Go Out and Make Disciples:

Transcription

1 Go Out and Make Disciples: A Framework for Pastoral Action Discipleship Evangelization Charity Diocese of Joliet

2 The pastoral charge seems simple. Care for people in need. Embrace the lost and drifting. Encourage immigrant Catholics. Inspire young adults. Advocate for the voiceless. Cultivate lay discipleship. Proclaim the sacraments. What can you as a faithful Catholic do as a response to these entreaties? Just take a first step, whether it s within your family, as an individual in your neighborhood, or as part of a ministry team in your parish. Take a first step and keep going The Diocesan Pastoral Planning Committee

3 Table of Contents Prayer for the Gifts of the Holy Spirit Page 4 The Three Pillars and Pastoral Areas of Focus Page 5 What Is a Framework for Pastoral Action? Page 6 Diocesan Mission Statement Page 7 Pastoral Aims for the Diocese Page 8 Defining the Pillars Page 9 Our Vision Page 12 Our Call Page 13 Appendix -- Aim I: Live the Faith Page Aim II: Build Community Page Aim III: Embrace and Share the Word Page Aim IV: Celebrate Our Unity through the Sacraments Page Aim V: Serve Others, Especially Those in Need Page 20 3

4 Prayer for the Gifts of the Holy Spirit God our loving Father, Pour out on us the gifts of your Holy Spirit. Open our ears to hear your Word. Open our eyes to see your presence. Open our minds to understand your Wisdom. And open our hearts to be more available for your mission, so that strengthened by your grace, we can truly be a sign and instrument of your presence in our world today. Strengthen our diocese, our parishes, our bishop, priests, deacons, religious and laypeople. Help us always to know your will. Give us the courage we need to accept your will, and the wisdom to know that we can accomplish nothing without you. We ask this through Christ our Lord. Amen. 4 4

5 The Framework for Pastoral Action Focuses on Three Pillars: Discipleship Pastoral Areas of Focus Cultivate a personal encounter with Jesus in order to joyfully share the Gospel as a knowledgeable and responsible disciple. Inspire young adults to participate as lay leaders in the mission of the Catholic Church. Embrace immigrant Catholics and encourage their development as leaders in the Church. Evangelization Pastoral Areas of Focus Seek, invite, and welcome Catholics who have drifted away from the Church. Emphasize and outwardly proclaim the importance of the sacraments. Charity Pastoral Areas of Focus Go outside your church doors to care for people in need. Advocate for and with people in need as the Gospel instructs you to do. 5

6 What Is a Framework for Pastoral Action? This Framework for Pastoral Action is not focused on our financial or strategic needs. Instead, it looks at ways to build community and to strengthen faith. In fact, it delineates, as well as we can, how Christ and the Holy Spirit are fulfilling their mission through us here and now. Bishop R. Daniel Conlon Our Framework for Pastoral Action centers on the pastoral and ministerial needs of Catholics within the diocese at all levels of faith and participation. It is divided into categories that build upon each other: Issues Who we are and what pastoral topics are part of our world? Aims and Priorities The big pastoral goals that we have. Strategies The various ways we can accomplish our pastoral goals. Actions The many specific ways we can push a strategy forward. Future Vision What should our future look like in terms of pastoral concerns? Here is an example of how aims, priorities, strategies, and actions work together in the Framework for Pastoral Action: Let s say our aim (or priority) is to evangelize to all in our Catholic community. One strategy we can use to evangelize is to educate Catholics about their faith and about the sacraments. A specific action we can take to educate Catholics is to dedicate a portion of the diocesan magazine to articles about the sacraments and about faith issues. As you can see, a priority could be accomplished by several strategies, and each strategy can be pushed forward by numerous actions. During the fall and winter of 2012, a pastoral planning committee gathered lists of pastoral topics highlighted by the Diocesan Pastoral Council, the diocesan Curia and religious and began the task of organizing them within five aims: Live the Faith, Build Community, Celebrate our unity through the Sacraments, Embrace and Share the Word, and Serve others, especially those in need. In early 2013, the committee developed an online survey that asked the diocesan Curia, clergy, deacons, and directors of religious education to prioritize numerous strategies. The survey received a strong response and, based on the results, the committee focused the larger group into a Top-12 list of essential strategies. We then used these strategies as the basis for a diocesan-wide survey and for discussions in more than two dozen parish forums held throughout the diocese from November 2013 to January From this input, we revised and condensed the strategies to a final list, developed an overall pastoral theme Go Out and Make Disciples and summarized the strategies even further into three overarching priorities (or pillars): discipleship, evangelization, and charity. These pillars, along with areas of focus, guidance, and a prayer reflection, can be found in subsequent pages. Proposed actions linked to the areas of focus also were gathered from the parish forums and are listed in the full document, which is available on the diocesan website. See for more information. This Framework for Pastoral Action is not just for clergy within the diocese, or staff employees, or lay ministry leaders. It is a call for every Catholic in the diocese. It is a call to join in the missionary spirit and work of the Church. Moving forward together, we can reach our pastoral goals and proclaim the Good News of Jesus Christ. 6 6

