Holy Redeemer New Evangelization Retreat
Mission
To engage our parishioners in the process of becoming Intentional Disciples of Christ and in doing so foster their spiritual gifts and strengthen the faith life of our entire parish.”
- Target date: June 9 - 11 2017
Planning meetings
- January 7, 2017 6:00 at Rectory
- January 12, 2017 7:00 at Mary and Bobby's house
- January 22, 1:00 PM Maria Goretti room. 20 Weeks till Retreat
- Examen - Bob Wassmann
- Report on possible locations.
- Fr. Mark
- JPII Shrine - Not an appropriate venue
- JPII Seminary - may be good but not available till after construction completed in August.
- Mary - Washington Retreat House. Awaiting response from staff.
- Fr. Conrad - Franciscan Monastery - Availability TBD. General agreement that this would be an ideal venue.
- Paul - CUA. Chapel available for mass and Evening, Night prayer. Conference rooms and dorm rooms available details
- Discussion about cost - Parish can subsidize. There should be a nominal cost to the participants.
- Fr. Mark
- Discussion about adding additional people to the team. General agreement that more people is advisable. Fr. Mark and Fr. Conrad will extend invitations. Possibly Erin Dunn, Amanda Hamilton, Alan Bradford, Jim and Ginger Thompson
- Adopted project mission statement drafted by Tami and Jonathan
- Discussed content of the retreat
- Prayer - particularly using Lectio Divina
- Three key components
- Adoration and silence
- Witnessing to each other e.g. Emmaus Walk - pair up and walk with each other
- Pattern of the Kerygma, Our goodness fall into sin.
- In forming agenda think about "What, so what, now what?"
- Need to decide if retreat will be Friday evening and Saturday or Saturday and Sunday morning.
The Team
- Planning team
- Fr. Mark Smith
- Fr. Conrad Murphy
- Jonathan and Tami Collum
- Bob and Mary Wassamann
- Paul and Debbie Fontaine
- Possible Support Team (Prayer, Logistics, Child Care?)
- Beth and Kevin Berard
- Wendy and Eric Pavlet
- Rachel and Simon McNabb
- Hilliary and Eddie
- Erin Dunn
- Grace Hagherty
- Marie and Mike Winterson
Location
Possible Locations
- CUA - Paul will check this out
- Franciscan Monastery - Fr. Conrad
- JPII Fr. - Fr. Mark
- Washington Retreat House - Mary
Planning tasks
- Develop a goal and or statement of purpose for our retreat
- Bring list of Scripture passages
- List of who to invite.
- Develop process, script for delivering invitations and and related messages
- What is the spirit we want our parish to have? i.e the Fruits of Intentional Discipleship
- Concern for each other.
- Bring food to each other, Babysit for each other
- Taking care of each other
- Important to have a sense of who each other is. e.g. quit Asian lady in church.
- Being Jesus to each other - That comes from Jesus!
- Love in view of God
- Fire of God's love in our Parish
- Undercurrent of ownership (not necessarily good) regarding people holding on to their private niche
- Concern for each other.
- Name the grace each of us would like to receive in what we are doing.
- Witness talks - Sharing our personal stories
- Bobby would do a Bobby will do an Examine at the next meeting
- Mary on the "hand"
Content of the retreat
Scripture passages
- Matt 13:3-8 And he spoke to them at length in parables, 2 saying: "A sower went out to sow. And as he sowed, some seed fell on the path, and birds came and ate it up. Some fell on rocky ground, where it had little soil. It sprang up at once because the soil was not deep, and when the sun rose it was scorched, and it withered for lack of roots. Some seed fell among thorns, and the thorns grew up and choked it. But some seed fell on rich soil, and produced fruit, a hundred or sixty or thirtyfold. Whoever has ears ought to hear." The disciples approached him and said, "Why do you speak to them in parables?" He said to them in reply, "Because knowledge of the mysteries of the kingdom of heaven has been granted to you, but to them it has not been granted. To anyone who has, more will be given and he will grow rich; from anyone who has not, even what he has will be taken away. This is why I speak to them in parables, because they look but do not see and hear but do not listen or understand. Isaiah's prophecy is fulfilled in them, which says: 'You shall indeed hear but not understand you shall indeed look but never see. Gross is the heart of this people, they will hardly hear with their ears, they have closed their eyes, lest they see with their eyes and hear with their ears and understand with their heart and be converted, and I heal them.' "But blessed are your eyes, because they see, and your ears, because they hear. Amen, I say to you, many prophets and righteous people longed to see what you see but did not see it, and to hear what you hear but did not hear it. "Hear then the parable of the sower. The seed sown on the path is the one who hears the word of the kingdom without understanding it, and the evil one comes and steals away what was sown in his heart. The seed sown on rocky ground is the one who hears the word and receives it at once with joy. But he has no root and lasts only for a time. When some tribulation or persecution comes because of the word, he immediately falls away. The seed sown among thorns is the one who hears the word, but then worldly anxiety and the lure of riches choke the word and it bears no fruit. But the seed sown on rich soil is the one who hears the word and understands it, who indeed bears fruit and yields a hundred or sixty or thirtyfold."
