Since Pentecost Sunday of last year, our diocese has been fruitfully engaged in the Go Make Disciples evangelizing initiative, seeking the renewal of the Holy Spirit in the proclamation of the Gospel to the world.
Our efforts are not a two-year plan or a three-year process, but rather an ongoing way to dynamically engage the power and truth of Jesus Christ in living out the mission of the Church, as articulated by the Lord before He ascended into Heaven. “Go make disciples, proclaim the Gospel to every creature, and Baptize in the name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit.”
Looking back at Phase I
Phase I of Go Make Disciples has been leadership formation. I asked every pastor to choose an evangelization team and to start praying, catechizing, and sharing faith with both the team and the parish staff.
The Scriptural image for this experience is Jesus with the 12 Apostles, as they lived with the Lord, watching His miracles, hearing His preaching, learning His identity and wisdom.
As leaders, we must drink deeply of the Holy Spirit ourselves before seeking to form others. The vast majority of our pastors have been utilizing the materials prepared by the diocese and began spiritually forming their leadership teams with encouraging results.
Another important aspect of our evangelizing efforts is an intense focus on four holy habits: Reclaiming Sunday as the Lord’s Day, with the Eucharist as the center of a day of prayer, leisure, and family; praying for 15 minutes a day; going to Confession once a month; and embracing some form of mortification and penance on Fridays.
Many people throughout our diocese have embraced this basic spiritual plan, seeing immediate benefits from it. I encourage everyone in our parishes to practice these fundamental elements of a Christian disciple’s life. If we are faithful to these simple habits, we will experience a profound spiritual renewal.
Without stopping the dynamic and needed formational base of Phase I, our pastors are now formulating a written plan to implement Phase II of Go Make Disciples in their parishes. This plan will be a practical and detailed effort to form the engaged and active parishioners in every community as missionary disciples.
Moving toward the next phase
The varying aspects of Phase II include the offer of catechetical and prayer experiences to the whole parish, seeking to inculcate the four holy habits mentioned above in the lives of our people, with particular focus on the children and youth.
We also want to call, equip, and send those parishioners who are already advanced in their spiritual practice and are ready to share the Gospel with others in a more focused way.
Just as Jesus sent out 72 disciples on mission, so too we hope to equip a number of people in each parish to reach out to those who are disconnected from the life of the Church.
Many parishes are utilizing some form of small group process to put Phase II into motion. When Catholics can gather in an intimate setting with like-minded believers to share faith, study the Scriptures, pray together, and learn the methodology of evangelization, the Holy Spirit stirs up their hearts to go witness the love of Jesus to others.
This process is slightly different than simply forming our people to be better Catholics, as important and essential as that is. This added missionary dimension is often the missing ingredient in our well-intentioned efforts to form Catholics for the work of the Gospel.
The Lord does not want us to simply enter a saving and abundant relationship with God; He also sends us out to make other disciples, to share our faith with others, to invite them in, to witness what Christ has done for us and what a life of faith truly looks like.
To equip missionary disciples requires both an intensive Catholic spiritual formation and a practical method of speaking to others with competence and confidence.
We want to build a band of missionary disciples in every parish who are on fire with the Holy Spirit, are steeped in prayer and Scripture, and are ready to engage others in the parish and their personal lives with the life-changing message of Jesus Christ.
I am currently meeting in 30-minute Zoom sessions with each pastor and the leaders of the parish team to discuss their plan for Phase II.
After 50 of these refreshing conversations, I am inspired, encouraged, and energized by what our priests and people have both already accomplished and are planning to do.
The energy, creativity, passion, and joy that I have witnessed in our leaders is truly a wonder to behold, and I give praise to God for this mighty work of the Holy Spirit.
We are united in the mission and objective of Go Make Disciples and richly varied in the local approach of implementation. Parishes will be creative, bold, and practical in their efforts to call, form, and send missionary disciples in their parishes.
My prayer is that this spiritual dynamism will simply expand and grow, as we experience a renewal of Pentecost in our diocese. I am grateful to God and our priests and lay leaders who have responded with enthusiasm and generosity to this impulse of the Holy Spirit!