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!