What does it mean to be Catholic? If that question is echoing in your head, do not be worried! It is a good sign that suggests we are getting serious about our Faith. Faith is such a gift that we need to hand over to others. And... here we are, between 80 and 100 Catholics and non-Catholics gather together in St. Patricks Community Centre to deepen their Faith or discover the truth every Wednesday (with a one-off session yesterday!). Yes, this program called Catholicism is making headway across parishes and dioceses all over the world – even as you read. It was developed and produced by Word On Fire ministries and is hosted by New Evangelisation advocate Fr. Robert Barron. Each episode of the 10 session course focuses on a specific aspect of the Catholic faith, for example, Jesus is Lord or the communion of saints.
We open the sessiosn with music and prayer, then an introduction is given from Fr. Richard Nesbitt, who is the vocations director to the Diocese of Westminster and also heading the course . Afterward, we watch the film together, which leads on to group discussions – which are an essential part of the pilgrimage of Catholicism. We ae divided into 9 groups for reflection, discussion and passing the Faith onto one another.
The Catechesis, even though really good, is singular in direction. We realise that our Faith is relational, and has vertical and horizontal components. Here, we have lovely group which is pretty much a family in Christ. We have been given the grace to develop our Christian friendships with each other and grow in it. Thanks be to God, people look enthusiastic, are full of spirit; and obviously that is the work of the Holy Spirit that we have been seeing so far. For this reason, we think that the small group sharing is one of the most important aspects of this course.
We are grateful because two weeks ago, Fr. Robert Barron came along to St. Patrick’s. He gave some talks, and a Q and A session to the audiences about the Faith and also some “behind the scene” stories. He talked about His experience involved with this project related with the new evangelisation.What led him to produce this series, he shared,was his concern about the culture of the world, and his desperation about what to do to evangelise. Based on that situation, His friend asked him, “What would you do?”. We might ask that question as well to ourselves, “What would I do to pass on the Faith, Hope and Love of Christ and His Church?”. Let’s think about the small things in our daily life, but we do it with a big heart! God bless...
Carmel
Back at St Peter's we tucked into lunch and chatted about how our morning had been before going back down to the town centre to take up our spot again. The afternoon was a little quieter but still people seemed to be attracted by the music. We had a lovely supper at the Parish Centre and were at last joined by Armel, who has come up to help us this week. Armel is a friend of ours from Notre Dame de France Church in Leicester Square. After supper we went up to St Edward's hall for the youth club, which takes place every Monday night. We taught them some action songs and spoke to them about how we can praise God through music. They were a lovely group and we look forward to seeing some of them in the schools and also at our Youth Night on Friday night.
