Easter blitz
I've got just a few hours before I hit the road again, but I have a question for all of you who read Intentional Disciples. We know that many "Christmas and Easter" Catholics will be filling our churches in a few weeks. Rather than crack jokes about them, are your parishes doing anything to help not only welcome them, but reach out to them?
I can guarantee that your parish staff is probably not going to take the initiative on this one. Not because they don't care, but because they are immersed in liturgical preparations, working on Lenten projects to help you grow in your faith, and focusing a lot of attention on the people in the RCIA process.
If you or others in your parish are interested in the faith of the "C&E" Catholics, what might you do? Or, if your parish is doing something to intentionally reach out to these folks, what is it? Is it transferable to other parishes? Could people with the charisms of evangelism and hospitality work together to figure out some way of connecting with folks who are simply brushing the tassle of Jesus' cloak?
Labels: evangelism, evangelization
posted by Fr. Mike, O.P. @ 6:24 AM
8 Comments
8 Comments:
What a great question!
How hard could it be to plan a weekly discussion program based on the U.S. Catechism for Adults? That's pretty much what it's set up for.
On Easter, flood the church with flyers -- in bulletins, on tables or racks in the back; and include it in any announcements. "Bring a friend, or just your questions."
You'd probably need to be prepared for the people who will be looking for spiritual direction; in my case, preparation would be getting the priests' phone numbers and warning them that they might be getting some calls.
Or
As I mentioned in a post last week, what about scheduling a Easter season evangelization weekend retreat and market it creatively during Holy Week/Easter weekend to the ones with one foot in the door?
Of course, what would have a huge impact would be some kind of personal encounter - some kind of creative Easter celebration after Mass.
Restaurants make a fortune on Easter brunches. Could the Church not tap into that same demand, add some great Easter traditions from around the Catholic world, and make it into a community event/festival that combined celebration and evangelization?
Outside of Easter eggs, chocolates, and new clothes, we have no secular bash associated with Easter. There is not much "competition" and yet there is still a sense that the day is supposed to be special.
50% of Catholic adults in the US are single and may not have families to spend the day with and many C & E/lapsed Catholics might be open to it as well as the seeking unchurched.
As Fr. Mike pointed out, this couldn't involve the clergy/staff because they are completely consumed by the demands of Holy Week. So it would have to be a lay venture.
Link something like this to follow-up during the Easter/Pentecost season (retreats for the searching, small group studies/inquiry groups, and you could have something quite dynamic!
Great question Fr. Mike!
I work for ChristLife and we are teaming up with a parish in the Archdiocese of Baltimore to put on a six-week course following Easter called the Discovering Christ course
The course is evangelically-oriented and the theme is "finding Jesus again for the first time."
At Easter, the pastor will simply make a specific invitation to those who come - that are on the fringes of the Church - to join us for a dinner and a presentation on six consecutive Tuesdays starting mid-April. Further, we are also mobilizing people in and out of the parish - to actually evangelize and to invite fallen away/nominal Catholics to these events (and not just a bland invitation to a church event but in some way hopefully combined with actual evangelization).
The course will be precatechetical or kergymatic catechesis as the General Directory for Catechesis refers to it (#61). Though these Catholics are already "Catholic" - primary proclamation is needed - according to the National Directoyr for Catechesis, "In our age [primary proclamation or missionary preaching] may also be addressed to those who may have been baptized but have little or no awareness of their Baptism and who consequently live on the margins of Christian life." (#17c)
So the above course is what our parish will be doing in response to C&E Catholics and we plan to do this course as one of several pilot courses - before we produce the course and hopefully make it available as a model, or tool, to other parishes.
I feel like I ought to do something, since I myself was a Christmas & Easter Catholic.
Hi, Anonymous -
I hope you don't mind me asking, but what helped to bring you back (besides the grace of God!) In other words, how did God work through others to bring you back to the active practice of your faith?
Pete - where are the dinners / meetings held? At the Church? Someone's home? A restaurant? I'm guessing it's the parish...
It sounds like a potentially powerful process, particularly if you have hospitable practicing Catholics present as well.
Will there be a chance for people to express why they've not been practicing, and what's bringing them back?
I'm in an airport right now, but will be back in Tucson Wednesday afternoon.
fr. mike, this blog has an incredible amount of activity - I leave it for two days and there are like 15 nhew posts...
In response, the dinners are held at the parish - though I hope to run the same course (a young adult version) in a more secular location.
As far as "hospitable Catholics" go, the whole focus of our training day in a few weeks is to form lay leaders who have an "evangelical" mindset - and yes that includes being hospitable and a lot more. We think having a heart for those outside of the Church (reminds me of someone who came to "seek and save the lost") is essential and more important than just the course dynamics and pedagogy.
Your question about people having a chance to express "why they haven't been practicing" is a great idea - we had thought of some sort of evaluation - I think including something along these lines is important.
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