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Hosting Small Faith Groups: A Summary of Links

Over the past six weeks, I’ve shared a series of posts on how to host small faith groups in the parish, with an eye toward Lent. Special thanks once again to St. Barnabas Parish in Chicago for sharing the inner workings of their successful experience, Companions on the Journey, for our benefit. Here, in one convenient space, is everything you need to implement small faith groups in your parish! How to Host Parish Small Faith Groups […]

How to Host Parish Small Faith Groups, Part 6

Joe Paprocki

This is the last post in our series on how to host small faith groups in your parish. I have been drawing on the successful experience of St. Barnabas Parish in Chicago, which gathered over 200 parishioners to participate in small faith groups last Lent. Today we look at what must be done throughout the season of Lent to sustain the small groups and suggest some post-Lent follow-up ideas. Week Before the First Sunday of […]

How to Host Parish Small Faith Groups, Part 5

Joe Paprocki

As we continue our series on how to host Lenten small faith groups in your parish, we turn our attention to the immediate weeks before the program starts. I am drawing on the successful experience of St. Barnabas Parish in Chicago where last year, over 200 parishioners gathered to participate in small faith groups during Lent. Today’s post includes sample small group promotional materials that you can adapt for your own use. 5 Weeks Out […]

Waiting Is a Lesson in Advent

Lisa Jones

The liturgical calendar offers us two seasons of waiting: Advent and Lent. The Advent season of waiting in joyful hope for the birth of our Lord Jesus often gets overlooked in the rush to prepare for Christmas. Children are notoriously impatient (as are many adults), so Advent is a good opportunity to teach the value found in anticipating the big event. We do this by choosing activities that instruct them on the importance of waiting […]

How to Host Parish Small Faith Groups, Part 4

Joe Paprocki

In our continuing series on how to host small faith groups in your parish, today’s post calls us to look at training leaders to facilitate the small groups. Our model is a parish in Chicago that gathered parishioners in homes to participate in Scripture groups during Lent. 1–2 Months Out A critical step in ensuring the success of small groups is the training of leaders to facilitate the process. Invite the potential leaders to a […]

Being a Disciple Takes Practice

Denise Gorss

In a recent session, my class talked about being a disciple in the context of Ordinary Time. Since this Church season occupies most of the liturgical year, the discussion centered on how we can follow Jesus in everyday life. We focused on the works of mercy as ways to practice our discipleship. I set the stage by holding up a poster-sized copy of the liturgical calendar and gave a brief introduction to how we mark […]

How to Host Parish Small Faith Groups, Part 3

Joe Paprocki

We continue our series here on Catechist’s Journey on how to implement small faith groups in your parish. Today we look at the crucial step of identifying, inviting, and training small group leaders. This is by far the most critical step, since the small faith groups will conduct their sessions in parishioners’ homes, without parish staff present. This follows the successful model used by St. Barnabas Parish in Chicago last Lent. 2–3 Months Out Select […]

How to Host Parish Small Faith Groups, Part 2

Joe Paprocki

Today we continue a series here on Catechist’s Journey that will lay out for you the steps to successfully implement small faith groups in your parish with an eye on Lent as a target. I am drawing on the successful experience of St. Barnabas Parish in Chicago, where last year over 200 parishioners gathered in homes during the season of Lent to participate in small faith groups. The success of the efforts at St. Barnabas […]

The Spiritual Life of Catechists, Part 5: Missionary Zeal

Joyce Donahue

This is the fifth article in a series about the spiritual life of catechists, inspired by the list of characteristics in the National Directory for Catechesis. Have you ever met someone who was “on fire” for God? When you encounter someone who speaks about faith with contagious enthusiasm, that’s missionary zeal. It’s memorable—and contagious. Zeal is not a word we use much today. The dictionary defines zeal as “great energy or enthusiasm in pursuit of […]

How to Host Parish Small Faith Groups, Part 1

Joe Paprocki

During these past few months, as I’ve begun exploring the world of adult faith formation, I have become convinced that one of the key principles of AFF is that it is most effective when it is relational. In other words, we can’t simply gather adults and talk at them—they need to talk to one another! With that in mind, I am proud and excited to launch a series here on Catechist’s Journey that will lay […]