7 Diocesan Mission Statement We, the Roman Catholic Church of Joliet, a people of diverse races and cultures within seven counties, strive to be the Body of Christ by living the Faith, preaching the Word, building community, serving others, especially the poor, and celebrating our unity through the sacraments. 7

8 From the mission statement of the diocese, we created five simple and straightforward pastoral aims for the Framework for Pastoral Action. We then used these as the basis for organizing and shaping our strategies. They are listed below: 8 Pastoral Aims For Our Diocese Live the Faith Build community Embrace and share the Word Celebrate our unity through the sacraments Serve others, especially those in need

9 Defining the Pillars Discipleship The overarching priorities of the Framework for Pastoral Action focus on discipleship, evangelization, and charity. We hear these words nearly every day, but we may need a better understanding of what they mean and how important they are in our pastoral efforts. Catholic discipleship means encountering Jesus Christ within and through the Church. We strive to learn more about Jesus, receiving Him fully in our lives and taking seriously our responsibility to share His love with others. To be true disciples of Christ, says Pope Francis, one must stay true to Jesus' teachings, welcome His Light and profess our faith beyond our own individualism. Jesus speaks in the silence of the mystery of the Eucharist and reminds us each time that following Him means going out of ourselves and making our lives not something we possess, but a gift to Him and to others. Our lives don t belong to us. But at the same time, the pope adds Our baptism makes us missionary disciples within the communion of the Church. On the one hand, we never stop being disciples learning, receiving. On the other hand, we are also called to the mission, to share what we have received, what we live, which is the experience of love, and of faith in the Trinity. As disciples, we embrace Christ s love, and we form ourselves through piety and study, but our discipleship also must point outward. As Pope Francis describes it, If something should rightly disturb us and trouble our consciences, it is the fact that so many of our brothers and sisters are living without the strength, light and consolation born of friendship with Jesus Christ, without a community of faith to support them, without meaning and a goal in life. As disciples, we not only must cultivate our own Catholic faith, we must also reach out to others, share our faith with them and encourage them. 9

10 Defining the Pillars Evangelization Catholic evangelization can be described simply as sharing our joy. As Pope Francis explains,... It would be wrong to see our evangelization efforts as a heroic individual undertaking, for it is first and foremost the Lord s work. Jesus is the first and greatest evangelizer. In every activity of evangelization, the primacy always belongs to God, who has called us to cooperate with Him and who leads us on by the power of His Spirit. While we may feel unprepared and inadequate to be evangelizers, the pope observes, All of us are called to mature in our work as evangelizers. We all want to have better training, a deepening love and a clearer witness to the Gospel. In this sense, we ought to let others be constantly evangelizing us. But this does not mean that we should postpone the evangelizing mission; rather, each of us should find ways to communicate Jesus wherever we are. Most importantly, instead of our efforts seeming to impose new obligations, we should appear as people who wish to share their joy, who point to a horizon of beauty and who invite others to a delicious banquet. It is not by proselytizing that the Church grows, but by attraction. We invite; we welcome; we listen; we embrace, and as the pope explains, we must reach out: We cannot passively and calmly wait in our church buildings; we need to move from a pastoral ministry to a decidedly missionary ministry

