AJ Garcia, director of parish advancement for FOCUS’ Lifelong Mission team, told CNA that the purpose of the MMD program is to offer inspiration and encouragement to Catholics as well as practical leadership training they can take home to their parishes.
“It’s not just for the priest, it’s not just for the parish staff. Any parishioner has a responsibility to be sharing the faith — to be living it, first and foremost, but then to be sharing it with the people that God places in their lives,” Garcia said.
“Hopefully … as they’re here, excited about the faith, growing in the faith, feeling more bold or zealous to share the faith, that they’ll take steps to do that wherever they are, not just within the walls of the parish.”
Garcia said the MMD program is part of FOCUS’ effort to “serve folks beyond the college campus in a number of ways.” FOCUS has long sent missionaries to college campuses, but since an expansion in 2015, almost two dozen parishes across the country, including one in the St. Louis Archdiocese, have FOCUS missionaries living and working there.
The MMD experience at SEEK serves as “maybe a starting point, a launching point, but much more that’s happening year-round where we are supporting parish life,” Garcia noted.
‘Are we willing to learn?’
Angela Garcia (no relation to AJ), coordinator of religious education for All Saints Academy in St. Louis, told CNA that her SEEK experience served as a reminder that even those working in ministry settings need to refocus on Christ every once in a while.
“When we have God as the priority, then everything else is going to fall into place according to God’s will. But we’re so eager to get things done that we forget about God,” she said.
“So one thing I’ve learned many years ago in ministry is that when you’re ministering with people, you need to walk with them, you need to meet them where they’re at and to journey with them, to share that with people that we need to make God a priority.”
Garcia said a large part of her ministry at the Catholic school is to encourage parents to embrace their role as the primary educators of their children, which includes those who are not Catholic or not practicing. She said she left the conference inspired to model holiness for the parents she encounters in her work at the school.
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“In order to evangelize to others, we need to build that friendship with them and to help them grow. We need to build our relationship with them but also to help them build a relationship with Christ, and then also to help them to know that they can go and help others … we, the Church, are here to bring other people closer to Christ and to get to heaven. And we can’t be afraid of sharing the truth,” Garcia continued.
Overall, Garcia said her SEEK experience was an inspiring experience that reminded her that she still has a lot to learn about the faith, despite working in ministry for years.
“Not only hearing the talks, but just visiting with other people, learning from them, even just going through the [booth hall] was just fabulous. Everywhere you turned around you learned something,” Garcia said.
“None of us know it all. We all are learning. We’re all still on the journey. And as a missionary, are we willing to learn?”
‘Not a one-time event’
Also attending SEEK were several parishioners from Annunciation and Our Lady of Providence parishes in St. Louis, as well as Father Mike Esswein, who pastors both. Esswein told CNA that he was impressed by the ardor of faith on display among the mostly young attendees.
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