McGrath Institute Blog

Take a moment to visualize the Nativity scene that was in your home as a child. Try to see it through your childhood eyes once again. What do you see? Do you remember that sense of wonder as you look at that familiar figurine of baby Jesus in the manger?

Editorial Note: Catherine Coffey is a graduate of the Echo program in the McGrath Institute for Church Life. Echo provides students the opportunity to earn a Master's degree from Notre Dame while gaining real-world experience in parish ministry or teaching high school theology, all while receiving robust spiritual and human formation. Applications for the next Echo community are due January 10, 2020. Learn more here.

Editorial Note: This fall, we'll be featuring profiles of people who are or have been part of the Echo program in the McGrath Institute for Church Life. Echo provides students the opportunity to earn a Master's degree from Notre Dame while gaining real-world experience in parish ministry or teaching high school theology, all while receiving robust spiritual and human formation.

Editorial Note: This fall, we're featuring profiles of people who are or have been part of the Echo program in the McGrath Institute for Church Life. Echo provides students the opportunity to earn a Master's degree from Notre Dame while gaining real-world experience in parish ministry or teaching high school theology, all while receiving robust spiritual and human formation.

The thing the Church needs most today is the ability to heal wounds and to warm the hearts of the faithful; it needs nearness, proximity. I see the Church as a field hospital after battle . . . with the mission to heal the wounds of the heart, to open doors, to free [people], to say that God is good, God forgives all, that God is our Father, God is tender, that God always waits for us . . .
—Pope Francis, Homily, Casa Santa Marta

It takes a great deal of courage and pastoral creativity to approach deep wounds, to open closed doors, to receive and speak rightly of God’s forgiveness and affection. As the Echo staff and I work to form Catholic leaders for service in today’s field hospital Church, I am particularly compelled by Pope Francis’ call to “open doors.”