The Church, guided by the Holy Spirit, reminds us that the task of evangelization is inseparably tied to the quest for Christian unity.

Pope St. Paul VI tells us, "The division among Christians in a serious reality which impedes the very work of Christ." In light of this sober reality, St. John Paul II encourages all Christians, especially evangelizers to work and pray for unity, "How indeed can we proclaim the Gospel of reconciliation without at the same time being committed to working for reconciliation among all Christians?" (Ut Unum Sint, 98).

This week as a staff we are praying for unity using a prayer guide jointly developed by the Catholic Church and the World Council of churches. In my own personal prayer, I recently felt inspired to pray daily for the unity of Christ's body. Consider adding this intention to your prayer list. For more inspiration on this topic, read the opening articles in this month's Word Among Us devotional on pioneers of Christian unity. The first article on a French priest named Fr. Paul Couturier can be viewed online without a subscription.

Throughout the 29-year history of ChristLife, we have been blessed by the witness of many Christians of various backgrounds.

Their love for Jesus Christ has spurred us on and encouraged our mission to evangelize in so many ways. We have also been privileged to accompany many Christians in their journey towards full communion with the Catholic Church. They enrich the Catholic Church in so many ways! (My wife, Ally, being one of them).

May the Lord in his mercy continue to bring about reconciliation and full unity among all Christians.

A few years ago I had the opportunity to go to Mexico City. As I gazed on the tilma bearing the miraculous image of Our Lady hanging in the Basilica and walked the grounds, I was reminded that all of this happened because a simple farmer named Juan Diego was willing to share his story with others. 

When Our Lady appeared to Juan Diego, she gave him a message to carry to the bishop. Despite some hesitation, Juan Diego eventually went and shared the story of his encounter with Our Lady with the bishop. 

What was the result of St. Juan Diego sharing his story?

Within a few years of this apparition, millions came to be baptized in Mexico and throughout the Americas. A great wave of holiness swept through the continents – raising up saints and heroes of the faith in every country.

Our story, shared, like St. Juan Diego’s, has the power to change lives.

We may feel ill-equipped. When Our Lady appeared to Juan Diego, he hesitated, saying, "I am only a man of the fields, a poor creature." Don’t we feel the same way at times? Lord, I’m too shy or I’m too old or I don’t know my theology… 

Our Lady responded to Juan Diego’s hesitation with these words, "Understand that I have many servants and messengers who I could send to deliver my message and do my will. But it is absolutely necessary that you yourself go."

Brothers and sisters, this message is for you and me. Our Lady’s message echoes our Lord’s personal call to each one of us. He knows everything—our sins, our weaknesses, our failures. And still He wants to use you and me to spread His kingdom. 

Just as God used St. Juan Diego, He wants to use us to deliver His message. Today may we ask for the intercession of Mary, our Mother, for the grace to renew our commitment to being ambassadors for Christ. Amen.

My wife Marilu and I were invited to be part of a pilot ChristLife offering at our parish. I attended the training for the course and I was intrigued as I learned the Church’s teachings on evangelization. We eagerly attended Discovering and Following Christ with the intention of serving as leaders in the future.

I have had many moments in my life where God has allowed me to know Him, from studying in the Seminary following a call, to formal studies of Holy Scriptures and Christology. Throughout my life I have also participated in various parish movements. But participating in Christ Life stirred up something special in me and my marriage that I wasn’t expecting. One of the most important things we learned is committing to daily personal prayer. In the past we were used to other people’s prayers and reflections. During Following Christ, we committed to establishing a daily personal prayer time. Reading scripture in this way has a special new meaning for us. We read many of the same Bible passages we have always read, but now they are speaking to us personally and how they pertain to our lives right now. We also started keeping a diary of our reflections. For me personally this was a huge change in my prayer life.

This is the starting point for our daily walk with the Lord.

Now as a married couple, the most important thing is for us to know how to listen to the Lord speak to us every day. Listening daily to the Word of God, which is unique, incomparable, has no limits and is personal is the most important thing in our lives. This has helped our spiritual health because now we know the true Christ who wants to transform us by the gifts of the Holy Spirit. We also know that as soon as we decide to follow Jesus, Satan immediately comes to rob us of the peace only God gives us. But we are a testimony that the Sacrament of Reconciliation and the miracle of the Eucharist are graces given to us to strengthen our journey.

During my five years as director of vocations for the Archdiocese of New York, I met with many young men considering the priesthood. With each man I would ask the intentionally open ended question, “Why do you want to be a priest?” This would yield a variety of answers, but the one that has most stuck with me is the man who said,“Father, I just want to bring people to Jesus Christ.”

This young man’s response is at the heart of ChristLife.

I first encountered ChristLife through my friendship with Dianne Davis, currently ChristLife’s Director of Mission Expansion. As a seminarian I spent three summers at Dianne’s parish, St. Martin de Porres in Poughkeepsie, NY. Shortly after my ordination in May 2009, Dianne became involved with ChristLife. Through our conversations, she told me about the program and encouraged me to run it at my parish. I assembled a team, attended the training, and ran Discovering Christ.

In the first weekend promoting it, we maxed out the attendance. Roughly fifty people attended as participants and I know of more than one family which came back to the Church through their experience. I was transferred to another parish less than a year later, but the team in place continued running Following Christ and Sharing Christ.

In my next parish, I was involved with ChristLife being run at a neighboring church on a larger scale. Through giving talks and just being with the people it was remarkable to see hearts open to the Lord and lives literally transformed.

Now, as a pastor myself, I will be running ChristLife in my parishes. I have seen the results, I believe in the mission and am confident that through this more people will have that life changing encounter with Jesus of Nazareth.

Fr. Christopher Argano serves as Pastor of St. Mary’s in Washingtonville and St. Columba in Chester, NY.

Recently ChristLife’s program Discovering Christ was presented to the residents of the Little Sisters of the Poor home in Baltimore, MD. Discovering Christ had never been tried in a nursing home setting.

Due to the setting of the facility a few modifications needed to be made to fit the needs of the residents and the home. One of the modifications was instead of running it in the evening and providing a dinner, we decided to hold the sessions on a Saturday afternoon after lunch since they would already be eating together.

We were not sure how many residents would come, but we knew that the Holy Spirit would bring those who needed to be there. We were blessed to have 27 residents come. They came with their walkers and wheelchairs, and ranged in ages from ages 70 to nearly 100 years old. Even some of the sisters joined us.

Discovering Christ started out with songs that were projected on a big screen television, followed by prayer and the video teaching. We then broke up into four small groups to discuss the teachings.

This is where the Holy Spirit took charge.

The discussions were very open. One example was a resident in her 80’s, who described herself as a religious person. During one conversation, she started to cry. When asked, “Why?“, she responded, “I never knew why I was here, now I do.” She just praised God for this revelation in her life.

It goes to prove that you are never too old to be renewed in the Spirit.

Many residents shared that they were very uplifted and excited by the talk and the small group sharing. Several said that they had gone through Catholic schools and attend Mass, but were never touched as personally as they were with this program. Several said they feel they truly discovered Christ.

The news of what was done here and the results spread to other homes and they have asked that Discovering Christ be brought there. Plans are in the works to serve those homes.

We should not assume that the elderly and infirmed have it all together. They too can discover Christ and get to know Him better.

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Since the writing of this article, plans have been made to begin ChristLife at the Little Sisters of the Poor homes in Indianapolis and Washington DC. Tom and Mary Jane Famulari, residents at St. Martin’s Home in Baltimore, MD, introduced ChristLife to Little Sisters of the Poor in 2022.

