ARISE
Arise, shine, for thy light is
come…
Isaiah 60:1
It’s
a late winter night with a room filled with circular tables surrounded by
chairs filled with people from all walks of life, young and old, male and
female. They’re taking notes from a speaker
and looking at a power point presentation.
Is this a classroom?
Are these students taking a course?
Suddenly,
the power point presentation is turned off and the chairs scrape the floor as
the people reposition their chairs and become engaged in discussion. You notice
that each table is intensely focused on their own discussion. You also notice that there’s a priest at each
table.
Is Father giving a prayer service?
Is Father leading a discussion?
None
of these. If you listen closely you’ll
discover that the topic on which everyone is so intently engaged is God and how
to transmit God into the daily lives of their fellow parishioners.
Is this a dream?
No,
this is really happening. It has
happened. On March 24, 2008, our pastor,
Father Dave Callahan and six parishioners of St. Mary’s attended their first
Arise Workshop. The Workshop is in
effect, “training the trainers.” We are
learning how to bring God into our daily lives.
We want to make Him real for St. Mary’s.
We want our fellow parishioners’ faith to be set on fire. We want St. Mary’s to be a vibrant community
of faith and service. We want…we want…we
want…what God wants: St. Mary’s will be “You are like light for the whole
world. A city built on a hill cannot be
hid.” Matt 5: 14-16
What are you talking about?
A
spiritual renewal program that the Archdiocese of
How?
Arise will teach
parishioners how to encounter God, in their Catholic tradition, and apply
Jesus’ teachings in their daily lives.
This program will deepen our spirituality and allow us to see the parish
as our faith family, our community. Arise provides
training sessions to assist participating parishes. These training sessions have a network of
pastoral support from the Archdiocese’s Arise Team and the Renew International
Team. After the three years, the parish will have developed a closer
relationship with Jesus, have grown in community, and reached out in service to
others.
Background
Arise is the
name given to the program by the Archdiocese of Boston. It is one of the initiatives the Archdiocese
is undertaking to celebrate the Archdiocese of Boston’s Bicentennial. It is part of Renew International. Renew is in 25 countries across 6 continents since 1981. The purpose is to help people connect gospel
values to their daily lives.
How does it work?
Arise will renew
the parish’s faith through Sunday Eucharistic celebrations, small groups, daily
personal meditations, group activities and Catholic social action.
Every
parishioner will find an experience that will fit their personal interest,
personality, temperament and life style.
This renewal experience draws upon basic gospel themes. Because of the variety of ways in which
people are engaged, something is available for every parishioner, creating a
unifying and enthusiastic spiritual climate in the parish.
The
flow of the three year Arise process is as follows:
Lent 2009
Season
II Change
Our Hearts
The Future
Haven’t
you been paying attention? St. Mary’s is
going to become a vibrant, faith filled parish bursting with the Holy
Spirit! The parish team has had one
leadership formation workshop that introduced us to the program. There is room for more people to be involved
in this initial effort.
Next
will be more training sessions in April and May until we introduce Arise to the
parish in September. If you would like
to help in any way, please contact Father Dave.
Eventually, everyone will be involved.
You might as well start now.
Here
is your first assignment. Start praying
for the success of the Arise program in St. Mary’s Parish,
we
enter into your presence
realizing
you know us
better
than we know ourselves.
You
know the cares and sufferings
we
carry in our hearts.
and we
trust you to lead us together
on our
journey
to be a
renewed Church,
for with
you all things are possible.
Create us
anew
in Jesus
Christ your Son.
Liberate us
From all
that keeps us from you.
Heal us
From every
form of sin and violence.
Transform
us
To live
your Word more profoundly.
Awaken us
to the sacred;
rebuild
trust among us.
Enliven our
parishes;
reunite our
families.
May your
Holy Spirit empower us
to live as
a community of love,
freed to
share in your work
of
recreating our world
and
restoring justice.
We believe
you are
doing
something new,
calling us
to arise together in Christ
to
celebrate the fullness of Life.
Amen
www.renewintl.org/rcab
www.renewintl.org/ARISE www.renewintl.org