11 Defining the Pillars Charity Catholic charity places our actions at God s disposal and allows Him to multiply what is being given. Pope Francis recently said that he is always struck by the disciples asking Jesus to send the crowd away to find their own food and lodging and Jesus telling them, give them some food yourselves. In the face of the crowd s needs, this is the disciples solution: Everyone takes care of himself; just dismiss the crowd. Many times we Christians have that same temptation; we don t take on the needs of others, but dismiss them with a compassionate May God help you or a not-so-compassionate Good luck. He goes on to explain, What Jesus encouraged the disciples to do was an act of solidarity, which is nothing other than placing at God s disposal what little we have, and our humble abilities, because only in sharing and in giving will our own lives be fruitful. The pope also observes, My hope is that we will be moved by the fear of remaining shut up within structures which give us a false sense of security, within rules which make us harsh judges, and within habits which make us feel safe, while at our door people are starving and there stands Jesus never tiring of saying to us: Give them something to eat. We must not dismiss our brothers and sisters with empty compassion. With our humble abilities, we are charged to care for them, to give them a voice, and to share Christ s love with them. See Appendix for guidance and prayer reflection regarding the pillars and areas of focus. References Pope Francis Explains That to be True Disciples of Christ, One Must Stay True to Jesus Teachings, Rome Reports.com, March 14, Our Lives Don t Belong to Us, Pope Francis says on Feast of Corpus Christi, Catholic Herald, May 31, Selected Quotes of Pope Francis, USCCB Department of Justice, Peace and Human Development, June Pope Francis: Our Faith is Not an Ornament, Catholic News Agency, Jan. 15,

12 Our Vision We believe in one holy catholic and apostolic Church. These marks of the Church describe not only the Catholic institution, but also the path that every member of the Church must follow. We should personally strive to be one Church that unifies people of different backgrounds in one baptism. We should focus on living a holy life that strengthens us to accomplish Jesus mission in the world. We define ourselves as catholic as our perspective must be universal and all-embracing. And our faith is apostolic, which gives us the same mission as the apostles chosen by Jesus to go forth and share the Good News with others. This inheritance of power and authority requires a genuine effort to understand what the Church teaches and why its tenets are essential. For Catholic laity, this path has a simple, but challenging, goal: Bring Jesus Christ into the everyday world. This is our vocation and our calling. At the moment of our baptism, when we are made priest, prophet and king, we are commissioned to join in the missionary spirit and work of the Church. With an understanding of our faith and the Eucharist as our spiritual food, we are formed as disciples and sent out beyond our doors to carry on the mission of Jesus. This is our pastoral vision. Nurture our own faith and our knowledge of the Truth. Reach outside our homes and our churches, bring the love of Jesus to others, and feed those who hunger for the Word of God. Jesus told the Apostles, Go into all the world and proclaim the good news to the whole creation (Mark 16:15). He was not only speaking to the Apostles. He is speaking to us today. As Catholics, we must stand up; we must act; we must go out and make disciples. If you continue in my word, you are truly my disciples, and you will know the truth, and the truth will make you free (John 8:31-32). 12

13 Our Call Discipleship Cultivate lay discipleship. Inspire young adults. Embrace immigrant Catholics. Evangelization Welcome the lost and drifting. Proclaim the sacraments. Charity Care for people in need Advocate for and with the voiceless. Cultivate. Inspire. Embrace. Welcome. Proclaim. Care for. Advocate. These are steps that all Catholics must take in order to mature into a faithful disciple of Jesus Christ. This plan is an invitation for not only for clergy, or parish staff, or ministry leader, but for every individual Catholic to carry on the mission of Jesus in our parishes, our homes, our neighborhoods, in every aspect of our lives. We all have a responsibility to welcome, to embrace and to care. We all must strive to inspire, to cultivate, and to proclaim. It is not just the deacon s job, or the teacher s responsibility, or someone else s mission. It is our individual mission as baptized and confirmed Catholics. Doctor of the Church, St. Francis de Sales, understood well that all Catholics need to share their unique gifts and that every gift is important to the Body of Christ: When God the Creator made all things, He commanded the plants to bring forth fruit each according to its own kind; He has likewise commanded Christians, who are the living plants of His Church, to bring forth the fruits of devotion, each one in accord with his character, his station and his calling. I say that devotion must be practiced in different ways by the nobleman and by the working man, by the servant and by the prince, by the widow, by the unmarried girl and by the married woman. But even this distinction is not sufficient; for the practice of devotion must be adapted to the strength, to the occupation and to the duties of each one in particular ( The Introduction to the Devout Life ). 13