Last summer, Fr. Santhosh George invited our family to bring ChristLife to his parish, St. Mark in Catonsville, MD. For a considerable part of our marriage, Peter and I ran ChristLife courses together. In the last few years, the demands of little ones have limited my involvement. But, amazingly, God had already been stirring in us a desire to run ChristLife together, so we said yes!

A team of wonderful people came together, people who were energized and drawn to the vision of growing in faith and community. After months of prayer and training, the Discovering Christ course was approaching. And then the setbacks started. In particular, an uptick of Covid cases forced us to get creative, changing the start date and cutting the dinner.

From the beginning, we desired to run a Discovering Christ for Kids, so families could come together, enjoy a meal and then participate simultaneously. But with the changes and increased safety measures, we wrestled about whether to have an offering for kids. After much prayer, Peter was convicted.

{image_1} I remember the shift, it happened at the dinner table one night, when Peter announced that we were doing this together and each of us had an important role to play. Instantly our kids went from passive to fully engaged.

After seeing the simple invite cards we made, Leyna, my 12-year-old said, “If we want kids to come, we need them to be more fun! With more color!” It was true!

One afternoon, the pastor and our family went door-to-door and invited all of St. Mark’s neighbors to come. I was hesitant to knock on doors, wanting to just leave the invite in the mailbox, but my kids boldly knocked and invited anyone they saw!

The kids not only helped with invites, but helped with setup, clean-up, kids activities, and greeting.

The course turned out to be a huge success. We had a packed parish center, with many more participants than expected. Our hospitality team made it feel so special with nice desserts and decor. God was faithful, many people had a personal encounter with Jesus or their faith became truly real to them.

And as for the kids, although it was a small group, we had several children come who were able to hear the gospel for the first time. One child said, “Jesus is a King!? Wow, I didn’t know that.” Many wanted to come back each week, and our own kids looked forward to Tuesday night with enthusiasm!

The relationships we’ve made and experiences we’ve shared through ChristLife have made our new parish feel like home. And doing it as a family allowed us to discover, follow, and share Jesus together!

Ally Ascosi is a ChristLife speaker and volunteer, and her husband Peter is Assistant Director of the ministry.

Before I met Jesus, I was an Atheist. I believed that humans just made up God to control society. My life was boring and routine. I had no sense of purpose in my life, and I went from day to day doing things that felt good, regardless of if it hurt others. I was restless and was searching for something that would truly make me happy.

One day when I was thirteen years old I was listening to a podcast, and the man speaking was a Christian. He argued that if a society of people is what determines good from evil, what if you were teleported to a world where Nazi Germany had won WW2. Would what their society said about what is Good and Evil be correct? Of course not. Something higher than humanity must determine what is right and wrong.

I looked into multiple religions and I found Christianity interesting in particular. The idea that we humans are broken and Jesus died that we may have eternal life resonated with my heart. I spent the years 2020 and 2021 reading books and watching videos on the internet about Christianity. I went to Mass for the first time and I was amazed at the sacredness of what I saw. The beauty that I saw there was what I had been searching for my entire life. I then joined RCIA and converted to the Catholic Faith. I was confirmed in February 2022, and it was the happiest time of my life.

Ever since then Jesus has blessed my life. My once restless heart is now satisfied by the God who loves me. I grew in friendship with many of my fellow Catholics and have a new loving and supportive church family at my parish.

A few weeks before my confirmation, I was attending Mass and afterwards a man gave an announcement that a series called Discovering Christ was starting at my parish. I felt a calling of the Holy Spirit to give ChristLife a chance. The week after my confirmation we had our first session, and it was fascinating. Many of the questions presented by Discovering Christ were important questions and ones I did not have centered in my mind. I began to discuss these questions with my friends and classmates; such as what is the meaning of life or why is Jesus so important, and I saw the seeds of evangelization being planted in them.

A few weeks after we finished Discovering Christ we started Following Christ. This series was amazing for my faith life. I learned how to forgive others who had wronged me, and my relationships with them improved. And most importantly I learned how to be a Spirit-Empowered disciple of the Lord and carry that out into my daily life. I saw great changes and opportunities in my life. A classmate had been cruel to me that year and I had fallen into the temptation to be cruel back. But the Holy Spirit called me to apologize to her for not living the Christian way of loving your enemy. This is how ChristLife helped me to be a better disciple of the Lord.

Colin Reitenmeyer is a sophomore in high school. He lives in Catonsville, MD and attends St. Mark Parish.

by: Isabella Schatz

Growing up, I was baptized Catholic and went to Sunday School every week. I never understood why I was waking up early on Sundays to go to a class that meant nothing to me. My family never attended Mass apart from Christmas and Easter and for the majority of my childhood, Catholicism was a pretty foregin concept to me. 

When I was 14, I was preparing for Confirmation and had the opportunity to go to Steubenville for my retreat. I remember feeling so out of place - like I had no idea what it meant to be Catholic. While I was at Steubenville, I got to experience Adoration for the first time in my life. The confusion I felt was very strong, however, once the Monstrance was in front of me, the confusion was gone. I fell to my knees in that moment, started crying, and knew - that was Jesus Christ. This was a huge turning point in my life.

I’ve been so blessed with the ability to go on multiple mission trips throughout the years but last summer I went to Mexico City both on a mission trip and to visit Our Lady of Guadalupe. One of the most amazing things I learned about Our Lady of Guadalupe is that, through the image alone and not just the Tilma, miracles have happened. This is important to know before hearing the rest of my story.

During this mission, our group stayed in a convent that had two floors. On the second floor there was a room with a long table and a full-size print of Our Lady of Guadalupe. There was one night in particular where myself and the other girls in my room were struggling. We decided to go to the chapel on the first floor around midnight to pray a rosary together. After we prayed, we decided to go upstairs to see the image. We walked into the room upstairs and sitting on top of the image was a stethoscope. The 5 of us circled around the table and prayed in thanksgiving for our faith.

One by one, each girl put the stethoscope on and listened for a heartbeat in Mary’s womb and one by one, no one heard anything. When I put the stethoscope on and placed it on Mary’s womb, I heard the faintest heartbeat. The sound became louder and it was so fast, much faster than my own heartbeat. I had everyone take their hands off the table and I looked under the table, but there was nothing. As soon as I realized I was hearing the heartbeat of Christ in Mary’s womb, I started sobbing. The joy that I imagine I would feel after hearing my own child’s heartbeat for the first time is the joy that overcame me. I passed the stethoscope to the next girl and each girl started to hear.

After returning home from this trip, things were different. Never have things gone back to “normal”. I am still only at the surface of my faith, but I am so excited to see what the Lord has planned for me and the people around me. I feel incredibly blessed to join this family at ChristLife and I am praying for the grace and strength to serve the Church and to do God’s will.

by Jennifer King

Last year, ChristLife began partnering with the Diocese of Pittsburgh in a focused way to help reignite the flames of evangelization and discipleship in their parishes. “As the Church calls us to a greater embrace of ‘synodality’, or oneness of heart and mind,” Bishop William Waltersheid shared, “the ChristLife process offers a practical and effective means of transforming communities into places of genuine welcome, rooted in the love of Jesus Christ and the fullness of our Catholic faith.”

This focused initiative involves hosting several events aimed at bringing together parish leaders in fellowship, prayer, and missionary disciple formation in service to the Church’s mission of evangelization. After connecting with parish leaders through a series of webinars and phone calls, ChristLife hosted a hybrid (in-person and virtual) Discovering Christ training event during the first weekend of December. It was inspiring to gather and pray face-to-face with co laborers in the vineyard and equip them to invite people in their communities to discover Christ.

