The Christian 

Response

Refer to our Sunday Experience pages to find different prayers to pray as a family sometime during the week as well as setting up a prayer space and other activities as a family.

For the Learn do the following:

1. Watch Video at the top of the page. (if you want more resources, or are interested in learning more about the topic click on the Extra tab).
2. Click on the appropriate grade for your child.
3. Read the "relates to..." section at the beginning.  This is helpful to understand what to convey to your child is important about this lesson.  It will        help make the lesson both an intellectual and a lived lesson.
4. Read through and familiarize yourself with the sample script. 
5. Teach your child the lesson, either using your own words or the sample script.
6. Either discuss the questions with your child (best option), or have your child write out answers to the questions.
7. Have your child do the activities and/or do the activities with them.  
8. If working with a parish return the appropriate material in the way they have requested.


All Content for "The Way", Learn, is original content and copyright of the Diocese of Kalamazoo and may not be copied, reproduced, or used without prior written consent of the Diocese of Kalamazoo.   © 2020 Diocese of Kalamazoo

Relates to Jesus: Jesus desires for all to know His love and His saving grace. He uses us now to share that message with others. All we do and share should center on Him.

Relates to my Faith:  As someone who has received the grace and gift of Jesus we are called to share this gift with others. We should not want to be silent when it comes to what God has given to us, but want to give this same gift to others.

Sample Script:
When something really good happens in our live, we want to share it! When you get a new toy or discover something really cool, don’t you want to tell you friends all about it and share it with them? Following Jesus is the most important and most amazing part of our lives. Jesus is our best friend who we can share our whole life with, more than anyone else.

Some people don’t know who Jesus is, how much He loves us, or how much He sacrificed for us so that we can be with Him in Heaven. It’s our job to share our relationship with Jesus with the people around us. If people don’t even know who Jesus is, how are they supposed to have a relationship with Him? You have had people to tell you about Jesus and show you how much He loves you, because of how well they love you. That is what we as Christians are called to do for the people around us. You and I have to make sure that people know who Jesus is and we have to show them how much Jesus loves them by loving them the best that we can.

When we get to do this, not only do we get to help the people around us grow, our faith in God grows as well! If you cover up a flashlight does it get brighter or darker? It gets darker, and when we cover up our relationship with Jesus and keep it to ourselves, it becomes dull and dark like the light from the flashlight. When we let the light shine without covering it up, it’s able to shine bright and light up the room! We want our faith to shine bright and touch the people around us.

We always have to make sure that we are sharing our relationship with Jesus out of love. Sometimes it’s easy to want to do it because we want to brag or be mean to others. When we have something great that other people don’t have yet, we might look down on them and treat them different, but Jesus loved everyone that He met, even when they didn’t have the amazing gifts He had. He shared His gifts with them, because He cared about them and wanted to help them to grow. That is the kind of love that we should try to show everyone around us. We want to help them to grow and fall in love with Jesus just like we have.

Questions:

Why is it important to share our relationship with Jesus with others?
Who is able to grow when we share our relationship with Jesus?
How should we share our relationship with Jesus to others?
How does it help us to share about Jesus?
Did Jesus look down on others that didn't have a lot? 

Activities:

Turn off all the lights in your house, and let there be only one light source such as a flashlight or a candle. Talk to your child about how this is like our relationship with Christ, how it is meant to guide us, help us to see, and be a shining example to others in darkness. Cover up the light with a rag or a box so that the light is still there but dimmed. Talk to your child about how this is like our relationship with Christ when we only keep it to ourselves, it makes it hard to be guided, to see, and to help others.

Talk to your child about his or her relationship with Jesus. Ask them what kinds of things they could share about their relationship to the people around them.

Relates to Jesus: Jesus is the second person of the Trinity, we know there is a trinity because of Jesus’ revelation. This shows us that God must be love (that is what binds the trinity) and reveals all of Jesus’s actions within a familial relationship of God.

Relates to my Faith: There is only one God, we do not worship multiple gods, or seek God as a genie, but go to the one who created all things and shows us what love is.

Sample Script:
Every Christian is on a mission to live like Jesus and to love the people around us just like He loves them. Whenever we have a mission in life, it’s helpful to look to our role models to learn how they succeeded, so that we can imitate them. A Saint lives a holy life and serves as a great role model to you and me. A role model is someone that you can look up to, and someone who we want to act like because we admire them. In life we have all different kinds of role models like fire-fighters, doctors, nurses, superheroes, our friends, our teachers, and especially our parents. These people do amazing things, they are very smart, and they inspire us to be better people!

As Catholics, we need role models too, because they help us to learn how to live a holy life and make the right choices even when it’s hard. The Saints are role models because they live lives of virtue following Jesus Christ. Virtue means they have good qualities like being patient, caring about others more than ourselves, and being strong in doing the right things through hard times. But sometimes even the smartest, the strongest, and the nicest people don’t know what to do or aren’t able to do certain things without some help from others. That’s why we have the Saints to show us the right way to live, to remind us that we are not alone, and to give us the help that we need by praying for us.

