Matthew Kelly - The Four Signs of a Dynamic Catholic: How Engaging 1% of Catholics Could Change the World

THE FOUR SIGNS OF A DYNAMIC CATHOLIC

FIRST EDITION
Copyright 2012 Beacon Publishing

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be used or reproduced in any manner whatsoever without permission except in the case of brief quotations embodied in critical articles or reviews.

ISBN 978-1-937509-26-2

The Best Version of Yourself is a registered trademark of The Matthew Kelly Foundation. Dynamic Catholic and Be Bold. Be Catholic. are registered trademarks of The Dynamic Catholic Institute.

Cover Design: Shawna Powell
Internal Design: Shawna Powell
Author Photo: Peggy McHale Joseph

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Printed in the United States of America.

TABLE OF CONTENTS

ALSO BY MATTHEW KELLY:

Rediscover Catholicism

The Rhythm of Life

The Seven Levels of Intimacy

Perfectly Yourself

Building Better Families

The Book of Courage

A Call to Joy

Mustard Seeds

The Dream Manager

The Shepherd

Why am I Here? (a childrens book)

The One Thing

Off Balance

ONCE UPON A TIME there was a very successful business owner. His company had faithfully served millions of customers for many, many years. But lately, business had not been so good, and his competitors were just waiting for him to fail. For weeks and months, the man pondered the crisis, but the problems were so complex, and solutions seemed nowhere to be found.

Everyone was wondering what would happen to this great company, so finally the businessman announced that he was hosting a dinner for all of his employees to unveil a plan that would save the company and return it to its former glory. He wanted to convey to them how important each person was to the future success of the organization.

The morning of the dinner, he was sitting in his study at home working on his speech, when his wife came in and asked if he would mind watching their son for a few hours while she ran some errands. He was about to say, I really need to focus on finishing my speech, but something caught his tongue and he found himself agreeing, reluctantly.

His wife had only been gone about ten minutes when there was a knock on the study door, and there appeared his seven-year-old son. Dad, Im bored! he exclaimed. The father spent the next couple of hours trying to amuse his son while also trying to finish his speech. Finally he realized that if he could not find some way to entertain his child he was never going to get his speech finished in time.

Picking up a magazine, he thumbed through the pages until he came to a large, brightly colored map of the world. He ripped the picture into dozens of pieces, and led his son into the living room. Then, throwing the pieces all over the floor, he announced, Son, if you can put the map of the world back together I will give you twenty dollars.

The boy immediately began gathering the pieces. He was keen to earn the extra money, as he needed just twenty more dollars to buy a toy he had been saving for since his last birthday. The father returned to his study, thinking he had just bought himself a couple of hours to finish working on his speech, because he knew his seven-year-old son had no idea what the map of the world looked like.

But five minutes later, just as he was settling into his speech, there was another knock on the study door. There stood the young boy holding the completed map of the world.

The father said in amazement, How did you finish it so quickly? The boy smiled and said, You know, Dad, I had no idea what the map of the world looked like, but as I was picking up the pieces, I noticed that on the back there was a picture of a man. The father smiled, and the boy continued. So, I put a sheet of paper down, and I put the picture of the man together, because I knew what the man looked like. I placed another sheet of paper on top, then holding them tightly I turned them both over. He smiled again and exclaimed, I figured, if I got the man right, the world would be right.

The man handed his son twenty dollars. And youve given me my speech for tonight. If you get the man right, you get the world right.

TRANSFORMING PEOPLE one at a time is at the heart of Gods plan for the world. It is also essential to developing dynamic marriages, loving families, vibrant parish communities, thriving economies, and extraordinary nations. If you get the man right (or the woman, of course), you get the world right. Every time you become a-better-version-of-yourself, the consequences of your transformation echo through your marriage, family, parish, nation, and beyond to people and places in the future. It is God who does the transforming, but only to the extent that we cooperate. Gods grace is constant, never lacking. So our cooperation with Gods desire to transform us is essential; it is the variable. Are you willing to let God transform you?

Helping individuals with this transformation from who they are to who they are capable of being is the great work. Is the Catholic Church the best in the world at assisting men and women in becoming all God created them to be? Most people today would say no. We could argue about it, but we shouldnt have to. Should we be unquestionably the best in the world at this? I think so.

For twenty years I have been speaking and writing about the genius of Catholicism. I have done this with the hope that it might help others to catch a glimpse of what Catholicism truly is and how it can transform us, and the world, if we embrace it. I suppose on a very basic level I want others to experience the joy that the Catholic faith has brought to my life.

In my travels I have noticed that some Catholics are more engaged than others, but I never really took the time to explore why. This is a regret I will live with for the rest of my life, because if I had taken the time to really understand the difference between highly engaged Catholics and disengaged Catholics, the work my staff and I have undertaken over these past two decades could have been infinitely more effective. That has all changed now. The ideas within this book have transformed the way I speak, write, and live. But we are getting ahead of ourselves. This is how it all began....

Several years ago I was having dinner with a group of priests in Minnesota before an event. I was the only non-cleric at the table, and some of the priests started talking about different things that were happening in their parishes. One of the priests was very young, and he was lamenting about how few people were actively involved at his parish. My mind was starting to drift toward what I was going to speak about at the event when I heard something that jolted me back into the moment. Sitting at the head of the table like a king was a warm, humorous, and completely down-to-earth priest who must have weighed 350 pounds and been almost eighty years old. Waving a finger down the table, he said to the young priest, Listen, I have been the pastor of seven parishes over the past forty years, and I can tell you that it doesnt matter where you go, you will discover the same fifty people do everything in a parish.

The comment got my attention. I immediately wondered if it was true. In the following weeks I started making informal phone calls to some pastors I knew. I asked them questions like: