Divine Renovation meeting June 11th

Commission Meeting Notes 6/11/19

How does your parish reach out in love and concern to those who are in need of hearing the good news?

The key word is love…..how do we show love to others? 

The good news is the Gospel…how do you help people to realize they need faith in their lives?

How do we show love and caring to a perfect stranger?

There are people we know that need to hear the good news.

At times, it is difficult to find an outlet to be able talk about their faith.

In our day to day interactions with people… how do we evangelize?

One way could be when you have a barbeque or when you go to a wedding, it is ok to talk about Jesus…about the good news….

Conversations around the table can be about Jesus….

It is all about just planting the seed….an example is we had an event with the City…and there was an issue…and the City representative was very angry. It worked out and the angry person was told….we will pray for you…it was an encounter…it is how we choose to encounter with an individual.

The school is creating the environment for a Christian life….it is difficult for our families. There are a lot of broken families…

You have to keep saying the message….you cannot give up….

Evangelization is individual and for a group….CRHP….Alpha…It is an accumulation of encounters over time….

We collect gifts for the kids at Christmas time.

Things for the women’s shelter.

Lunch program.

Holiday dinners.

Work with Common Pantry.

Sharing parish collection.

We have Saint Vincent DePaul.

It is better to actually touch people’s lives than just give something.  It is different than just buying something.

Ministry of care is a good way.

There seems to be two types of evangelization.  There is going out to people…personal hands on, or giving etc.

There may be another way though, an engagement of neighbors. If we can find their needs we might be able to support them better.

There is a local high school that does yard work instead of PE class, and it is a nice way to engage people.

There should be an evangelization committee.

That could help us come up with more ideas.

We could record some videos with people talking about why they are involved.

We’re really good at evangelizing people we know.

We shouldn’t start the conversation with “the truth”. People are drawn in by external things, often times, and that’s ok.

Beautiful liturgy and good worship can draw people. Getting people in the door is important.

We reached out to alumni at the closing of the H.S. Mass.

The ministry of care brings the Eucharist to those who are homebound but, it might not be evangelizing since they already have faith. It might however be evangelizing to those around the sick, over hearing or seeing the ministers.

 The more you talk about religion and Catholicism to friends and family, they might get interested. Being comfortable about inviting and talking about it is key.

 Dream group and spiritual direction can be a soft entry point.

Personal invitation is key!

 We need to remind ourselves that the Church is a living, breathing body.