Faithful are enlivened as With One Heart plan continues to bear fruit at the parish level

Bella Bailey

Multimedia Correspondent

“Empowering priests. Igniting parishes. Enlivening the faithful.” This is the tagline for the With One Heart Pastoral Plan and lays out the marks of success, the hoped for fruit of the strategic plan. Since the announcement of the plan, many strides have been taken in target areas — priests participating in pastoral and leadership training, and laity being enlivened with Parish Missionary Disciples trainings.

From a core group of parishioners that participated in the Parish Missionary Disciples training by the Catholic Leadership Institute, a group of lay faithful joined together and formed the GYMM, the practice of Growing Your Missionary Muscles. GYMM meetings provide structured time for PMD graduates to practice evangelization skills and support one another.

From the GYMM, the mini–Parish Missionary Disciples workshop was developed — a series of three, two-hour sessions. The mini PMD was first presented at Mother of God Parish, Covington, with much success. Encouraged by what they learned, parishioners from St. Mary Parish, Alexandria, are hosting the second mini PMD.

“We need more people active in the parish,” said host team member and St. Mary Parishioner, Ken Glaser. “This seemed to be one way to be able to start down that road, to try and get more people talking a similar language, to try and get more people thinking in a manner that while faith can be a very personal thing, it can also be a very public thing.”

Mr. Glaser hopes that those who are attending, representing more than a dozen parishes, feel emboldened to host the mini-PMD at their parish.

“We don’t want this to be the last one,” said Mr. Glaser. “We hope that somebody that sat in the room goes, ‘This would be really neat to do at my parish.’”

Jerry Otto, host team member, Mother of God parishioner and founding GYMM member, said at the workshop, “We dare to stand at the crossroads of our society and let others see what we believe, because God first stood at those crossroads waiting for us and welcoming us with mercy and love. God has forgiven us and now we help others know. We want to show God’s mercy to all.”

Mr. Otto encourages those in attendance to be the hands and feet of Christ in their everyday lives, and to evangelize with “warmth, humor and happiness.