Ed, one of the training attendees, shared, “The energy and passion for sharing the Word of God with others was genuine. I was inspired by your group truly living as disciples to share the Word of God. As I talked at my table and listened to everyone in our diocese going through their merger process, it struck me very clearly that, at least in my lifetime, never has the Church been more in need of the ‘flock’ and lay members to do their part as disciples.” Parish leaders left the training and began planning their next steps. Some parishes are offering Discovering Christ this Lent, others will be later this year, and still others are in the beginning stages of building their team. 

Our prayer for this partnership is “Revive us O Lord.” We ask the Lord to revive each leader, their parish communities, and ultimately, revive the face of the earth.

Learn more about this initiative at www.DioPitt.org/ChristLife

By Madre Jesussandra Rosa, S.C.R.

Our experience with ChristLife has been phenomenal. We provide a joyful and warm welcome to new participants as they arrive, especially to those who don’t know how to join the group. This is really important during Discovering Christ when participants may be intimidated by not knowing what the course is, since many times they were just invited by someone else. We have a support team very committed to communicating the hospitality message of the ChristLife series. I think that the people serving as instruments of Jesus at each table, either as facilitators or any other way, reflects the fraternity and fellowship that ultimately brings the miracle of effectively communicating Jesus' message. The fellowship allows us to share Jesus and let him do the rest because we are his instruments. The human component is very important because sometimes we tend to spiritualize more than humanize. Participants come searching for a human Jesus, searching for a welcoming Jesus. We are like sowers, preparing the soil so that the Lord can plant the seed and make it fruitful. 

When we started in 2016 we didn’t have any volunteers, people committed to the ministry. We only had a few people committed to the parish. As we continued providing the courses, by the second year those who had previously been participants were the ChristLife volunteers. They kept growing in their own experience and kept persevering as servers and support team. More than saying that ChristLife would take participants only to a personal encounter with Jesus to make disciples, I’d say ChristLife takes them even further and transforms them into disciples of action with a firm conviction to persevere and find their own place in the church. They find a place, a space and also find a way to grow in the apostolate of the church. At the end of ChristLife, we commission them and encourage them to commit to any apostolate of the parish. In that way we enrich the Church and they become the new leaders.

Madre Jesussandra Rosa is a Mother Superior of the Siervas de Cristo Resucitado religious community and serves at St. Anthony of Padua Parish in Bronx, NY. 

Translation by Carlos Castaneda.

Several years ago, I met with Father Andrew Carrozza, the former pastor of St. Ann’s in Yonkers, NY, about running ChristLife at his parish. I didn’t have to do much convincing because he already understood the importance of sharing the Kerygma as the basis of our faith. He had even mentally started forming a team. When we spoke, he shared that he was going to have some people from the youth group on the team as well. In particular he mentioned Freddy, a 15-year-old.

I tried telling him that ChristLife didn’t have much experience with people younger than 18 years old coming to ChristLife, let alone being part of the team. But Father Carrozza was adamant! He said this group of young people were mature beyond their years and ready. Plus, Freddy was popular among the teens. He believed if Freddy came, other teens would come to Discovering Christ, too.

Several months later, the course was a total success from the parish viewpoint. They had over 100 people attend, including the teens, and many people encountered the powerful love of God! Their parish was being transformed.

He says:

"The first time I took [the course] was unique because I was very young and in a place I never expected to be. I agreed to come in blindly and had no clue what to expect. But I was blown  away by every aspect of the program. From the community atmosphere that’s built amongst the participants and team, to the power of the teachings. I definitely felt as though my life was changed, and I committed my life to Jesus at that first retreat and have never looked back. The things I learned through this program pushed me to be better at all the things I was involved in; becoming the Grand Knight of my Knights of Columbus, the President of a non-profit organization, as well as personally, in school, at home with family and even in my dating life. I wouldn’t be where I am today without ChristLife."

Freddy is now 21 years old, a senior in college and already has an engineering job lined up after graduation.

He continues to serve as co-leader of St. Ann’s ChristLife team.

by Steve and Jen Schraml

When Steve and Jen started dating, it seemed they had everything in common: a similar family upbringing, the same taste in music, a love for travel, hiking, and they both attended church regularly. Steve was a cradle Catholic, still attending the same parish into which he was born, while Jen, who grew up Protestant, was a part of a non-denominational church plant when they met. Their faith practices, while both Christian, were very different.

On their fifth date, while drinking a beer at a local pub, Jen finally broached the subject of faith. She looked across the table at Steve and asked “Do you believe in Jesus?” Steve stared back blankly, his jaw dropping to the floor. As a Catholic, he was unfamiliar and even uncomfortable with talking about Jesus. That night jump started their conversation about faith. When Steve’s parish announced the ChristLife series, they decided to sign up. Through the ChristLife series, Jen explored what the Catholic faith was really about, while Steve developed a more personal relationship with Christ.

Jen: “ChristLife demonstrated to me that behind the traditions and liturgy, the foundation of the Catholic faith is first and foremost about having a personal relationship with our Savior, Jesus Christ. That is something with which I can identify! Steve and I have had so many challenging conversations about our faith, but we always return to our common ground in Jesus. I am so grateful to ChristLife for emphasizing that message, because it brought me and Steve together in our faith.”

Steve: “For as long as I can remember, I have gone to Mass weekly, prayed regularly, and
tried on and off to read the Bible. However, I always felt like something was missing from my faith life. I had heard of people having dramatic religious conversion experiences, but I didn’t think that applied to me since I was already a church ‘regular’. During the Discovering Christ retreat, I had an extraordinary experience of being filled with the Holy Spirit while the facilitators were praying over me. Since then, I feel alive in my faith and I look forward to sharing with others how knowing Jesus more personally has changed my life. ChristLife changed the direction of my relationship with Jen and brought us to where we are today.”

by Deacon Mike McKeown

Who is Jesus, and why does he matter? Why do we need a savior? Who is the Holy Spirit? Why is the Church important?

These crucial questions are the focus of the first of a three-part ChristLife program currently being held in the Shepherd of ouls Area Faith Community (Church of Our Lady in Manannah, St. John in Darwin, St. Philip in Litchfield, and the merged parish of St. Gertrude in Forest City.)

The ChristLife series was founded in 1995 and has since spread both at the national level and in many other countries. It is a program that leads participants through three essential steps: Discovering Christ, Following Christ, and Sharing Christ.

Each step in the process involves a seven-week experience (21 weeks total) that invites every person, baptized or unbaptized, to encounter the love of God the Father, enter into or renew a personal relationship with Jesus Christ, and be empowered by the Holy Spirit to live as God’s children.

The evangelization journey

In the winter of 2021, the Shepherd of Souls Area Faith Community’s Evangelization Committee members were searching for their next step in parish evangelization. They happened to read an article in The Prairie Catholic featuring the ChristLife series held at the Church of the Holy Trinity in Winsted, a parish that had successfully run the ChristLife program for the past eight years. 

Rick and Pat Kusler were among a small group of parishioners from the Shepherd of Souls AFC who decided to attend one of the sessions in Winsted and check it out. 

Pat recalls the impression that visit had on her. “It was very clear that the participants had a deeper connection with each other than we had experienced in the past,” she said. “You could tell it was coming from a deeper relationship with Jesus.”

Rick was also impressed by the visit. “This was a spiritual growth opportunity that we were excited to share with our AFC,” he added. 

In the summer of 2021, Shepherd of Souls AFC pastor Fr. Jeff Horejsi and a small group of parishioners did a test run of the program. Fr. Horejsi was impressed with the series and saw the benefit of offering it on a broader scale.