14 Our Call The Framework for Pastoral Action echoes the challenge set down by St. Francis de Sales. We must bring forth fruit each according to our own kind... and each according to our calling. In the Diocese of Joliet, there is much pastoral work to be accomplished by every Catholic. The Framework for Pastoral Action, along with constant guidance from the Holy Spirit, will help to focus and unite our efforts so that all the individual works will help make our pastoral vision come to life. The pastoral charge is simple and clear. Care for people in need. Welcome the lost and drifting. Embrace immigrant Catholics. Inspire young adults. Advocate for the voiceless. Cultivate lay discipleship. Proclaim the sacraments. What can you as a faithful Catholic do in a response to these entreaties? Just take a first step, whether it s within your family, helping a neighbor in need, or as part of a ministry team in your parish. Take a first step and keep going. We know that the work will be challenging, but also rewarding. We must remember to take courage for we are not alone in our efforts. Jesus is with us every step of the way. The Framework for Pastoral Action offers strategies, guidance, prayer reflection and suggested action steps. Pore over all of it. Pray about your role in it. Decide to act, even if it s just in a small way. Even small steps can reveal God s plan for us to fulfill our Catholic calling and make disciples for Christ. Each of us has a mission in life. Jesus prays to His Father for His followers, saying: As you sent me into the world, I have sent them into the world (John 17:18). We seldom realize fully that we are sent to fulfill God-given tasks. We act as if we have to choose how, where, and with whom to live. We act as if we were simply plopped down in creation and have to decide how to entertain ourselves until we die. But we were sent into the world by God, just as Jesus was. Once we start living our lives with that conviction, we will soon know what we were sent to do. -- Father Henri Nouwen The way we came to know love was that He laid down His life for us; so we ought to lay down our lives for our brothers. If someone who has worldly means sees a brother in need and refuses him compassion, how can the love of God remain in him? Children, let us love not in word or speech, but in deed and truth John 4:16-18 For more details, go to 14

15 ppendix 1 Appendix Aim I: Live the Faith Focus Area for Discipleship Cultivate a personal encounter with Jesus in order to joyfully share the Gospel as a knowledgeable and responsible disciple. Guidance: Participating in the life of the Church means being actively involved in any number of aspects involving faith, community-building, or service. It includes an active prayer life and involvement in the Mass, in ministries, in social events, or in outreach to the community or to those in need on at least a semi-regular basis. We want to especially target Catholics who are seen at weekend Mass, but are not involved in the work of the Catholic community. God has created me to do Him some definite service; He has committed some work to me which He has not committed to another. I have my mission. I may never know it in this life, but I shall be told it in the next... I have a part in a great work; I am a link in a chain, a bond of connection between persons Cardinal John Henry Newman 15

16 Aim II: Build Community Focus Area for Discipleship Inspire young adults to participate as lay leaders in the mission of the Catholic Church. Guidance: With visible actions by local Catholic leadership and changes in organizational structures within our churches, we need to build valuable roles for young adult and teen Catholics so that their input and leadership will grow. Young adults range in age from 18 to 39. Their single lifestyles and their married lifestyles and faith needs can be very different from older Catholic faithful. We need to identify and meet these needs. Guidance: Target actions toward at least three separate groups: college students, and single young adults and married young adults in the working world. Determine how to do a better job of inviting and reaching out so that these Catholics can fully participate in parish life. Resolve to do this more often. Invite and reach out more frequently. Even though you are young, the time for action is now! It is time to let your light shine! Remember, Christ is calling you; the Church needs you; the pope believes in you, and he expects great things of you! -- Saint John Paul II I hope there will be noise. I want you to make yourselves heard in your dioceses. I want the noise to go out. I want the Church to go out onto the streets. I want us to resist everything worldly, everything static, everything comfortable, everything to do with clericalism, everything that might make us closed in on ourselves. Pope Francis (July 25, 2013, Meeting With Youth, Cathedral of San Sebastián, Rio de Janeiro) 16

