More than 2,000 people across the Archdiocese of St. Paul and Minneapolis are on the same journey of spreading Christ’s love.
It’s part of implementing the archdiocese’s Synod, which is challenging people in parishes to be the hands and feet of Christ through Synod Evangelization Teams that will grow to include more and more parishioners in the months ahead. Team members participated in a seven-week School of Discipleship that ended March 28, followed by a 40-Day Challenge — which began April 2, on Palm Sunday — of living out those lessons learned.
Deacon Joe Michalak, director of the archdiocese’s Office of Synod Evangelization, spoke recently with “Practicing Catholic” radio show host Patrick Conley about some of the fruits of the School of Discipleship hosted by Jeff Cavins under the direction of Kelly Wahlquist of the St. Paul Seminary’s Archbishop Flynn Catechetical Institute in St. Paul.
“I really love Jeff’s trope that framed the entire sequence, ‘Are you a fan of Jesus or are you a follower of Jesus?’ Jesus has many fans, Jeff said, but he’s got fewer actual followers in that lived, day to day, daily experience of intentionally walking with Jesus,” Deacon Michalak said.
The response from those participating has been overwhelmingly positive, Deacon Michalak said.
“It’s theology lived in practice,” the deacon said. “One priest said to me, ‘Deacon, I was a little bit skeptical about this whole thing rolling out from the archdiocese and the seminary.’ But, he said, ‘Count me a convert.’”
The School of Discipleship begins the road of living the virtues of Christ, Deacon Michalak said. Those virtues make people participants in Christ’s life, he said. They include love, forgiveness, humility, kindness, hope, faith and courage in living out the Christian life, the deacon said. And the 40-Day Challenge encourages people to take on virtues as habits, the deacon said.
“Even sociologists will say, psychologists, it takes about 40 days to establish a new, good habit,” Deacon Michalak said. “It’s a perfection of our way of thinking and choosing and desiring and even feeling for the good and the good being God himself.”
Participants in the School of Discipleship will close the 40-Day Challenge with an Activated Disciple celebration May 20 but continue as witnesses to Christ spill over to the rest of the archdiocese in the months ahead, Deacon Michalak said.
To hear the full interview, listen to this episode of “Practicing Catholic,” which debuts at 9 p.m. April 14 on Relevant Radio 1330 AM and repeats at 1 p.m. April 15 and 2 p.m. April 16.
Produced by Relevant Radio and the Archdiocese of St. Paul and Minneapolis, the latest show also includes an interview with Auxiliary Bishop Joseph Williams of St. Paul and Minneapolis, who discusses his first year as a bishop and the Easter season; and Father Spencer Howe, pastor of Holy Cross in Minneapolis, and Dr. Tod Worner, managing editor of the Journal of the Word on Fire Institute, who discuss Worner’s remarks set for April 18 at the University of St. Thomas in St. Paul, titled Have We Forgotten Who We Are? Resurrecting Catholic Identity in an Uncertain Age.
Listen to interviews after they have aired at?PracticingCatholicShow.com or choose a streaming platform at anchor.fm/practicing-catholic-show.
