Parish Missions

I also offer parish missions. The fee for a parish mission is $3500 plus travel, room and board ($4000 if I am to give mission conferences in the morning as well as the evening). Queries regarding speaking engagements can be made by clicking on the "Contact" tab on the home page of my website and sending me an e-mail.
Becoming His Disciples

The overall theme of the mission is usually oriented toward growing in Christian discipleship. The proposed themes for the four evenings would be:

Sunday Evening: Finding God in Daily Life

Monday Evening: Christian Sexuality and Marriage

Tuesday Evening: The Call to Discipleship and Service of God's Kingdom

Wednesday Evening: Eucharist and the Church

If there were interest, I would be happy to also conduct an informal session with the parish pastoral team on one of the afternoons of the mission. In the past, this has often taken the form of an extended lunch session and round table discussion on a particular topic with the pastoral team.

The fees for the mission cover: 1) advance materials [a manual with guidelines for mission preparation and liturgy templates], 2) I will offer reflections on the mission at all the Sunday masses, 3) I provide four evening conferences. If the parish wishes, I can also conduct abbreviated morning sessions [without the liturgical context] for those who cannot attend the evening sessions.
 
A Catholic Faith for the Modern World
This parish mission can serve as a “follow-up” parish mission for parishes that have already experienced Dr. Gaillardetz’s mission, “Becoming His Disciples.”  The goal of this mission is to help ordinary Catholics deepen their Catholic faith by exploring such basic questions, as, how can I find God in a world obsessed with gadgets, how do I find God in the midst of personal suffering and tragedy, how do I find a more mature understanding of sin and forgiveness, and what does it mean to be a person of hope in the world today.

First Evening:  Hooked on Gadgets:  Living Gracefully in Technological World

We live in a world dominated by technological devices:  laptops, i-pods, i-pads, i-phones, kindles, DVRs, microwave ovens, etc.  In this session we will explore how we can maintain our spiritual connection with God in a “wired world.”

Second Evening:  “Why Have You Abandoned Us?” The Scandal of suffering and the Call to Compassion

Here we will consider the reality of suffering and evil and the ways in which it can lead to a shriveling of the soul.  No reality is more threatening to our faith than the experience of suffering and tragedy.  S what are the riches of our Christian tradition that can help us respond more profoundly to the scandal of suffering and evil in our world?

Third Evening: Re-Imagining Sin, Conversion and the  Life of Holiness

This session will explore a Catholic understanding of sin, conversion and holiness.  Too often Catholics have thought of sin as a transgression of God’s law.  While this is not entirely wrong, it risks encouraging a basic misunderstanding of Catholic teaching on sin and our need for conversion.  We will explore a more positive theological understanding of our relationship with God, one which sees sin as that which wounds our capacity for relationship.

Fourth Evening:  What Do We Live For?  Reflections on Our Final Destiny

Catholics of a certain age use to be taught about the “four last things.”  The treatment of these topics—death, heaven, hell and final judgment—was often tainted by fear and threats of final damnation.  However today we are invited to think about our final destiny not from a spirit of fear but rather one of hope.  This session will reflect on what our Catholic tradition has to say about our final destiny.

The fees for the mission cover: 1) advance materials [a manual with guidelines for mission preparation and liturgy templates]; 2) I will offer reflections on the mission at all the Sunday masses; 3) I provide four evening conferences; 4) I can speak at an informal luncheon with parish staff to discuss a topic of contemporary theological interest to professional church ministers.