Are you tired?

An upcoming roundtable on burnout. ❤️

Hey friends,

Do you have a job that relates to the church?

I see you out there. The missionaries and ministry planners, the ones in charge of the Holy Week masses and the administrative assistant appreciation dinner. The ones planning youth events, leaving youths of your own to bring a few boxes of Papa John’s to Pizza With a Priest night. Answering the 8 million calls about what time Good Friday service is even though, ahem, you put it in the bulletin and announced it as Mass. Settling the “can-we-save-these-seats” debacles and the “where-did-we-put-the-Easter-decor” mysteries. Booking the speakers. Being the speaker. Buying the Starbucks gift card for the speaker. Caring for your community, answering your emails, praying for your people.

If you run a ministry program, work for a church, or have any kind of faith-related job, Lent and Holy Week is sort of like your Black Friday. You’re busy, and it’s tiring.

I’ve been in some type of church-work for almost ten years now, and it’s truly so different than any other career out there. Because we’re working for the literal most important thing—salvation of souls. That makes it hard to turn off, and perhaps it should.

The problem with caring is that it’s draining. There are honestly days I wish I was the kind of person who just didn’t give a crap about evangelization, didn’t want to see earth as it is in heaven, but got to crawl up with Inventing Anna and shut the rest of the world out.

Yet, the word self-care makes me want to squirm. The Gwyneth of it all, y’know? I struggle to find messages on burnout that don’t rub me the wrong way and make me feel a bit too Gen Z. Put yourself first. I’m not sure Jesus actually said that, between all of the commanding us to give people our extra coats and telling us to offer our enemies our cheeks. You deserve a break! Do I, though? Do any of us “deserve” anything?

That’s why I thought I’d bring in some experts—women who are passionate about mental health, and women who’ve been working in ministry for a long time and have learned a thing or two about burnout.

On March 29th at 1:00 PM CST, the Catholic Feminist will be hosting a zoom roundtable to discuss how to avoid burnout in ministry work and how to take care of yourself as a daughter of God during busy church seasons.

On our panel will be:

Lisa Gormley, a Licensed Professional Counselor (LPC) who writes at The Catholic Therapist

Regina Boyd, a Licensed Mental Health Counselor and the founder of Boyd Counseling Services

Cecilia Marie Flores, a Catholic speaker with over 15 years of experience working in youth and young adult ministry, international missions, and social justice

Patty Breen, a writer and ministry formation manager with 10 years of experience in ministry work

and Shannon Ochoa, the co-founder and director of community care for Eden Invitation.

Bring your coffee + your questions. The only way to join us live and have the opportunity to participate in the Q & A is to be a full subscriber of Letters. The transcript will be sent to our entire community at a later date.

If you’re already a full subscriber, you’re all good! You’ll be receiving a separate email with the Zoom link the day before our roundtable. If you’re a church worker, we’d love to have you join us.

And just so you know—I’m praying for you. I really, really do pray for this newsletter community, and for all of you ministry workers out there, I see you this time of year. ❤️

In Christ,

Claire