“After being involved with the ChristLife series, I could see that it would appeal to people all across the spectrum,” Fr. Horesji said, “whether they are new to their faith or have been heavily involved in every program for many years.”

After the initial test run, the series was offered to the entire AFC in the fall of 2021. The hope for good involvement was confirmed when 77 people signed up to participate. 

The group has completed the first part of the series, “Discovering Christ,” which was held from October to early December 2021. Each session in the series began with dinner and fellowship time, followed by worship, a video presentation, and small group discussion. There were seven weekly sessions and a daylong retreat after the fifth session. Currently, the Shepherd of Souls AFC is offering “Following Christ,” the second of three steps that began in January and will end in March. The third step, “Sharing Christ,” is scheduled to follow in the spring. 

Encouragement to pastors and parish leaders 

If pastors or parish leaders are looking for an effective way to engage their parishioners, Fr. Horejsi highly recommends the ChristLife series. “I was really struck by how often people mentioned that it helped build community and relationships with other parishioners,” said Fr. Horejsi. 

“This process really helps parishioners to grow in their faith and provides the tools and encouragement to share their faith with others,” he said.

Rick and Pat Kusler also offered their encouragement. “If you are interested in ChristLife, go and sit in on a session and experience it for yourself,” Pat recommended.

“When you see how lives are touched, and people are opening up, it is very encouraging,” Rick added.

This article was originally posted in Prairie Catholic in the January/February 2022 issue.

Why did you decide to bring ChristLife to your parish?

After a long search, we discovered that ChristLife introduced people to the person of Jesus within the community of His Church. The tipping point for us was how it presented the Scriptures, the Sacraments, and the Tradition of the Church as vital parts of our personal encounter with Jesus. Within that meaningful relationship, developing a Catholic Christian lifestyle is convincing, and our spiritual outreach to others is compelling.

The ongoing offering of ChristLife is transforming our core parishioners. They know their faith, love their faith, and live their faith in ways that attract others. ChristLife also appeals to prospective parishioners who sense we have something they long for, a life filled with meaning, purpose, and love. Jesus can truly deliver these blessings to those who embrace Him personally in the community of His Church.

As we present ChristLife for the third time, a spiritual difference is apparent in our liturgies, ministries, and daily lives. New people are showing up at Mass and at ChristLife. Something wonderful is happening. The Spirit seems to be working in our midst through ChristLife. Other parishes in our diocese are also catching the ChristLife spirit as part of a great spiritual reset of the Church in our day.

As a priest, how has ChristLife helped to broaden your understanding and practice of evangelization?

As a perpetual student, I usually promoted the ‘what’ and the ‘how’ of our faith. After taking ChristLife, I am focusing more on the ‘who’ and the ‘why’ of faith as the foundation for everything else. In my forty-fifth year of priesthood, ChristLife is like a new pair of glasses that highlights spiritual treasures which have been hiding in plain sight. The faith story I composed at ChristLife has also been a helpful tool in my evangelization efforts.

When I share my story about how Jesus is real to me, it motivates people to search for that unique part of themselves that can help them bond with Jesus. When I relate how Jesus makes a difference in how I understand my life and how I live my daily life not just as a priest, but as a Catholic Christian, people seem more inclined to explore what differences Jesus can make in their own personal lives as well.

As a pastor with many competing priorities, why is running ChristLife so important to you?

In my opinion, the “creative minority” church, predicted by Pope Benedict, is already here. The age of cultural religion is history, and the prospect of intentional faith is now upon us. Just like the Apostles who were engaged in the old evangelization, we are embarking on a new evangelization today. What does this Church of the future look like? For me, I think it looks a lot like the graduates of the ChristLife process today.

A ChristLife graduate is someone who wants to know Jesus better because they are already in a meaningful relationship with Him. They want to spend more time with Him in prayer, Scripture, and the Sacraments, because they know that is what Jesus likes. They so identify with Jesus, they want to share the Good News and help those in need, just like Jesus did. Thus, I regard ChristLife graduates as being the future of the Church right now.

Please join me in our parish ChristLife prayer: “Lord Jesus Christ, Son of God, have mercy on me a sinner. Fill me with your Spirit so that I may live a new life. Help me to know you, to love you, and to serve you in this world, so that I may be happy with you both now and for all eternity. Thank you, Lord! Amen.”

by Dave Nodar

Why are we afraid? I want to take a moment to speak to you about the fear that is so pervasive in our society: the fear of death, of losing control, of the future and what it holds, of persecution and martyrdom, and of COVID. This fear is all around us, all the time.

In my prayer time one morning, I remembered the words Jesus tells His disciples as the storm rages around their boat in Mark 4:40 “Why are you afraid, have you no faith?” In the middle of a raging storm, Jesus, as calm as can be, asks the disciples, “Why are you afraid?” Well, they had very good reason to be afraid!

It is worth noting that not everyone in the boat was a fisherman, and so they were less used to rough and stormy waters, and would’ve been really afraid. And those who were fishermen and more familiar with stormy seas knew that they were in trouble, and quite likely going to drown! All of these people had different reasons to be afraid.

Meanwhile Jesus is asleep! Jesus, in his union with the Father, is able to peacefully sleep even amidst the storm, the rocking boat, and the terrified yells of those around Him. When the disciples come to wake Him, instead of letting their fear infect Him, His own peace spreads out from Him—a peace that stills the wind and the sea.

Now let us take a look at the mission Jesus was on. At the beginning of this chapter, Jesus told His disciples, “Let us go to the other side.” Later we see that when they get to the other side, Jesus heals a possessed man (Mark 5:1-20). Now we see that this storm is the beginning of the enemy’s preemptive attack, trying to prevent Jesus from reaching the man to heal him.

One of the last things I will say is that we need to recognize that fear is a fiery dart that the enemy uses to distract us and sow distrust in our relationship with God. As Paul says in Ephesians 6, we need to take up the shield of faith. I have personally been praying for greater faith in the Lord’s faithfulness, even when I don’t know what’s going to happen. I encourage you to take a few minutes in prayer, identify your fears, recall who the Father is and who Jesus is, and renounce and repent of the mistrust you have. Then, ask the Lord to give you the grace to trust Him more, praying, “Jesus I believe, help my unbelief.”

In his book From Christendom to Apostolic Mission, Msgr. James Shea gives a brilliant analysis of the state of our culture and the Church’s mission of evangelization in our times. Echoing recent popes’ calls to a “new evangelization”, the author explains how our pastoral strategies will be woefully ineffective if we continue in a “Christendom” age mindset, when in truth we are in a new Apostolic age.

Msgr. Shea begins by defining Christendom culture as a culture which primarily views the world through the lens of the Church, even if not everyone is a perfect Christian. It is a world in which Christianity is the dominant mindset but most people do not critically evaluate this mindset, content to simply drift along in its current. He does not mean to say that this is a perfect culture by any means - most people in this sort of culture are only nominally Christian, not living as Christians, but so steeped in the worldview that they don’t even think to call themselves anything but Christian. Pastoral ministry in this culture is usually defined by a call to deeper faith and going deeper in relationship with God. 

If we do not recognize that the culture is changing, then the efforts of the Church to bring people closer to God will be ineffective and fruitless.

This acknowledgment that we have moved away from a Christendom culture is not a lament for the past, but a statement of how to best move forward as a Church. If we do not recognize that the culture is changing, then the efforts of the Church to bring people closer to God will be ineffective and fruitless. In order to bring as many people as possible into the love of the Lord, we must realize that our culture is shifting - and so too must our efforts at evangelization. Our efforts cannot stay the same while the world turns. 

