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Jeanne D. Schrempf, winner of the F. Sadlier Dinger Award in 2019, originally published this beautiful essay on our blog in 2015. We are reposting it to celebrate the 4th of July in 2024. I was moved by the morning newspapers on the Fourth of July that carried a full page replica of the Declaration … Read more

I  have always found it interesting how well we Catholics do Lent as a season. We certainly have a sense of the expansiveness and gravity of Lent…that it is a serious journey, a ponderous pilgrimage. And well we should, of course. This penitential season is so core to the process of Paschal Mystery that we … Read more

At the NCCL conference in Buffalo, Dr. Tim Hogan presented a keynote, Encountering Who? The Gift of the Cultural Hurricane:  How to build Bridges that Empower Parents and Transform Catholic Families.  A facilitated conversation with evangelization leaders followed asking the question, “What are the gifts in the cultural hurricane and how can we respond?”   The conversation … Read more

In the Church these days, we worry about evangelization. We design programs, we train our people, we read and write and talk about it, we pray about it, we form e-teams. But there are very small, simple but important changes we can make in our churches that can take away the obstacles that may have … Read more

What does the momentous visit of Pope Francis to the United States mean for the Church going forward?  How can parishes leverage this powerful pastoral visit into a furtherance of our common missional agenda to evangelize? Having followed his words and actions carefully, and also listening closely to some of the cultural reaction (religious and … Read more

This is a follow-up post to my broad reflection on Pope Francis’ trip to the United States.  The following is an email message I sent to catechetical leaders in our diocese, offering a strategy and a tactic for a narrow slice of parish life.  While the focus is on child and youth formation ministry, I … Read more

Beginning evangelization in a diocese or parish requires taking one little step at a time. I believe that the New Evangelization will truly occur when all the members of the Church come to understand that it is their mission to evangelize, not just the clergy or people who work in ministry for the parish/diocese. It … Read more

Christmas season presents us with new opportunities to bring “the Good News of Jesus into every human situation” (Go and Make Disciples, section. 10). Here are ten simple ways to evangelize during the holidays.

Pope Francis has a way of putting things.   Back in 2013, he called on his priests to be “shepherds living with the smell of sheep.” He said, “A church that limits itself to just carrying out administrative duties, caring for its tiny flock, is a church that in the long run will get sick. The … Read more

Evangelization has always been important for the Church, based on Jesus’ missionary mandate given to the disciples which is  found in Matthew 28:19-20: “Go, therefore,- and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all that I have … Read more

The New Evangelization encourages us to forego a one-size-fits-all approach to proclaiming the Good News of salvation from sin and death by the suffering, death and Resurrection of Jesus. We are encouraged to consider three separate but related audiences: the unchurched, the alienated (i.e. Catholics who aren’t practicing for one reason or another) and the … Read more

Isn’t the world ready for a little more joy? It has been a year since Pope Francis shared his vision for Christian discipleship in The Joy of the Gospel.  Wouldn’t it be great if this text continued to set the course for conversations about evangelization and catechesis throughout the year? A unique new website entitled “A … Read more

The Church exists to evangelize. I remember when, in 1975, Paul VI, in OnEvangelization in the Modern World, taught that “the task of evangelizing all people constitutes the essential mission of the Church” (par. 14), I was taken by surprise. I had never thought of myself as an evangelizer. I had thought of myself as a … Read more

We’ve all seen it. “Susie, will you read the first paragraph on page 45?” Next, the catechist asks questions. One or two students respond. The rest look bored. It’s the standard classroom-model lesson plan provided by most textbook publishers and it continues to be inadequate in communicating the living reality of faith.  Two things are … Read more

“Preach the Gospel at all times, if necessary use words.” Often attributed to St. Francis of Assisi, these words can be used to emphasize the importance of the silent witness, the implicit or wordless sharing of faith that Catholics can give to others by living Jesus’ love in everyday life. Church teaching affirms this aspect … Read more

Nothing characterizes the coming of the Kingdom of God more than healing. Jesus’ ministry builds upon a foundation of bringing healing to the sick, and, through exorcisms, peace to those afflicted in mind. Even John’s Gospel, which gives an entirely different approach to the story of Jesus, has the cure of the man-born-blind as one … Read more

This text was originally published on our blog on 09/08/2014. As a parish catechetical leader I am responsible for the formation of catechists. I used to focus primarily on methodology and classroom management because the catechists seemed to have the most questions in these areas.  Now, however, I have a different perspective. One of the … Read more

The extended family walks into church, with the beautiful baby, all dressed in christening finery. During Mass, the baby is welcomed, anointed, baptized and celebrated with applause – and the family basks in the glow of belonging to this faith community.   However, in too many instances, the newly baptized and their families seem to … Read more

One challenge faced by many evangelization teams is how do they invite those who are away from the faith to a program or process designed to reunite them with their Catholic faith? How do we reach those who are not in the pews? How do we inspire the parish community to personally invite those we … Read more

This article was originally published on our blog on 08/26/2014. One of my special treats this summer was being able to read “Jesus of Nazareth” by Gerhard Lohfink. The subtitle ambitiously reads: “What He Wanted; Who He was.” Lohfink confirms a direction which, from the beginning, has haunted our Catholic thinking about evangelization.  “On Evangelization … Read more

Have you ever tried home visitations as a way of reaching out to others? In this text originally published in August, 2014, Lorraine DeLuca shares her insights in this experience. In our diocese we have begun training Evangelization Teams in parishes using a combination of The Evangelizing Laity from the USCCB webinar series and The Evangelization Jump Start … Read more

The text below was originally published on our blog on 08/20/2014. Encounter. Where and how do we encounter God? Where and how do we offer that opportunity to others?  One parish leader began by asking for the email addresses of all the parents who registered their children for faith formation/religious education sessions. She explained that … Read more

This book review was originally published in our blog on August, 2014. You can acquire this excellent book on Amazon using the link below. Purchases help us keep the website running. Patrick Madrid’s book, Why Be Catholic is a heartfelt examination of why Madrid chooses to be Catholic, and why he believes there is no other faith … Read more

This text was originally published on our blog on 8/11/2014. Getting Your Ducks in a Row is about ordering of our priorities for success in our efforts at evangelization. Tackling this may not satisfy our urge “to do” but it will uncover a path for a parish to follow. The USCCB document Disciples Called to Witness addresses a … Read more