Be a reservoir not a canal during your Walk with One journey

/in

Bella Bailey

Multimedia Correspondent

For the past three weeks the Messenger has invited the faithful of the Diocese of Covington to participate in the Walk with One evangelization effort during the season of Lent. This effort from the National Eucharistic Congress invites members of the church to identify someone in their life and walk with them towards Christ.

Broken down into four steps, the Messenger has covered the first two, identify someone in a spirit of humility and intercede for that person in communion with the Holy Spirit. How though, does one intercede in communion with the Holy Spirit? The answer, prayer and intentions.

The team at the National Eucharistic Congress suggests writing down the person’s name on a sticky note and keeping it nearby during prayer, so that the person might be written on the faithful’s heart, asking God to open the heart of the person chosen to be receptive to Him. Offering a Mass or holy hour for that person is also advised.

“Every person is different and so everyone has their modes of prayer. I like to encourage people to mention this person by name to the Lord every day even if it’s as simple as, ‘Lord, please draw [insert name here] closer to you.’ It could be that simple. But also the rosary is super powerful, and we encourage bringing Mother Mary into the mix as well,” said Tanner Kalina, project manager for the National Eucharistic Congress. These first two steps of Walk with One have been geared toward personal prayer and growing in relationship with the Lord, but that is by design said Mr. Kalina.

“I love the analogy of St. Bernard of Clairvaux who talks about the need for us as a Church on mission to be reservoirs and not canals. Meaning that we fill up with the Lord and then our evangelization efforts, our Walk with One effort, are the overflow of that filling up; as opposed to a canal that is just ever changing and it’s in and it’s out and it doesn’t take on real shape.

“Prayer is necessary because we need to first and foremost be filled with the Holy Spirit, we need to be filled with the love of the Lord because we can’t just hand down a vague sense of the Lord or a vague idea of a relationship to the Lord, we have to be living it out,” said Mr. Kalina.

Step two of the Walk with One journey is to intercede in communion with the Holy Spirit

/in

Bella Bailey

Multimedia Correspondent

This year, during the holy season of Lent, the Messenger has encouraged its readers to take part in the Walk with One evangelization effort. This initiative from the National Eucharistic Congress is a way for people to participate in the call to evangelize, to be fishers of men.

In the March 7 and 14 editions of the Messenger, readers were encouraged to participate in the first of four steps as they began their Walk with One journey. That step, identifying someone in a spirit of humility, involves prayer and close connection with the Holy Spirit. The second step, interceding in communion with the Holy Spirit, involves much of the same.

The person that was identified through prayer and discernment in step one will become the person that is interceded for in step two. There are a few ways to intercede for someone communion with the Holy Spirit: writing down the person’s name on a sticky note and keeping it in a wallet to remember during prayer, asking God to open the heart of the person identified in step one so that they are receptive to him and/or offering a Mass or Holy Hour for that person. “

The other piece for this intercede step … is that it’s a really important step to ensure that we don’t get into the mindset that this other persons conversion is based on our work, our own effort,” said Kris Frank, vice director of growth and marketing for the National Eucharistic Congress.

Mr. Frank continued saying, “God is the one who changes hearts and so as we go before the Blessed Sacrament and intercede for that person, not only is God filling that person with grace and hopefully beginning the work in the depths of their soul but … it reminds me that I am not the savior of this person, and this person needs Jesus.”

Prayer and discernment are key aspects of the first step of Walk with One

/in

Bella Bailey

Multimedia Correspondent

In the March 7 edition of the Messenger, the first step on the Walk with One initiative was introduced. An evangelization effort from the 2024 National Eucharistic Congress, the initiative invites all Catholics to find someone in their life and help bring them closer to God. Symbolically walking with them, to the Lord. The first step, identifying someone in a spirit of humility, invites the participant into prayer with the Holy Spirit so that they might discern with the guidance of the Holy Spirit.

Recommended ways of prayer and discernment by the National Eucharistic Congress are Eucharistic Adoration and the praying of a novena.

“Our big encouragement for everyone as they do Walk with One,” said Tanner Kalina, project manager of the National Eucharistic Congress, “is to surround it with prayer and that starts first and foremost at the very beginning as you discern who the Lord might be inviting you to walk with.”

Eucharistic Adoration is the practice of quiet contemplation and prayer before the exposed Eucharist, and silently meditating, adoring and listening for God’s word.

Mr. Kalina explained, “That’s just going to prayer, putting yourself in front of the Eucharist, asking Jesus to stir someone in your heart for who to walk with.”

In addition to, or in conjunction with, Eucharistic Adoration, it is also recommended to pray a novena — a nine-day period of prayer which can be dedicated to a specific saint for their intercession on personal intentions. Rooted in Scripture, it is commonly said that the first novena was prayed by Mary and the apostles in the upper room as they were waiting for the coming of the Holy Spirit.