Shea says that we are in a new age of the Church, an Apostolic age. He also says that this is an apostolic age unlike that experienced by the early Church, which is why the Popes have been calling for a “new” evangelization, not just evangelization. 

What is new about this? In the early years of the Church, the followers of Christ were preaching to people who had never known the love of Christ, people who had never been Christian or heard the name of Jesus. Today, we are called to bring the faith to a culture that was once Christian, but for years has been distancing itself from its Christian basis. We are called to rekindle the faith in people who already have their own ideas about Christianity, Jesus, and the Church. C.S. Lewis describes the difference between preaching to someone who doesn’t know Jesus and someone who used to be Christian as the difference “between a man wooing a young maiden and a man winning a cynical divorcee back to her previous marriage”(2-3). 

The situation would seem bleak, but they were filled with the Holy Spirit and knew that all they needed to do was trust in the Lord.

Msgr. Shea goes on to outline some advantages and disadvantages of both the Christendom and Apostolic ages, and then explains why he believes we are in the birth of a new Apostolic age of the Church. He says that we need to adjust our expectations to this new age by considering the Apostles after they had been filled with the Holy Spirit. The Lord had just commissioned them to spread the gospel to all nations, but if you took inventory of their resources, it seemed to be woefully inadequate. They had eleven bishops and no other clergy, no deacons, no trained theologians, no seminaries or seminarians, only a few hundred other believers, no Church buildings, no written Gospels yet, very little money, and the attitude of the society to the faith was ignorant at best, and hostile at worst. The situation would seem bleak, but they were filled with the Holy Spirit and knew that all they needed to do was trust in the Lord. “The Church in an apostolic time needs to have the same confidence in the power and goodness of the message she bears, in its life-changing potency, in the Church’s power of regeneration and growth” (37).

In the last section, he calls Christians to a fresh take on their view of the story of the Gospel, framing it not as a mundane history, but rather as the epic tale that it truly is. Often when we discuss the Church, people’s minds go to the human institutions that we see regularly, but Msgr. Shea calls us to recognize the invisible reality that is part of our Church. His description of the faith as an epic story helps us to recall the glory and beauty of our faith, and that “the greatest adventure stories ever written are only echoes of it, pale shadows of what the lowliest human is in truth undergoing” (70).

Overall Shea’s book is an insightful and moving resource for Catholic leaders to apply in advancing the Church’s mission in schools, parishes, and other institutions. While the book is both short and written in an accessible way, it is more for the intellectually inclined than your average layperson. Much of Shea’s solution, which is no surprise for a university president, lies in forming Catholics, especially clergy and ministry leaders, in a fully biblical and Catholic worldview. 

“In a particular way, those in positions of influence and authority need to be convinced that Christ is the answer to every human ill, the solution to every human problem, the only hope for a dying race. They need to be convinced of the bad news: that the human race has by its own rebellion brought a curse upon itself and has sold itself into slavery to the prince of darkness, and there is nothing we can do under our own power to save ourselves. At the same time, they need to be equally convinced of the Good News: that God in his mercy has come among us to set us free from our sins and from slavery to the devil, and for those who turn to their true allegiance, the nightmare of life apart from God can be transformed into a dawn of eternal hope” (37). 

Helping all Catholics to understand and personally respond to the kerygma that Shea shares so eloquently is a central theme of the book, especially for all of us involved in the ministry of ChristLife. The book affirms the urgent need to evangelize and would make for a great discussion guide for parish and ministry leaders concerned about evangelization. 

May all of us prove to be, in the final words of the book, “faithful stewards in our generation of the saving message and liberating life given us by Jesus Christ” (90).

Image Credit: Vasily Perov, First Christians in Kiev. 1880. Public domain.

by: Michael Dugan

As a child, I was baptized Catholic. However, when I was growing up, our family practiced our faith pretty minimally. We went to Catholic school, but I hadn’t encountered the Lord in my heart, and this was especially apparent to me at the end of middle school and the beginning of my high school years. Though I was still altar serving, doing well in religion class, and not getting into trouble, I still lacked that personal knowledge of the Lord’s love. After my sophomore year of high school, however, I ended up being volunteered by my mom to help the youth minister with a summer program at our parish. 

The youth minister required us to be present at 8 am for Mass and take part in the 1:30 Holy Hour - every Monday to Friday. I was pretty bored in adoration, to be honest. I didn’t know why I was there, and I didn’t really want to be there. One day, though, I looked around and saw the joy on the faces of the people around me - a joy that I did not have or understand. I wondered to myself, what was I missing? I like to say my faith was born out of jealousy.

So I spent the rest of the summer trying to enter into the times of prayer, and found myself looking forward to and being nourished by these moments. Luckily, the community I had at this summer program was largely the same community I had throughout the school year at youth group, and I was able to continue growing in faith with these friends.  

I attribute the beginning of my faith and prayer life to this youth group and the community I found there. Thanks to my initial conversion, I found a desire to help others experience the Lord as well. I studied theology and philosophy in college so that I could better understand my faith and pass it on, and then worked as a missionary with NET Ministries for three years. During my time with NET, I led 2 teams of missionaries, for one year each, in St Joseph, Michigan, and spent my third year in St Paul, Minnesota as a team supervisor. The time of training allowed me to grow deeper in my relationship with the Lord and get back to regular daily prayer, which is what fueled me to work as a missionary for that time. 

In St Joseph, my teams helped out with youth group events and ministered to the youth of the community by going into the Catholic and public schools for lunches, hosting events after school, and meeting them for coffee in town. I was blessed to be in the area for two years, and was able to grow some wonderful relationships with the people there - both the youth I worked with and their parents. When I was in St. Paul, I lived in household with six, sometimes seven, other men. My housemates called me on in prayer and service and were always there to help as we worked to grow the mission of NET. These men, along with the women we worked with, were a very tightly knit group. I was sad to leave them, but over the course of the year with them I had discerned a call to marriage with my now-fiancee and decided to move back to the east coast to be closer to her. 

Now, I find myself with ChristLife, and am very excited to continue serving the mission of the Church through my work with ChristLife. I am especially excited to continue working with young adults through my role with ChristLife Young Adults. 

{image_1}When Liz signed up for Discovering Christ, she didn’t know what to expect. Her parish, St. Martin de Porres in Poughkeepsie, NY, had annual faith formation requirements for parents of children in their Religious Education program. She signed up for Discovering Christ online, because it was the only offering that would work with her busy schedule as a mom of two young children. But what ended up happening over the weeks, is that she grew to know who Jesus is and why she needs Him.

Liz loved the small group discussion and her facilitator Rocco, who never pressured anyone to share and created a welcoming atmosphere. At the virtual Holy Spirit retreat, Liz committed her life to Jesus. She now yearns to grow her relationship with the Lord and does something she never did before... she carves out time every morning to read a devotion and have daily prayer time!

Elizabeth Guevara de Gonzalez, Archdiocese of New York’s Director of Adult Faith Formation, shared, “The Covid-19 pandemic affected us all, and many of us recognized the need for our faith more than ever before. Thanks to the generous hearts of our ChristLife leaders within the Archdiocese, we were able to offer ChristLife online starting this past Lent. With close to 300 participants, we are very hopeful for the fruit that the Holy Spirit will bring.”

{image_2}In Birmingham, AL, Jose and Isabel attended Discovering Christ as part of their Lenten journey. They both always considered themselves spiritual, but experienced different levels of ‘ups and downs’ over the last year since Isabel’s retirement. But Discovering Christ changed that.