17 Aim II: Build Community Focus Area for Discipleship Embrace immigrant Catholics and encourage their development as leaders in the Church. Guidance: We should continue to encourage and celebrate the numerous cultural heritages that are part of our Roman Catholic Church in the United States while making sure that all cultures act in unison as part of the Body of Christ. A proactive attitude should be developed that focuses on communicating, listening, and engaging with Catholic immigrants living and worshiping within every parish. In the Diocese of Joliet, initial focus could be aimed at first- and second-generation Latino, Filipino, Korean, Vietnamese, and Polish Catholics. The presence of brothers and sisters from different cultures should be celebrated as a gift to the Church. -- Welcoming the Stranger Among Us: Unity in Diversity, a statement of the U.S. Catholic Bishops. As a body is one though it has many parts, and all the parts of the body, though many, are one body, so also Christ.... Indeed, the parts of the body that seem to be weaker are all the more necessary, and those parts of the body that we consider less honorable we surround with greater honor, and our less presentable parts are treated with greater propriety, whereas our more presentable parts do not need this..... But God has so constructed the body as to give greater honor to a part that is without it, so that there may be no division in the body, but that the parts may have the same concern for one another. If [one] part suffers, all the parts suffer with it; if one part is honored, all the parts share its joy Corinthians 12 17

18 Aim III: Embrace and Share the Word Focus Area for Evangelization Seek, invite and welcome Catholics who have drifted away from the Church. Guidance: Be more welcoming not only at Mass, but in all aspects of the Catholic faith and the parish community. Determine how all Catholic faithful can better intersect with people s daily lives and make changes to accomplish this. Find ways for Catholics to move forward and actually meet people at where they are in their spiritual lives. Guidance: Evangelization can be carried out in many ways: Share your faith with others. Be an advocate for your Catholic faith. Encourage faith in others. Build relationships by being a sincere and attentive listener. We can also go beyond one-on-one evangelization by placing emphasis on using current media methods to evangelize from our local faith community. Let your door stand open to receive Him, unlock your soul to Him, offer Him a welcome in your mind, and then you will see the riches of simplicity, the treasures of peace, the joy of grace. Throw wide the gate of your heart, stand before the sun of the everlasting light St. Ambrose Let us not shrink from entering the public square to proclaim the person of Christ, to teach the values that flow from reason and faith, to uphold our right to go about our daily work in accord with our teachings and values. -- Archbishop William E. Lori 18

19 Aim IV: Celebrate Our Unity through the Sacraments Focus Area for Evangelization Emphasize and outwardly proclaim the importance of the sacraments and all vocations. Guidance: Focus on why the sacraments (baptism, Eucharist, reconciliation, confirmation, matrimony, holy orders, anointing of the sick) are important to our faith and to the Catholic Church. Look at actions that can spur spiritual growth in active Catholics and can encourage participation in uninvolved Catholics. Guidance: Marriage and family are foundational institutions for our Catholic beliefs. They provide the means by which our faith is nourished and they are a conduit that helps us pass on our faith to future generations. We want to highlight the importance of married life to all Catholic faithful. "The sacraments infuse holiness into the terrain of man s humanity: they penetrate the soul and body, the femininity and masculinity of the personal subject, with the power of holiness. -- Saint John Paul II It takes three to make love, not two: you, your spouse, and God. Without God, people only succeed in bringing out the worst in one another. Lovers who have nothing else to do but love each other soon find there is nothing else. Without a central loyalty, life is unfinished. -- Archbishop Fulton J. Sheen "The world looks to the priest, because it looks to Jesus! No one can see Christ; but everyone sees the priest, and through him they wish to catch a glimpse of the Lord! Immense is the grandeur of the Lord! Immense is the grandeur and dignity of the priest!" -- Saint John Paul II 19