- Luke 5:10-11 - Jesus said to Simon, "Do not be afraid; henceforth you will be catching men." And when they had brought their boats to land, they left everything and followed him.
- Ephesians 4:11-13 And his gifts were that some should be apostles, some prophets, some evangelists, some pastors and teachers, to equip the saints for the work of ministry, for building up the body of Christ, until we all attain to the unity of the faith and of the knowledge of the Son of God, to mature manhood, to the measure of the stature of the fulness of Christ.
- Luke 10 Mission of the 72
- Acts 2 The Coming of the Spirit
- John 15:4-5 The Vine and the Branches
- Ephesians 3:17-21 Commission to Preach God’s Plan
- Matthew 9:35-38 Compassion of Jesus
- Romans 1:16-17 God’s Power for Salvation
Quotes
- Earthly honors count for nothing, and money and wealth count even less and are extremely dangerous, but holiness and the effort to make others holy is the height of human happiness; this is of the greatest importance for our present life and the life to come. - Saint John XXIII
- Keep the light of christ always burning in your heart - for he alone is the Way to walk. He is the Life to live. He is the Love to Love. St. Teresa of Calcutta
Resources
- Forming Intentional Disciples: The Path to Knowing and Following Jesus Paperback Weddell
- We want to foster a spirit of welcoming. Part of this is being a parish where those attending mass look like they want to be there and that things happening outside of masses also show that this is a place where people can find not just a place to attend mass but a home and a purpose. Holy Redeemer already does more of this than many other parishes we’ve attending but you can never have it in too great of an abundance. We cannot anticipate all of the fruits that will come from this retreat. We look to the retreat goers and small groups to provide much of the direction for the places that need attention. As we’ve been reading through the book one of the pieces of information that caught our eye was the concern over Millennials leaving the Church. We’ve found from personal experience that while there are excellent college campus ministries across the country once students graduate and attempt to move into a regular parish the same kind of invitation to engagement that campus ministry offered is not presented. Alternatively as the books suggests many of these people find an open invitation to the community life in Protestant Evangelical churches. Personal invitation as we’ve already established is and will be the key to engagement of people transitioning into our parish. We have heard from the retreat group that perhaps this group is not recognizable or doesn’t stand out at mass, but we note all of those that we see when we go to mass on Sunday. We do very much doubt that many of them are enrolled as parishioners, not because they are transitory (any more than any working age person is in the Greater Washington Area) but because they haven’t been invited. Most people have to be asked 3 times before they participate in anything. As the book also shows folks don’t simply come back to the faith because of marriage or giving their children the sacraments. As people push back the timing of marriage it is often already too late for us to reach them and bring them into our parish in any great numbers. It may be a simple first step to merely extend an invitation through every weekend’s end of mass announcements for folks to go online to register. I noticed while on the website recently that it is now easy to find the online form via the scrolling banner. It might be worth finding another spot on the site for a prominent button should you happen to navigate away from the homepage without seeing the banner. Getting young adults enrolled in the parish will obviously be only the first step to engaging them more significantly in the life of the parish. We have tried in our own humble way to build a community within our community to meet the needs of this group but as we look to grow it in the future we cannot anticipate the needs that may arise or need to be addressed.