They shared, “Discovering Christ had a deep impact in our spiritual life, especially because it helped us understand how, without the Holy Spirit working in our life, we could never find true happiness and experience a profound relationship with the Lord. It showed us that there is no greater love than the unconditional love Christ has for us, but most importantly, the responsibility we have as Christians, to live our lives for and in Christ.”

Liz, Jose, and Isabel experienced Discovering Christ because of ChristLife partnerships with the Archdiocese of New York and the Diocese of Birmingham. ChristLife trained dozens of teams to offer the ChristLife evangelization process beginning Lent 2021. In New York, over 30 small groups were coordinated and set up. In Birmingham, there were over 50 small groups, some of which were able to meet in person! Together let’s rejoice in the hundreds of lives that were changed and pray they would continue to grow as missionary disciples!

It is hard being an evangelizer in today’s post-Christian world. There are many reasons people have left God behind in pursuit of… what? Our call is to share the Gospel with everyone, and to help our sisters and brothers encounter Jesus in a deeply personal way, one that is life changing.

“Being Christian is not the result of an ethical choice or a lofty idea, but the encounter with an event, a person, which gives life a new horizon and a decisive direction,” wrote Pope Benedict XVI in the Encyclical “Deus Caritas Est.” This quote carries so much weight — it is not an idea — it is an encounter.

Sharing the Gospel means talking about Jesus. Easier said than done, but it is literally our vocation regardless of our occupation.

Here are three parishes that reject the idea that evangelizing is too hard. They are bringing God to the people in a singular way, helping one another on this journey — a great example of parish collaboration and sharing.

Jim Scheiner of Holy Eucharist has been part of his parish initiative, inviting people to relationship with Christ through multiple iterations. A staunch advocate of the fruit it bears for participants, he is a wealth of knowledge. He belongs to the parish ChristLife team, and is point leader for the group who attended the Convocation of Catholic Leaders: The Joy of the Gospel in South Jersey in 2019.

“This process helped us prepare for the Convocation and the parish plan we created because we were centered on Christ,” Jim said. People’s lives are changed and new ministries have started. His own personal fruit are the friends he has made and belonging to a growing Christian community.

The ChristLife process has three phases for those on the journey: Discovering Christ, Following Christ and Sharing Christ.

Kathy Correa, a participant at Holy Eucharist, shared her experience. “I realized I was no longer alone and that God loved me. It gave me a family here (in New Jersey) that I did not have. I was in a group of girls that opened their lives to me, and they are now my friends.”

Since the Convocation, and because of Jim’s endorsement, the other two parishes decided to move forward and began in the fall of 2019. Jim was the mentor.

Donna LaMonica, the point leader of the Convocation team at Our Lady of Peace, knew people needed to get involved in their faith more. There are people that come to church every weekend, but they do not know Jesus, she said.

The pandemic did not make it any easier to help them encounter him, but technology helped them continue. “People are surprised to find Jesus as a close friend after this experience,” she said.

Father Cadmus Mazzarella, pastor at Our Lady of Peace, said rolling out ChristLife is directly related to the Convocation. He has been pastor for many years, and he said this is one of the best things the parish has ever done.

“It created personal connectedness for people. … It gave us seeds for planting, cultivating and harvesting.”

He encourages this discipleship process to his brother priests who are seeking new ways to engage their communities in developing a deeper relationship with Jesus.

Donna said she “made a deal with the Holy Spirit” in whom she has great trust. “I knew if Father Mazz was supportive, and the hall was available for every date needed for nearly a year, it was meant to be.”

At Christ the Redeemer, Laurie Power, director of evangelization and discipleship, said the parish was seeking a way forward to give people a chance for faith sharing. It was also a way of invitation for those away from the church. The focus was on parishioners first before a larger invitation.

Laurie and others visited Holy Eucharist. “We were very impressed with the team, and they are invested in what they are doing,” so the team in Atco moved forward to plan. 

Joe Bednar, another Convocation attendee, Grand Knight of Council 7463 and member of the planning team believes ChristLife can help bring Catholics back to the church.  Each step in the process is about knowing Christ. “As you go through it, it opens up your mind, your heart and your faith.”

Andrea Rybacki, a recent college graduate and participant, shared she was not thinking about her faith very much. Her mom invited her.

“Christ is at the center of my life now. I am not on my own,” she said.

Her advice to anyone who is invited — be open-minded and give yourself a chance to shift from self-reliance to reliance on God.

Another participant at Our Lady of Peace, Tricia Stefanelli, captures the experience in its essence. “Community is a huge part of what I was looking for. We all look for it, a place to belong, to be open and to faith journey. I met amazing people I would never have met without this experience,” she said.

My boyfriend decided he wanted to return to his Catholic faith, which led me back to the Catholic Church. Shortly after the sudden and unexpected death of my father, my brother invited my mom, my boyfriend, and me on a silent retreat—to go to confession, learn about prayer, and all of that good stuff. After this retreat, we started going to church more regularly.

About a year later, on my birthday, our Church launched ChristLife and I decided to go. If you would’ve told me a year before that I’d be spending my birthday at a Catholic Church, I would have laughed at you. I would have said, “No way, that’s so not me.” But there I was on October 21, 2019, meeting new people and starting this ChristLife journey.

I attended the retreat and offered the recommitment prayer to Jesus. After the retreat, things started really moving and God started really speaking to me with very clear messages. The retreat for Following Christ was great. And then Sharing Christ came when the pandemic hit and we had to turn our meetings on to Zoom.

Towards the end of Sharing Christ, I got a nudge from Christ that said:

Come June 2020, I posted on Facebook inviting friends to join me on Zoom for Discovering Christ. I messaged some friends that I hadn’t been in touch with or in contact with in a long time and I found about six ladies who were interested. They were in their 30, 40s, 50s, 60s—different age groups, different backgrounds, and from different areas of Maryland. If it weren’t for the pandemic and doing ChristLife on Zoom, I don’t think this group of women would have ever come together.

We went through all three courses: Discovering Christ, Following Christ, and Sharing Christ. We had our own retreats in-person and my ChristLife leaders joined us for prayer. We even made a video of our cardboard testimonies!

In December, my boyfriend proposed. God brought us closer through ChristLife and our return to the Catholic faith. I’m thankful to my fiancé for leading me back to my faith and my brother, who will walk me down the aisle, for inviting us on that initial retreat. All these pieces led me to this place I’m meant to be for such a time as now!

I’m really excited about what God has done in my life through ChristLife. He’s given me the tools to be more open, have relationships with people, and how to be an evangelist in the truest sense. I thank ChristLife for that.

In January 2020 I attended the FOCUS’ SLS20 conference in Phoenix. One evening I was at dinner with our friend Bob Flanigan who introduced me to the Sister Servants of the Eternal Word from Alabama. I sat next to Sister Mary Philomena and we felt an immediate connection. But neither of us knew this time together would lead to a beautiful collaboration of our ministries.

A few months later in April, ChristLife partnered with the Archdiocese of New York to host the first virtual ChristLife series. Joining our three Discovering Christ small groups were Sister Mary Philomena, Sister Rita Marie and Sister Clare Marie. During the next few months, the Sisters experienced the kerygma in a new way, along with people from all over NY, NJ, AL, TN, CO who were part of their small groups. They even invited their friend, from Lourdes, France who was lonely and isolated during lockdowns, to join us. Sister Rita Marie shared with me how encouraging it was to hear stories of faith from the other participants:

"It put to the forefront of my mind my own journey with the Lord, both in the past and the present."

