This Sunday’s celebration of Pentecost marks the second anniversary of the launching of Go Make Disciples, our diocesan effort to be renewed in the power of the Holy Spirit, to deepen the understanding and practice of our own Catholic faith, and to evangelize others with a joyous confidence.
These last several months, I have been attending nine vicariate meetings throughout the diocese, listening to every pastor and his evangelization team share their plans, efforts, and fruits of Go Make Disciples in all 102 parishes. I am both encouraged and energized by what is happening!
Since 2020, each pastor was asked to form an evangelization team, and to begin praying, sharing faith, and learning more about the faith, both with the team and with the parish staff.
This beginning action of leadership formation has set a firm foundation for every good thing to follow.
The majority of parishes which have embraced this first phase testify that it has been a game-changer, helping leadership to grow in their relationship with Jesus, their understanding of the Church, the fruitfulness of their ministry and apostolate, and their comfort in witnessing the Lord to others.
Phase II in action
The goal of Phase II of Go Make Disciples is to expand the circle of formation and prayer to the wider parish, focusing on those parishioners who are already engaged and want to lead and evangelize others into a deeper faith in Jesus Christ.
This second phase focuses on three dynamics: Cultivating the practice of the four holy habits of Sunday Mass, daily prayer, monthly Confession, and Friday penance in all of our people; expanding and deepening the opportunities for faith formation and prayer within the parish at large; calling, forming, and sending the “72 disciples.”
Not meant to be a literal number, the 72 represents those leaders in our parishes who are simply ready for a deeper experience of Jesus, the Scriptures, and prayer and are on fire to share the Gospel.
The 72 is all about cultivating that missionary dimension of our faith, not just to become better Catholics, but to be vibrant disciples who witness the faith to others with competence and confidence.
In hearing the feedback from our priests and lay leadership, everyone is working hard to do something in this second phase.
Utilizing small group faith dynamics from resources like Evangelical Catholic and Franciscan University; preaching and teaching on the four holy habits; reaching out to inactive members; increasing times for Confession, prayer, and Adoration; offering faith witness talks at the end of Mass; creating family-based formation programs, and adult sessions on the Catechism, Vatican II, prayer, and other topics are all examples of the energizing efforts parishes are making to live out Go Make Disciples.
Looking to the future
This spiritual process of formation and renewal for the sake of the mission of proclaiming the Gospel is slow and long; we are about the fundamental transformation of our ecclesial culture, from maintenance to mission, from simply doing the same things in the same way to creative and new approaches, from settling for the minimum to embracing the bracing potential of the maximum.
When I think of Go Make Disciples, I think more of where we want to be in five or 10 years rather than the next six months.
This long view keeps us from getting discouraged because we do not see immediate and dramatic results, and reminds us that proclaiming the Gospel and living the faith is not a two-year process, or a three-year project, but rather the work of a lifetime given over to discipleship in the Lord Jesus and the saving power of the Gospel.
The challenge of the long view is to stay motivated in the present moment, and not to become complacent or discouraged, as we look to the future.
I often go back to Pentecost in my thought and prayer, asking the Lord to send a fiery effusion of the Holy Spirit on me, our priests, deacons, consecrated persons, and lay leaders; our people; the whole Church; and the entire world.
Sometimes we make things in the Church too complicated, when in fact, the Great Commission which Christ entrusted to His followers right before His Ascension is astoundingly simple.
Go preach the Gospel to every creature, make disciples of all nations, and Baptize people in the name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit.
If we ourselves can steadily drink in the intoxicating fire of the Holy Spirit, fall more deeply in love with God, and find the confident voice to proclaim Jesus to others, and subsequently, those others go do the same, then Go Make Disciples will succeed beyond all expectation.
Every Pentecost, I realize anew that I do not pray enough to the Holy Spirit, daring to ask for the courage, zeal, charity, energy, and wisdom which the Lord wants to give all of us.
In moments of sadness, fatigue, stress, anxiety, and discouragement, call on the mighty Holy Spirit of God.
As we conclude our diocesan novena to the Holy Spirit, I encourage all of us to ask the Third Person of the Most Blessed Trinity to fill our diocese, as assuredly as the Upper Room was vibrating that Pentecost morning with the very life of God.