• Notes from Evangelization Committee meeting on Thursday, February 16, 2012
  

  Present: John Mitchell, Reno Sartori, Ron Hoctor, Stephanie Beeken, Ginger Osteen, Joseph Osteen, Jeanne Suchanek. Guest was Bruce Daniel.
  

  After the opening song, John Mitchell talked about developing goals and reading “Go and Make Disciples.” He said he hopes to get more Hispanic parishioners involved. Bruce Daniel gave a talk on his conversion to Catholicism and after it, John Mitchell remarked that Bruce helped us to see why we are here as a committee.
  

  Brainstorming ideas on goals and objectives:
  

  1. Ensure that Mary Queen of the Holy Rosary Church is a welcoming community for all people and that our parishioners have the opportunity to grow in their own faith so that all may cultivate a desire to share the Good News with family and friends thereby fulfilling our Catholic obligation to evangelize so that all may be transformed by the saving power of Jesus Christ.

  
  2. To enlist our faith community in evangelization through a program of prayer and identification of those who have fallen away.

  
  3. To encourage practicing Catholics to understanding the full meaning of what it means to be Catholic.

  
  4. To make people in school feel welcomed into the parish.

  
  5. To reach out to the parents at Mary Queen School especially those who are non- practicing Catholics or non-Catholic and lovingly invite them into the parish.

  
  6. To establish a life of prayer within the congregation for the purpose of Evangelization.

  
  7. To bring fallen away Catholics back. To recruit fallen away Catholics and to pray for and

  assist them in coming back to church

  
  8. To educate parishioners about the true meaning of Evangelization.

  
  9. To incorporate prayer as the foundation for Evangelization.

  
  10. To equip families with the process of nurturing the faith of their children in church,

  in school, and at home.

  
  Oral Report from Reno Sartori (based upon his handwritten notes):

  “I am sure all of you recall Mike Allen’s presentation at our first meeting. I’d like to re-read just four of these statistics. Read statistics here on more people leaving the Catholic Church than joining and how youth (as they grow into teens and twenties) are not coming back. Now to begin to discuss as a group what some of our goals might be is fine—but—I feel some early pre-planning needs to be done first. I personally feel we won’t accomplish much or at least very little unless we commit to prayer. As a group, the key ingredient to undertaking anything such as evangelization is PRAYER! With God’s help we will be successful—Leaving God on the sidelines, so to speak, Satan wins. So what I am suggesting: Our greatest asset is right here at MQ. Not only the Eucharist and Prayer but the people of MQ. What did Jesus tell us – where two or more are gathered together (you know the rest). I think we should formally introduce the evangelization (program?) to everyone who attends Mass. We would be offering each and everyone to be a part of this effort. (And make no bones about it- probably every single person at MQ knows of someone who is lost and that includes me). How would we do this – one way (and I’m saying there are others) would be the Paulist Prayer for evangelization:
  

  Open our hearts to Jesus.

  Give us the courage to speak His name to those who are close to us and the generosity to share His love with those who are far away.

  We pray that every person throughout the world be invited to know and love Jesus as Savior and Redeemer.

  May they come to know His all-surpassing love.

  May that love transform every element of our society.

  We make this prayer through our Lord Jesus Christ your Son, who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit one God, forever and ever,

  Amen.

  
  Mary Mother of the Church, pray for us.

  We would ask that everyone of our parishioners daily pray the prayer for evangelization and in addition add a comment after the prayer such as ‘I pray for _____and all those who no longer practice the Catholic faith.’ On the reverse side of the prayer card would be an area to write the names of those who no longer attend Mass and who have left the Church.

  One can only imagine the power of all these prayers. We could also ask for an extra Rosary, an extra Mass or a visit to the (?) All of this could be accomplished through announcements, few minutes of addressing the people after Mass or whatever other news is available. Main effort should be to remind all to Pray-Pray-Pray.

  At the end of a specific time period – six week, two months whatever – we could ask for the help of all our people to identify those they were praying for (some will and some won’t) but it is a beginning. Once this is done, we place all those names on the altar at all Masses.

  Last but not least – we might consider sending a card or letter of invitation to each of those who were identified. If the response is positive, we could have a welcome home day (or something appropriate) to help those returning to feel the love of MQ parish.

  So to sum up – all this would:

  1. Be a great help to all of us on this committee as prayer works.

  2. Everyone in the parish would feel like they are part of the evangelization team.

  3. With a parish effort, many new avenues could result in expanding our evangelization efforts.

  4. Lastly we could still plan our goals and objectives. But in the meantime we have a foundation to build on – that is the support and prayers of our parish. “End of report.

  Also discussed at the meeting was finding out why people are leaving the church and how to keep youth involved. OnceCatholic.org was mentioned as a good source of information which could be linked to MQs website--is a non-threatening way of reaching people. A review of the explanation of the Evangelization Committee in the 2012-2013 Time and Talent Directory was suggested to make it more reflective of the ideas discussed tonight. A possible draft follows:

  Current description in directory: EVANGELIZATION COMMITTEE

  Purpose: The Evangelization Committee is responsible to “bring the Good News of Jesus into every human situation, seeking to convert individuals and society by the divine power of the Gospel itself” (Paul VI, On Evangelization in the Modern World). Anyone desiring to spread the ‘Good News’ of Jesus Christ is welcome on this committee. We will be studying what it means to Evangelize and make recommendations to the Pastor as to how the Parish should proceed with Evangelization.
  

  Possible revised description (taken from what is currently on website): Purpose: The Evangelization Committee is responsible to “bring the Good News of Jesus into every human situation, seeking to convert individuals and society by the divine power of the Gospel itself” (Paul VI, On Evangelization in the Modern World). Anyone desiring to spread the ‘Good News’ of Jesus Christ is welcome on this committee. Specific responsibilities include: a. Bringing about in all Catholics such as enthusiasm for their faith that, in living their faith in Jesus, they freely share it with others. The evangelization of our parishioners is one of our primary goals. b. Inviting all people, whatever their social or cultural background, to hear the message of salvation in Jesus Christ so they may come to join us in the fullness of the Catholic faith. c. Fostering gospel values in our society, promoting the dignity of the human person, the importance of family, and the common good of our society. A possible chart would look like this in the Time and Talent Directory:
  

  1. Evangelization of our parishioners

  2. Evangelization of non-practicing Catholics

  3. Evangelization of non-Christians

  last updated 08/25/2013 jm