“In catechesis too, we have rediscovered the fundamental role of the first announcement or kerygma, which needs to be the center of all evangelizing activity and all efforts at Church renewal” (Evangelii Gaudium 164).

Kerygma Ministry Applications Sessions are 90 minute sessions focused on applying kerygmatic catechesis to specific areas of parish ministry. Every session will model compelling catechesis and will include group discussion and personal prayer.

Participants for these sessions should have attended the Destined Kerygma Retreat and be involved in some way in the relevant area of ministry. A parish can choose any four topics from the list below (or the Practical Kerygma Team can create a session for the particular needs of your community). The Practical Kerygma Team highly recommends that the Kerygma and the Eucharistic Liturgy session is included since the Eucharistic Liturgy is the source and summit of our faith.

Kerygma and the Eucharistic Liturgy (this session is for anyone involved in any ministry)
At the Second Vatican Council, the Church taught that encouraging “full and active participation” in the liturgy is “the aim to be considered before all else.” This session will explain why participation in the Mass is so essential to the Christian life and, based on that, present concrete ways for all of the faithful to participate more fully in the liturgy. 

Kerygma and the RCIA 
This session will inspire RCIA directors to demonstrate how the sacraments of the Church manifest the drama of salvation and show that, through the sacraments, God is sharing with us His divine life.  This session will give examples of how to practically implement kerygmatic catechesis into the parish’s RCIA process, synthesizing the two essential components of the Kerygma and the Catechumens’ own questions into prayer, personal faith, and ultimately, transformation. 

Kerygma and Infant Baptism Preparation
This session will explain how the Sacrament of Baptism fits in the drama of salvation and show that, through this sacrament, God is transforming us into other Christs. It will give examples of how to practically implement kerygmatic catechesis into the parish preparation process for infant baptism. 

Kerygma and First Communion and Reconciliation Preparation
This session will build off the Kerygma and the Eucharistic Liturgy session. It will provide a kerygmatic catechesis on the Sacrament of Revelation and will present practical ways to practically implement compelling catechesis and encounter opportunities into the parish’s preparation program for these sacraments.

Kerygma and Confirmation Preparation    
This session will dispel the idea that Confirmation is a rite of passage and will show how this sacrament is really about God empowering us for a radical life of holiness. It will give concrete suggestions for how to renew the traditional preparation process for Confirmation so that students experience a new Pentecost in their lives.      

Kerygma and Marriage Preparation
This session will make the bold claim that through the lifelong Sacrament of Marriage, God invites spouses to participate, in a privileged way, in His crafting them into another Christ. Through the daily lived experience of the Sacrament of Marriage, every act of marriage is an opportunity to enter more deeply into the “communion of love” shared by the Trinity; that same communion which God intends for the married couple to share in Him and with each other.

Kerygma and Pastoral Accompaniment
This session will draw from Pope Francis and Saint John Paul II’s teaching regarding the moral law, the law of gradualism, conscience, and God’s mercy to help ministers accompany others to lead lives of ever greater holiness and fidelity to the Gospel.

Kerygma and Youth Ministry
This session will help Youth Ministers ground their gatherings in kerygmatic encounters with the Lord in order to foster a deeply lived relationship between the teen, Jesus, and His Church. This session will demonstrate the importance of, and a few key methods for, deconstructing the formulaic and negative approach to morality, instead, proposing morality as a loving response to the love of God and the path toward holiness.

Kerygma and Outreach/Homebound
During intensely vulnerable and dependent stages of one’s life, a person’s relationship with the Person of Jesus Christ is utterly integral. If there still remains a lived relationship with the parish community, as through outreach, that lived relationship must ever more deeply foster encounter with Jesus Christ, the personal nature of His rescue mission, and God’s desire for immediate, deeper, and eternal union. This session will guide Outreach Ministers to bring more incarnational, therefore more profoundly hopeful, ministry to the homebound and shut-ins.  

If you are interested in hosting any of these events, or want more information, please email: practicalkerygmaschool@gmail.com

“God's very being is love. By sending his only Son and the Spirit of Love in the fullness of time, God has revealed his innermost secret: God himself is an eternal exchange of love, Father, Son and Holy Spirit, and he has DESTINED us to share in that exchange” (Catechism of the Catholic Church 221).

DESTINED is a one-day retreat that will, at every moment, proclaim God’s goodness and relentless desire for you. We will present the rescue mission of Jesus Christ as revealed in Scripture. We will tell the story of Jesus Christ as experienced in our own lives. We will lead you to encounter Jesus Christ in the Eucharistic Liturgy.

“Christian faith is either an encounter with Him alive, or it does not exist. The Liturgy guarantees for us the possibility of such an encounter. For us a vague memory of the Last Supper would do no good. We need to be present at that Supper, to be able to hear his voice, to eat his Body and to drink his Blood. We need Him. In the Eucharist and in all the sacraments we are guaranteed the possibility of encountering the Lord Jesus and of having the power of his Paschal Mystery reach us” (Desiderio Desideravi 10).

DESTINED is for anyone who aches for a renewed encounter with Jesus Christ, who desires to experience a God who is as good as He says He is, who thirsts for greater healing and transformation whenever they attend Mass.

DESTINED is a quiet, powerful day-long retreat. It lasts 7-8 hours and is divided into four sessions. We model our approach on the Road to Emmaus, where Jesus first opened up the scriptures and then revealed himself in the breaking of the bread. So the first three sessions walk through key stories in the Old Testament, Gospels, and New Testament—along with personal testimonies—to proclaim God's desire to rescue us and make us partakers of the divine nature. The final talk is all about the Eucharistic Liturgy as the privileged way that God gives us to not just remember his saving work, but to participate in it. In addition to the talks, the retreat includes time for personal prayer, Eucharistic Adoration, and prayer ministry. 

If you would like to bring this retreat to your parish, school, or community, please email us: practicalkerygmaschool@gmail.com