Direct Mail Invitation to Confession Brings Them back after 20 Years

Last Advent, I had the idea to send out postcards to everyone on the three parish’s databases with information about everything happening during Advent and Christmas, including the new Christmas Mass schedule this year. That was pretty successful so we did it again for this Lent. One of the pieces of information that we included was the special additional times for Confession as part of the seasonal The Light Is On For You initiative of the Archdiocese of Boston.

We’re in our third week of The Light Is On For You, which takes place on Wednesdays of Lent, from 6:30 to 8pm. We have had a steady flow of confessions and they have increased each week. The penitents have been telling the priests that its been 5, 10, 20 years since their last confession, and the priests have started to ask the penitents what prompted them to come now.

Almost universally they have reported that it was the postcards in the mail! Seeing it there in print as a soft invitation was enough to motivate many of them. Now if we add a few more invitations in a few different ways to a variety of occasions and we’ll really be cooking.

It’s not the end-all and be-all of evangelization, but this little direct mail effort is certainly bearing fruit.

I would be remiss if I didn’t add that the postcards were designed by Parishdesigner.com, a small firm that specializes in graphic design services for Catholic parishes and ministries at a very affordable price point. Definitely check them out. They have been awesome.