The Sisters were so encouraged by the authenticity of the ChristLife teachings and the fruits they witnessed, they asked their Mother Superior, Mother Louise Marie, if they could begin evangelizing with ChristLife at their Casa Maria Retreat House. She gave a wholehearted yes! So they began hosting virtual groups and invited their own family members, some of the hardest people to evangelize. But they quickly began to love the teachings and small group discussions and the ChristLife sessions became their favorite night of the week. One family member shared her testimony with Sister Philomena:

"I just wanted to share that since Monday evening when, through your guidance, I repeated the most beautiful Prayer of Commitment to Jesus, my heart has been filled with a Joy and Peace completely new to me. Hearing Sister Rita Marie, Sister Clare Marie and you pray out loud for me was amazing, a true gift from Heaven."

The sessions were such a success that they have been running the ChristLife series continuously since last Fall. Right now they have two groups, plus they are helping a local parish run two additional groups. Sister Rita Marie, who runs catechetical groups, firmly believes we need to evangelize before we can catechize:

"If we don’t have a personal relationship with the Lord and fall in love with Him, then catechesis becomes just head knowledge and it doesn’t have the right impact on your life."

I asked them if they noticed any difference in themselves after coming through the ChristLife series and running it multiple times with various family members, friends, and parishioners. Sister Rita Marie quickly spoke up about Sister Philomena: "Yes, she’s changed. She used to be timid, but now she’s become confident and empowered by the Lord to do the work of evangelization and making missionary disciples."

They both shared with me how they used to go into town and people would ask for prayer, they would say yes and pray later on. But after participating in and leading Following and Sharing Christ, they felt encouraged and equipped to pray anytime and anywhere. So now when they are asked for prayer, they pray right on the spot!

Just as the Lord met his disciples on the road to Emmaus, the Lord wants to meet you today. He wants to meet you in your sadness and in your joy, in your troubles and in your triumphs.

Where might your hope might be deferred? The Lord wants to meet you there.

May the power of Jesus' resurrection fill you with hope this Easter season!

I had a happy childhood, grew up in a nice neighborhood with good schools. My parents being a product of the 1930s (great Depression), there were two lessons stressed in our house:

Self-sufficiency.
Save your money.

From eight years old I always had a job and I saved every penny. I paid for my college education through jobs and playing college football. Graduated Cum Laude with a BS in Computer Science.

Fell in love during my thirties with Linda my wife of 25 years. We had four kids within seven years. With a young family of six I turned up the pressure by starting my own software business. I was burning the candle from both ends: running a business, raising four kids …. drinking in the bars after a night of competitive volleyball with the boys. By the world’s standards I was successful, in my mind I was self-made. I would go to church most weeks if I had the Sunday morning available, and I “gave” God one hour of my time.

It caught up to me in my early forties when at 41 I had a heart attack. They put a stent in my right coronary artery and a few days later I went back to work. I had employees to oversee, I had the kid’s sports games to coach. I thought nothing had changed; but things had changed after my heart attack, there was a feeling of emptiness, of unhappiness. I did not realize it at the time, but after my heart attack I developed depression. I fought this depression for more than a decade. I looked at this disease as a chink in my armor. It was something I would handle on my own. I struggled internally.

From the outside at 50 you would have thought all was good. 

Kids were in college or high school and doing well. Business had thrived and the money was coming in. The problem was this depression was winning. I knew I needed change, yet I wasn't ready to look externally for help.

I started making radical changes myself.
I sold my business.
I retired at 51.
I started buying things: houses, boats, stuff.

Nothing helped, in fact these radical changes made it worse. Until one night I was down at our new shore house waiting on new appliances to be delivered the next morning. Spoiler alert: new appliances will not fix depression! I spent that night alone in my room in a fetal position, crying. I did not know where to turn. Morning came and there was a knock at the door, young men carrying heavy appliances. I must have looked like a mess with no sleep and red eyes.

The boys or rather young men installed the appliances and I tipped them. One of the young men looked me in the eyes and he winked! He said to me “God Bless you” and he turned and walked out the door.

The wink touched me and for the first time I was open to looking to God for help.

A few days later, I went to Sunday morning mass, 9:45 and I sat in my normal pew. The mass was a bit different. A parishioner got up and spent a few minutes describing this new program they would be offering for the first time; it was called Discovering Christ and it would be starting this Thursday night. I thought what a coincidence.

I walked into this program with little knowledge of Jesus.  I came from a public-school education and life until this point was about what I could accomplish. 

This course started me down a path that has changed my life in every way. 

A path that brought me to the greatest blessing in my life: a personal relationship with our Lord Jesus Christ. This relationship has given me peace and has deepened my relationships with my wife and my kids. My life has changed from one of self-reliance to Christian community; from what can I accomplish to asking God to use me and bless me each day.

At the beginning of 2020, their plan was set. The parish would offer Following Christ in March 2020, shortly after the end of their Discovering Christ course. But three weeks before their start date, COVID-19 restrictions shut down all in-person activities throughout Pennsylvania.

What seemed like unsurmountable limitations were embraced as an opportunity to rely on God. While it was unknown at the time what ChristLife online might look like, they prayerfully discerned and decided to forge ahead.

"The need to gather together greatly overrode any of our concerns about the limitations of technology. We thought better to do something even if it wasn’t perfect than not do anything at all, especially with people feeling so isolated."

After training both team members and course participants in using new technology, Following Christ began. The first three weeks went extremely well. Discussions were fruitful and the leaders were pleased.

Session 4 begins a series of prayer experiences. There was major concern regarding how they would be received. The fruit was exceptional. Many leaders thought they were the most powerful times of prayer ever. The participants were exceedingly blessed.

"Even when we feel we are limited as to what we can do, we should not extend those limits to the power of the Holy Spirit."

Since 2017, they have witnessed transformation in the lives of those who attend the ChristLife sessions:

- People are more faithful in prayer.

- Spiritual habits are initiated and grown in people’s lives—Scripture reading, reception of the Sacraments, and service.

- People are praying for one another right then and there, instead of simply saying they will pray.

- Many participants became team members for the next series.

"Lives are changed because of ChristLife. That’s more than just a slogan. I see it first hand."

"Rejoice, full of grace, the Lord is with you!" (Luke 1:26ff)

Extraordinarily, the angel’s greeting was not the traditional Hebrew greeting, “Shalom aleichem, Peace be with you.” Rather, the angel used the Greek greeting, “Chaíre! Rejoice!” The word chaíre literally means rejoice!

With this greeting, the announcement of the angel begins the Good News of Jesus Messiah, the Son of God! The Good News that Jesus the Christ brings is that salvation is available for everyone, all peoples, all nations. Christ Jesus came so all who believe in him and receive him will not perish, but have eternal life! Everyone! You and me and everyone we know can receive this good news.

When we turn to Jesus, we receive forgiveness of sins, the love of God the Father, the power of the Holy Spirit to change our lives, and a place among God’s people!

This is the most wonderful news ever offered to humanity.

Like Mary, we rejoice and are filled with his Spirit for the Lord Jesus is with us. While Mary is distinct from us as the Virgin Mother of God, in Christ our Lord we also receive the word of God with rejoicing. We too can be filled with his grace, his Holy Spirit. Oh, how marvelous is the Good News of Jesus. We thank and praise you, Lord God.

During my late teenage years and early twenties I wanted little to do with God and the Church even though I was raised in a very faithful Catholic family. I would still attend Sunday Mass, but that was the extent of my religious commitment.

Things began to change, however, during my senior year of college. And it all began with personal invitations from friends to a variety of faith-based activities: retreats, service projects, Mass, and a young adult prayer group. While the Holy Spirit was certainly preparing my heart, these young Catholics played their part, overcame their own hesitancy and reached out to me. These invitations were the seeds of a dramatic conversion that changed my life. 

