Welcome!
Welcome to Patti’s Catholic Corner! After a long hiatus I’m back to the blog! Are you starting out in ministry? I’d love for my 14 years of ministry experience to shed some light on the path ahead so you don’t have to make the same mistakes I did! I love to mentor those coming up […]
Our Lady of Guadalupe, our inspiration, guide, companion
Our Lady of Guadalupe, our inspiration, guide, companion By Patti Gutiérrez, Pastoral Associate, St. Michael, Sebree As we embark on a more intentional effort of New Evangelization in our diocese, Living as Missionary Disciples – reaching others with the message of Jesus Christ – we can look to Our Lady of Guadalupe as our inspiration, […]
Building Community in Hispanic Ministry
The month of December is the perfect time to take advantage of traditions to strengthen your Hispanic community. My husband, children and I live far away from any of our extended family. There are so many times that we wish we had them closer. We wish our children could grow up close to them to […]
The Road to a Loving, Lasting Marriage
It’s a Journey We’re all on this journey called life. Sometimes we’re not sure why this journey has to be so hard! I love the metaphor that Christopher West uses called Flat Tire Syndrome: “It’s as if we’re all driving around town in cars with flat tires. The rubber is shredding off the rims; the […]
5 Productivity Tools for Ministry
As a married, full-time lay minister in the church raising two young children, my life is hectic! Most of the time I’m going a mile a minute and loosing important things along the way. My ministry tends to suffer from my pace of life. 2018 Update: we now have 3 kids and I have left full-time ministry […]
5 Lessons for Ministry from our Crisis
As a pastoral minister for the past 10 years I have had my share of experience ministering to those facing a crisis. However, what I learned dealing with our own crisis in these past two weeks will affect the way I minister for years to come. I share my insights here in hopes that they […]
Fighting the Urge for Perfection
No more excuses. Today I am committing myself to ship. No matter what. And Seth Godin fans out there? In his manifesto, “Brainwashed” he lays out a vision of how to be successful in today’s reality. He explains that we have a part of our brain that wants to run and hide; he calls it […]
Why you Should Stop Trying to be Happy in your Marriage
One of my husband’s favorite tricks to play when he’s giving a talk at a Pre-Cana is to catch me off guard and say “Hey, Patti, do I make you completely happy?” All of the hopeful, engaged couples in the room turn to see me in the back. “No way!” I shout back. There are some nervous laughs and some jaws drop.
Then he drops the bombshell:
“Sorry to break it to you guys, but your future wives will never be able to make you completely happy. And the same goes for your husbands, ladies.”
Why Patience is Essential in Ministry
Patience in the Christian sense includes receptivity to God’s will and acceptance of God’s timing. In today’s microwave culture, we have almost entirely lost this virtue. The other day I learned that when designing a website we need to plan on people’s attention span being 10-20 seconds long. If we haven’t caught people’s attention by then, they’re gone and off to the next thing. How true! And yet how sad that the same impatience spreads to our faith life and ministry.
How to Fight your Giants
Today in the first reading we heard the familiar story of David defeating the giant Goliath. As a child I dreamed of being as courageous as he was; standing up against someone bigger and more powerful. It is easy to relate to that feeling as a child. However we forget the power that this story has for us as adults as well. We too can learn to fight our giants by following David’s example.