“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