WISCONSIN DELLS — “It looks small because it starts small,” said Elizabeth Monaghan, describing the work she’s been doing since taking the position of Director of Apostolic Mission at St. Cecilia Parish in Wisconsin Dells.
She started her position there on August 1 and has spent the last several months forming lay leaders who will then go on to form their own small group apostolates.
“We are in the middle of our second cycle of training,” she said, clarifying that this formation process is “the most important stage at this moment.”
Training adult leaders
Utilizing resources from the Evangelical Catholic (EC), Monaghan facilitates 12-week training sessions and provides one-on-one support to adult Catholics interested in being a part of what EC has coined the Reach More movement. The first group of eight people completed their training just before Christmas and are now starting to grow their own small group apostolates.
But aside from utilizing resources from the Evangelical Catholic, Monaghan said her entire mission is really a part of the bishop’s Go Make Disciples mission.
“I was pretty much brought on board as a part of Go Make Disciples,” she explained.
She said she was blown away during her first interview with pastor Fr. Eric Sternberg when he explained the Go Make Disciples mission and how he envisioned implementing the vision into the parish.
Small groups done well
“Father has really been wanting small groups because he believes that is where this shift and this evangelization is going to happen,” said Monaghan. “He has really felt that way for a very long time, and I think Go Make Disciples is the prompt of having all the things in place.”
Monaghan said she is excited to be a part of this movement in the parish and in the diocese.
“I know how life-giving small groups are if they are done well,” she said.
She went on to describe her own story of falling in love with her faith while participating in her high school youth group. While in college, she began discerning a Religious vocation and ended up spending a year and a half with the Nashville Dominicans. Though she discerned out, she spoke of her Religious formation in the convent as “such a gift” that she had always wanted to share with others. She spent the next seven years teaching at a Catholic Montessori school in Napa, Calif., before learning about the director position.
Dream job
“I have always kind of gone between being a teacher which I have loved and wanting to share the gospel with young adults and adults of all ages,” she said, so when she saw the job posting on Catholicjobs.com she “thought it was a dream job that couldn’t possibly be real because it was doing everything that I really wanted to do — to really start a mission.”
The thing she loves about her job the most is “the people and relationships. The most exciting moments of this role are the one-on-ones.”
She spoke about what a privilege it is to be able to listen to people and to help them have the courage to share their stories.
“It’s going to be a very slow process,” she said. “I mean, it’s all about relationships, so it is going to take time for it to be a completely cultural shift and to expand.”
She said that St. Cecilia Parish already has a solid community. “I think what we need to do and what we’re doing now is that the community has to grow. It has to stop being just within itself. It has to expand. There is a lot of excitement there, and there is a lot of growth and stretching and courage that needs to happen, and that is where we are going to grow together.”