With Holy Week and other recent festivities, I haven’t had the chance to write to you about an amazing accomplishment in our collaborative parishes! You may recall one of the top three priorities in our pastoral plan is
Faith Formation of Adults and Families. We have two specific goals for this priority, one of which is to design and implement a Family Retreat for parents and children to participate in together (being planned for late Fall 2018). The other one is:
Engage 80-100 adults in small group programs that deepen their encounter with Jesus Christ in personal ways by June 30, 2020.
In addition to retreats like Cursillo and occasional programs like Faith Matters, a committee of parishioners and staff chose the ChristLife series of programs (starting with Discovering Christ) to expand our adult faith formation small group options. We are thrilled to announce that these offerings have been extremely well received, and
this became thefirst Pastoral Plan goal we have accomplished - two years ahead of schedule!
Of particular success was “Discovering Christ”, the first program in the ChristLife series. It was offered during the Lenten season to help people explore and develop their relationship with Jesus, while also serving the purpose of bringing people together to discuss their faith in a warm and welcoming setting. We met weekly for 7 weeks, with each night including dinner, prayer, music, a video presentation, and small group discussion. I am particularly grateful to Diana Zeller, who coordinated the whole effort, our ChristLife leadership team of parishioners (assisted by Deacon Jim and me) and the dozens of others who served as small group hosts and hospitality volunteers. As Diana said,
It was amazing to see how many people stepped forward to make this program happen. We had 83 people register to participate with another dozen on a waiting list. It was a huge success. We did a survey at the end of the program, [and] over and over people expressed how much they enjoyed being able to talk about their faith with others and share that fellowship and friendships that developed over the seven week period. We had several people say that they are now attending Mass more regularly.... They are praying more, and not just when they need something. A few said they felt like they had a more personal connection to Jesus that they never felt before. They are noticing the Holy Spirit working in their lives and the lives of those around them. They feel more comfortable talking about their faith with friends and family. Several of our small groups have already taken it upon themselves to continue to meet on a weekly or monthly basis, and are staying in touch via email and text. This program has really energized the people who participated and they are sharing that energy with friends, family, and neighbors.
Over the next year, many of these participants will experience “Following Christ” (the next program in the ChristLife series), and some will help us run “Discovering Christ” again for a new group to experience! Several parishioners who participated in Discovering Christ will be attending the Spaghetti Dinner next Saturday night, May 5, hosted by our “CIA” Youth Group. Through casual dinner conversations, perhaps you will have a chance to hear about their experience and enthusiasm of our adults and youth alike!