An important part of identifying someone in a spirit of humility is not to become frustrated. Kris Frank, vice president of Growth and Marketing for the National Eucharistic Congress said, “Evangelization, accompaniment is not for the faint of heart. There’s going to be ups and downs, it’s going to be one step forward, one step backward … We might think we know what needs to happen but God truly is the one that can change hearts and so we want to ensure that we are connected to God.”

Identify someone in a spirit of humility as you begin your Lenten Walk with One journey

/in ,

Bella Bailey

Multimedia Correspondent

In the February 28 edition of the Messenger, the faithful of the Diocese of Covington were invited to participate in the Walk with One initiative that was borne out of the National Eucharistic Revival. Encouraged to participate during the Lenten season, many will have begun their journey on March 5, Ash Wednesday. To properly begin Walking with One, the first step is to identify someone in a spirit of humility.

To identify someone you are going to walk with you can write down a list of people you know and pray over that list, you can visit the Lord in Eucharistic adoration or do a novena to the Holy Spirit asking for increased discernment and guidance. This step is heavily focused on discernment and your personal relationship with God as you try and find who God is calling you to walk with.

Tanner Kalina, project manager for the National Eucharistic Congress, said, “Our big encouragement for everyone as they do Walk with One is to surround it with prayer. That starts first and foremost at the very beginning as you discern who the Lord might be inviting you to walk with.”

“We’re careful not to say that the person you walk with has to be a Catholic, has to be a fallen away Catholic, has to be a non-Catholic, because we really want people to enter into it prayerfully and take that first step in listening to the Lord. Ultimately, they won’t be able to pass down what they haven’t first received,” continued Mr. Kalina.

As you begin your journey to walk with one, Kris Frank, vice president of Growth and Marketing for the National Eucharistic Congress, said, “There’s going to be ups and downs, it’s going to be one step forward and one step backwards … so we want to ensure that we are connected to God and it is from that overflow of prayer and our own relationship that we can share with other people.”

This Lent take the first steps to ‘Walk With One’ in the Campaign of Mercy

/in , ,

Laura Keener

Editor

With the announcement of the Campaign of Mercy last June, Bishop John Iffert is inviting the people of the Diocese of Covington to prayerfully consider a work of mercy and to engage in service to others, allowing that service to deepen their faith life and to draw them closer to Christ.

In support of the Campaign of Mercy, the Messenger has been highlighting a spiritual or corporal work of mercy and a person, parish ministry or local social service that embodies that work. The goal of the Campaign of Mercy is to evangelize through that work of service inviting someone — a family member, friend or acquaintance — to join you in that service work and through that relationship grow in faith.

With the onset of Lent, the Messenger is pausing its series on the works of mercy and turning attention to the foundational aspect of the Campaign of Mercy — personal and intercessory prayer. Lent is a penitential season of the Church that invites its members to a deepening of faith through the practices of prayer, fasting and almsgiving. For the Campaign of Mercy, the Messenger invites readers on a Lenten journey to Walk With One.

At the conclusion of the Eucharistic Congress last July, the U.S. bishops launched a national evangelization initiative entitled “Walk With One.”

“As we prayed, we realized that perhaps the profundity is found in the simplicity,” said Kris Frank, vice president of Growth and Marking for the National Eucharistic Congress, about the Walk With One Campaign. “That if one person can just reach out to one other person, that’s where we could see great results. That’s where we could see change really start to take root as the revival takes root in each one of us.”

Walk With One and the Campaign of Mercy dovetail perfectly. Both start by developing or increasing a personal relationship with the Lord through prayer. Both invite the Holy Spirit to lead to the person God has in mind for you to journey with. And both encourage daily intercessory prayer for the person so that their heart and mind will be open to Lord.

“When we’ve encountered Jesus, that changes us,” said Tanner Kalina, project manager, National Eucharistic Congress. “The Eucharist is not our private possession. The Eucharist longs to be shared with others and Jesus desires to do that through us.”

Resources developed by Eucharistic Congress organizers for the Walk With One campaign offer a four-step process: identify someone in a spirit of humility; intercede for that person in communion with the Holy Spirit; connect in Eucharistic friendship and invite that person on a path most suitable for him or her. With the help of the National Eucharistic Congress team, each of these four steps will be explored throughout the weeks of Lent, in print, on the web and the diocese’s YouTube page.

“The Church’s invitation for us to Walk With One is not an invitation for us to add one more task to do, it’s actually an invitation for us to step into the fullness of the Christian life by walking with someone and inviting them into different stages of the spiritual journey,” said Mr. Kalina. “We actually become more alive and closer to Jesus. It is about getting us to be a Eucharistic people, a people who are really living the fullness of the Christian life and, therefore, tasting the abundance and joy of the Christian life.”

The Messenger’s Lenten feature will be available online at covdio.org/messenger. For additional Walk With One resources from the National Eucharistic Congress visit eucharisticrevival.org/walk-with-one.