My namesake, St. Peter experienced his own dramatic conversion only after his brother, St. Andrew, invited him to meet Jesus personally. 

Having met Jesus and hearing that he was the Messiah, St. Andrew couldn’t keep this news to himself, but he stepped out and invited his brother to meet this new Rabbi. Little did Peter know that his brother’s personal invitation would change the trajectory of his life!

Another moving example of this type of friendship evangelization is the conversion story of Dr. Gloria Sampson which was aired several years ago on EWTN. The pivotal step in her return to the Catholic Church was her neighbor’s personal invitation to Discovering Christ. After 52 years she returned to the sacraments and now wants to share the good news of Jesus Christ with others!

Gloria’s neighbor, my college friends, and St. Andrew all had one thing in common: a desire to share what they had received. 

While many know St. Andrew as the patron saint of Scotland (among a list of things), I’d like to propose one more title: the patron saint of friendship evangelization. Had it not been for my friends, I don’t know where I’d be today (certainly not in full-time ministry for ChristLife!). His example shows us that even taking small steps, like simply extending a personal invitation to just one person, can make a world of difference.  

Blog header image: the actors who play Simon and Andrew in The Chosen

One of my favorite stories about the power of God’s Word comes from the life of St. Augustine, one of the greatest of the early Fathers of the Church.

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You’re probably familiar with the basic story of Augustine’s life. He was a brilliant young man who restlessly searched for love and truth as he made a name for himself as a teacher and writer in the Roman Empire. His mother, Monica, was a fervent Christian, but he resisted her attempts to bring him to faith in Christ. For years he carried on a personal and intellectual struggle. Finally, Augustine became convinced of the truth of the gospel. He knew that he should accept baptism and become a Christian, but he hesitated at the brink of conversion, embroiled in a spiritual struggle with the sins he knew he had to leave behind:

I was held back by mere trifles, the most paltry inanities, all my old attachments. They plucked at my garment of flesh and whispered, “Are you going to dismiss us? From this moment we shall never be with you again, for ever and ever. From this moment you will never again be allowed to do this thing or that, for evermore.”                

They no longer barred my way, blatantly contradictory, but their mutterings seemed to reach me from behind, as though they were stealthily plucking at my back, trying to make me turn my head when I wanted to go forward. Yet, in my state of indecision, they kept me from tearing myself away, from shaking myself free of them and leaping across the barrier to the other side, where you were calling me. Habit was too strong for me when it asked, “Do you think you can live without these things?” (Confessions VIII, 11)

In spiritual agony, Augustine cried out to the Lord. How long? How long is it to be? He describes what happened next:

As I was saying this and weeping in the bitter agony of my heart, suddenly I heard a voice from a nearby house chanting as if it might be a boy or a girl ... saying and repeating over and over again, “Pick up and read, pick up and read.” At once my countenance changed, and I began to think intently whether there might be some sort of children’s game in which such a chant was used. But I could not remember having heard of one.... I interpreted it solely as a divine command to open the book [a copy of the letters of St. Paul] and read the first chapter I might find. (Confessions VIII, 12)

His eyes landed on a passage from Romans:

Let us conduct ourselves becomingly as in the day, not in reveling and drunkenness, not in debauchery and licentiousness, not in quarreling and jealousy. But put on the Lord Jesus Christ, and make no provision for the flesh, to gratify its desires. (Rom 13: 13–14)

The passage told Augustine something that he had known for some time—that he needed to leave the old life behind and accept the new life of Christ in baptism. But now the conviction moved from his head to his heart. In a flash, he received the power he needed to act on what he knew to be true. Augustine was soon baptized and became a Christian. Where did Augustine find the power to overcome the fears and doubts that had plagued him for so long? Not from himself. The power came from the Word of God in Scripture.

Here we discover one of the most important differences between God’s Word and mere human words: God’s Word contains in itself the power to accomplish the very things it declares. Unlike the latest self-help book, which may have good advice for my life but leaves me to do the work, God’s Word is able to make happen exactly what it proclaims. This opens up for us a whole new way of reading Scripture — a way in which we expect God’s Word to accomplish in us the very thing we are reading!

If you attended a ChristLife training conference in the last 10 years, you may remember him speaking at a keynote session or giving a stirring homily. He would often give the talk "A New Pentecost for a New Evangelization," urging all to make themselves wide open to the gift of the Holy Spirit—igniting a new passion for the Lord in all of us.

His unforgettable smile, his warmth, and sincere love for the Lord touched the hearts of many. Always a passionate preacher, he served as a ChristLife Board member and conference trainer for many years. Eager to be directly involved in evangelization himself, he was a practitioner of the ChristLife courses over the last ten years—first at St. Joseph’s and then at St. Helen’s. Through these courses, he helped evangelize many people, with both life-long Catholics and other spiritual seekers embracing a personal relationship with Jesus Christ as members of the Catholic Church.

In the times we are living in, we are thrilled that God has raised up a faithful shepherd and evangelist like Bishop Saporito to lead the Church.

In light of his ordination as auxiliary bishop we are excited to share with you a powerful conference talk he gave several years ago called "How Tuesday Evenings Changed My Parish."

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Click here to listen

By: Fr. Erik Arnold

We often share about the love God has for each person, but we rarely present them with an opportunity to make a response to that proclamation. One of the things that needs to be changed in the life of our parishes is giving men and women the opportunity to not just hear, but respond to the Good News. In Discovering Christ, there's a powerful spiritual dynamic at work. We not only announce the good news of God's love, but give people a chance to respond from their heart.

During these months of lockdown and stay-at-home orders, many people have live streamed Mass and prayed along at home. When it came time for communion, you likely prayed an Act of Spiritual Communion. You might feel this prayer is a placeholder, something to “fill in the gap” until you’re able to receive the Eucharist. Or maybe you think the Church gave us this prayer as “the next best thing.”

But, there is something really powerful happening. In the Act of Spiritual Communion, you pray and proclaim:

My Jesus, I believe that You are present in the Most Holy Sacrament.
I love You above all things, and I desire to receive You into my soul.

Notice the intentionality. You’re making an act of the will. I don't want you to miss the spiritual power in that.

This is the same spiritual power at work during the Discovering Christ retreat. People have the opportunity to say, "Lord, this is what I want. I want to turn to You and make a response to Your love.”

This personal response unleashes spiritual power.

When it comes time to receive Holy Communion at Mass, too many Catholics simply go through the motions. We are all guilty of this at one time or another. We get out of the pew, come forward, say amen, and receive Jesus. How many times have we each done this without any awareness of what is truly happening? 

Let’s bring the spiritual power of our personal response to receiving the Holy Eucharist.

After months of making an act of the will through the Act of Spiritual Communion, we have an opportunity to bring together the spiritual power of that prayer with the actual grace of receiving Jesus sacramentally. 

If you’re among those people still unable to go to Mass and feeling frustrated as you continue praying the Act of Spiritual Communion—see the spiritual power in that prayer.

When you are able to return to Mass, keep the Act of Spiritual Communion alive in your heart. As you come forward to receive Jesus sacramentally, make the decision in your heart to continue praying, "Lord, I want You to come and dwell within my heart."

My prayer is that one of the blessings we’ll see from these days of stay-at-home orders, is a spiritual power in the moment we're able to receive Jesus physically in the Sacrament because of the graces we’ve received from regularly making an Act of Spiritual Communion. May we be deliberate about welcoming the Lord into our hearts in the Sacrament of Holy Communion, His Body and Blood, in a more powerful way than ever—not just going through the motions, but making a personal response to welcome Jesus into our hearts.