster "a spirit of reconciliation among Catholics worldwide."

Then, in his first Mass as pope, he challenged us to invigorate the Church's mission in a secular world by healing the divisions within the Church. He emphasized that lay participation is an important part of this mission.

So, in unity with our new pope, will our ministries now begin to look different? How will we implement the call to ignore what divides us and build the unity of serving the Lord, showing the secular world that our faith is rooted in love? We are now presented with a timely opportunity to recall the goals of our ministries, reassess how well we're fulfilling our missions, and innovate deliberate ideas to collaborate with other ministries, with our clergy, and even with Catholics who are not as like-minded as we wish they were.

Let's not see our ministries as silos that are disconnected from other ministries. What can we do to network better?

One idea that I have is to support ministries that organize retreats by offering a free copy of my book on The Father's Heart as a door prize. I'll also offer my book to the silent auctions of parish fundraisers. And if you have another purpose for a free copy, let me know!

Would you like to find out more about this book? Visit ToTheFathersHeart.com

Blessings of Peace and Grace
as we serve Christ together,
Terry Modica

Spiritual Coach, Author, Speaker,
Executive Director
Good News Ministries
GNM.org