20 Aim V: Serve Others, Especially Those in Need Focus Area for Charity Go outside your church doors to care for people in need. Guidance: To all Catholics, act in order to give a voice to the voiceless. Get out from inside the church walls in order to do this. Take heed of recent comments by Pope Francis: It s key that we Catholics, both clergy and laity, go out to meet the people. This is not only because our mission is to announce the Gospel, but because failing to do so harms us. A Church that limits herself to administering parish work, that lives enclosed within a community, experiences what someone in prison does: physical and mental atrophy. A Church that merely protects its small flock, that gives all or most of its attention to its faithful clientele, he believes, is a Church that is sick.... We cannot fall into that trap... becoming too self-referential rather than missionary. It afflicts lay people worse, when they begin to believe that the fundamental service God is asking of them is to become greeters, lectors or extraordinary ministers of Holy Communion at Church rather than to live and spread the faith in their families, in workplaces, in schools, in neighborhoods and beyond. So if there is any encouragement in Christ, any incentive of love, any participation in the Spirit, any affection and sympathy, complete my joy by being of the same mind, having the same love, being in full accord and of one mind. Do nothing from selfishness or conceit, but in humility count others better than yourselves. Let each of you look not only to his own interests, but also to the interests of others. Have this mind among yourselves, which was in Christ Jesus, who, though He was in the form of God, did not count equality with God a thing to be grasped, but emptied Himself, taking the form of a servant, being born in the likeness of men. And being found in human form He humbled himself and became obedient unto death, even death on a cross. Therefore God has highly exalted Him and bestowed on Him the name which is above every name, that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, in heaven and on earth and under the earth, and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father. -- Philippians 2:1-11 RSV 20

21 Aim V: Serve Others, Especially Those in Need Focus Area for Charity Advocate for and with people in need as the Gospel instructs you to do. Guidance: Catholic social teaching in the Diocese of Joliet encompasses abundant areas for service: social justice, peace advocacy, restorative justice, anti-poverty, hunger relief, respect for life, fair-income advocacy, disaster recovery, faithful citizenship, and environmental stewardship. Work on these issues from the parish community to the wider community, at the local, national or international levels. We must get out to the wider community, says Pope Francis: You can t speak of poverty without having experience with the poor. You can t speak of poverty in the abstract. That doesn t exist. We think sometimes that poverty is only being hungry, naked and homeless. The poverty of being unwanted, unloved and uncared for is the greatest poverty. We must start in our own homes to remedy this kind of poverty. -- Blessed Mother Teresa If you judge people, you have no time to love them. -- Blessed Mother Teresa 1986 Túrelio (via Wikimedia-Commons) 21

22 Planning Committee Members The Framework for Pastoral Action Planning Committee was made up of laity and clergy from across the Diocese of Joliet. It included: James Broline, Notre Dame, Clarendon Hills Alison Chandler, St. Joseph, Downers Grove Greg Cummins, Immaculate Conception, Braidwood Dennis Donnellan, St. Patrick, Yorkville Barbara Linek, St. Dominic, Bolingbrook Tony Molinaro, Corpus Christi, Carol Stream (team leader) Sharon Pierscionek, Christ the King, Lombard Jeff Werner, St. Pius X, Lombard Rev. Steven Bondi, St. Rose, Wilmington Rev. Albert Heidecke, St. Joseph, Manteno Carlos Briceño, editor, Christ is our Hope magazine Mark Janus, director, Office of Parish Finance Alex Rechenmacher, executive assistant to Bishop Conlon Madonna Turner, assistant superintendent of Catholic Schools Jurate Harris, St. Bernard, Homer Glen For more information on the framework, go to Bishop R. Daniel Conlon Auxiliary Bishop Joseph M. Siegel 22 Brochure designed by Alexus Jones

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