On Repeating Stuff
One of the things I really struggle with is how often to repeat things. The staff can tell you, for example, that I am very strict about only placing something in the bulletin or the Mass announcements once. My reasoning is that, in general, we repeat ourselves to children but not to adults. If we want to treat our community like adults, we give them the information once and let them act or not act as they deem fit. Also, from a design engineering perspective, static content that stays the same very quickly gets ignored, while dynamic content is paid attention to. (Just ask yourself how many times you read this Pastor’s Note vs. how many times you read the mission statement above it.)
However, opposed to this philosophy is formation, which does require revisiting ideas regularly. If I want to teach people how to pray, for example, I need to talk about prayer a lot, and in many different ways. People learn over time and with repetition.
With that in mind, consider the Stewardship (ACA) homily from two weekends ago. I talk about tithing twice a year because I believe it is something that we need to learn and be formed in. But, should I have redistributed the Discipleship Commitment and Stewardship Worksheet we handed out in October, when we spoke about parish tithing? Do parishioners remember that to the extent that repeating it would be patronizing, or have most of them forgotten it and need a refresher?
Similarly, we spent a lot of effort last September through November talking about “Next Steps” in faith. Those cards are still in our moveable display in the Gathering Space. Is this something I need to circle back to, or did people “get it” when we did it? Or our parish retreat last August: how do we reemphasize those themes, without holding exactly the same retreat again?
This is a particularly acute problem for me when I am writing homilies. If I have said something from the pulpit once, can I assume that people heard and remembered it? How often can or should I preach on the same theme before it feels repetitive or patronizing, before people start tuning it out? If I talk about evangelization, as I am doing this weekend, are we already sorted into the people who want to act on that and those who don’t, or is there still a convincible middle that I can go after?
Fr. Moore 