Journey of Discipleship

Session 5 – Saturday, May 11, 2013

Missionary MindsetVicki Compton, Director

Office for the Missions

Journey of Discipleship

How can I be a more faithful and engaged disciple?

How can I be holy in this age?

How can we do this together?

Missionary Mindset

Go and make disciples!

Discipleship

What is a disciple? What does discipleship look like?

Think and jot down a few ideas in your workbook.

Christianity without discipleship is always Christianity without Christ. Dieterich Bonhoffer

Discipleship

“…My children I will be with you only a little while longer. I give you a new commandment: love one another. As I have loved you, so you also should love one another. This is how all will know that you are my disciples, if you have love for one another.”

John 13:33-34

Pope Benedict XVI

Discipleship and mission are like the two sides of a single coin: when the disciple is in love with Christ, she/he cannot stop proclaiming to the world that only in him do we find salvation. In effect, the disciple knows that without Christ there is no light, no hope, no love, no future.

At Aparedida, 2007

Discipleship

Catechism of the Catholic ChurchChrist's disciples are to conform themselves to him until he is formed

in them. 562The disciple of Christ must not only keep the faith and live on it, but

also profess it, confidently bear witness to it, and spread it. 1816By loving one another, the disciples imitate the love of Jesus which

they themselves received 1823Loving your enemy 2262Carrying your cross 2427Living in truth 2466Make a radical choice …words and deeds 546Pray with a purified heart, with lively, persevering faith and boldness

2621

Discipleship

From Forming Intentional Disciples by Sherry Weddell

Discipleship is that personal and lived relationship with Jesus Christ that leads to the radical decision to follow Jesus.

Discipleship

What does it mean, then, to be a disciple of Jesus Christ?

It means you do what Jesus did: You love as he loved. You reach out to the sick, the disenfranchised, and the poor – both the spiritually and materially poor. You bring them the Good News.

Discipleship

From Rebuilt by Michael White and Tom Corcoran

Disciples are students who are growing to love God and love others as Jesus taught us.

Disciples love GodDisciples love PeopleDisciples make disciples

What does mission mean?

Who?Where?What?How?Anything that comes to mind

Take a minute to reflect and then jot some ideas in your workbook.

Mission

AD GENTES Decree on the Church’s Missionary Activity – Second Vatican Council, 1965 “The mission of the Church, therefore, is fulfilled by that activity which makes her,…fully present to all men or nations” (5)

Matthew 28:19 “Go therefore, and make disciples of all nations…”

Mark 16:15 “Go in to the whole world and proclaim the gospel to every creature.”

Luke 24:46-49 “You are the witnesses of these things, and [behold] I am sending the promise of my Father upon you…”

Mission

The witness of a Christian life is the first and irreplaceable form of mission: Christ, whose mission we continue, is the “witness” par excellence and the model of all Christian witness.

Redemptoris Missio 42

Mission

Mission is the responsibility of all the baptized

Mission is giving witness to the difference Christ makes in our lives

Mission is bringing the Gospel to bear on every aspect of our culture

What is evangelization?

“The specific purpose of this missionary activity is evangelization…” (AG 6)

“Evangelization is the essential mission of the Church” (EN14)

Evangelization

EVANGELII NUNTIANDI On Evangelization in the Modern World – Apostolic Exhortation of Paul VI, 1975 “Evangelization is the essential mission of the Church” (14) “Thus it is the whole Church that receives the mission to evangelize, and the work of each individual member is important….” “The Church is an evangelizer, but she begins by being evangelized herself. “ (15) “All Christians are called to this witness and in this way they can be real evangelizers.” (21) There is no true evangelization if the name, the teaching, the life, the promises, the Kingdom and the mystery of Jesus of Nazareth, the Son of God are not proclaimed.” (22)

Evangelization

Witness Proclamation

Evangelization

Go and Make Disciples, NCCB, 1992

Evangelization means bringing the Good News of Jesus into every human situation and seeking to convert individuals and society by the power of the Gospel itself.

Its essence is the proclamation of the Good News and the response in faith, both being the work of the Holy Spirit.

Catechism of the Catholic Church

904…To teach in order to lead others to faith is the task of every preacher and of each believer.

905…Lay people also fulfill their prophetic mission by evangelization. “that is, the proclamation of Christ by word and the testimony of life” For lay people, “this evangelization…acquires a specific property and peculiar efficacy because it is accomplished in the ordinary circumstance of the world.”This witness of life however, is not the sole element in the apostolate; the true apostle is on the lookout for occasions of announcing Christ by word, either to unbelievers…or to the faithful.

The New Evangelization

John Paul II - Redirecting and re-focusing the Church’s efforts on evangelization:

To peoples, to nations, to cultures

Christ-centered

Responsibility of all Believers

Not just foreign missions

Benedict XVI - Calls for a renewed evangelization of an increasingly secular world.

June 2010 Pontifical Council for the New Evangelization

October 2012 Synod on the New Evangelization

Evangelization

“Let the risen Jesus enter your life, welcome him as a friend, with trust: he is life! If up till now you have kept him at a distance, step forward. He will receive you with open arms. If you have been indifferent, take a risk: you won’t be disappointed. If following him seems difficult, don’t be afraid, trust him, be confident that he is close to you, he is with you and he will give you the peace you are looking for and the strength to live as he would have you do.”

Pope Francis I, Easter Vigil, 2013

Summary

Mission – to be sent

Discipleship – making the decision to conform your life to Christ

Evangelization – spreading the Gospel through how we act and what we say

Evangelization

Witness Proclamation

Evangelization

Evangelization = Sharing Faith

Power of Human WitnessCompelling stories of lifeFinding our own stories of faithStory of conversion

Opportunities to Evangelize

People give us opportunities every dayBirthSickness/DeathMarriageLife changesStruggles of lifeMundane details of life

Discovering My Experience of God

Find a partner

Use the workbook on your own, in quiet

Reconnect and share a story of faith

Break for lunch!