Just like you have best friends who help you out when you need something and help you to be a better person, the Catholic Church offers us Saints to become good friends with, so they can help us to be better followers of Jesus Christ!

Every person is different, completely unique even. Everyone has different strengths, almost like superpowers, that let them do awesome things with their lives. God loves to see us use the gifts He has given us to do amazing things with our lives! When someone asks God to help them in life and becomes very close friends with Him, they are able to become a Saint in Heaven with Him after they die. They try their best to spend their whole lives following Jesus just like you and I are trying to do, and even though they make mistakes, God helps them to succeed and they accept His help, so they can be with Him after they die. Even though they aren’t on earth anymore, they get to live forever with God in the most beautiful place you can imagine.

The Saints are always praying for us while in Heaven and trying to help us become Saints too, so that we can be in that wonderful place with them and with God. Since they are still living with God, even though they aren’t on earth anymore, we can become friends with them, by praying to them, asking them for help, and taking time to learn about their lives and the amazing things that they did. When we do this, it’s just like becoming good friends with somebody on earth. We can learn from each other, help each other when things are hard, and we can even play and have fun together.

When you become good friends with somebody, don’t you want to share that gift with your other friends? Isn’t it so great when you can have all your friends together? Following the Saints and growing close to them is very similar! When you start to become friends with a Saint, it’s a great idea to share that gift with your other friends by telling them about it! You can talk to them about why you are friends with this Saint and the amazing things that he or she did in their life of following Christ. Maybe they’re already friends with a great Saint that they can tell you about too! Learning about different Saints is an awesome way to learn about all the different ways that you can be holy. The best thing about the Saints is that they show us how to follow Jesus. They help us to find the amazing and unique way that you can follow Jesus with your own gifts.

Questions:

How is a Saint like a friend?
Why is it so great to tell other people about the Saints?
What is the best thing about the Saints?
What does virtue mean?
Are we able to pray to the Saints or not?
 

Activities:

Ask your child about some things they like about their friends or that they like to do. Talk about a few Saints they might like to learn about and pick one to read about with them a few nights this week. Spend some time praying to that Saint with them.

Have your child practice telling you about a Saint as if you were one of their friends. Encourage them to share with someone else they feel close to.

Relates to Jesus: Jesus calls His disciples to go forth and spread the Good News to all of the Kingdom of God.

Relates to my Faith: The Catholic Church has the mission from God to spread His love and mercy to all in every time and every age.

Sample Script:
A witness is someone who sees something important and shares it with others. A witness of the Catholic faith is someone who knows Jesus Christ and what He did for us by living, dying, and rising from the dead. The 12 Apostles were the first witness of Jesus’ life, death, and resurrection! They lived with Him, knew that He died on the cross, and saw Him after He rose from the dead. When they experienced how much Jesus loved them and received the Holy Spirit at Pentecost, they were so filled with joy and passion that they had to go out and shared the Good News with everyone they met! They passed on this message to others, who decided to follow them and become disciples of Jesus. This same message was passed down for generations, until it was shared with your parents, and they shared it with you! Now you can be a witness to Jesus’ life, death, and resurrection.

There are many different ways to be a witness. Even simply going to Mass every Sunday is witnessing to your love of God by being willing to go and spend your time with Him. Doing small acts of great love show the love that Jesus has for us. You can do something nice for your family without them asking. You can say something kind. You can share something of yours with somebody. Jesus loved us so much that He didn’t hold anything of Himself back, even his own life. We don’t have to give up our lives, but we should try and love the people around us without holding back just like Jesus did. We can also answer questions that someone might have about Jesus or about the faith the best that we can, and if we don’t know the answer, we can help them by looking it up. We can share stories from the Gospel or from the lives of the Saints that inspire us to be better, so that we can inspire others to be better too. It doesn’t take much to be a witness. Just try and keep following Jesus and growing in your relationship with Him and don’t be afraid to show that to other people or to tell them about it.

Someone who lived not too long ago and was an awesome witness was a man named Pier Giorgio Fassadi. He was a young man who lived in Italy and is on his way to becoming a Saint! He always shared his faith with his friends. He would often lead them to going to Church, read from the Bible, and pray the rosary. He spent much of his time caring for the sick and the needing. Even though he didn’t have a lot of money, he tried to give as much as he could to the poor. He also loved mountain climbing, the arts, and music. When he was just 24 years old, he got sick with a disease because he served the sick so much. At his funeral, the streets were filled with the sick and poor people he took care of. His family had no idea all the work that he had been doing and how many people he had taken care of! Blessed Pier Giorgio showed all the people around him the love of Christ by caring for them more than himself. Just like Blessed Pier Giorgio, we can show the people around us the love of Jesus by being witnesses!

Questions:

What is a witness?
Who were the first witnesses of Jesus?
How can we be witnesses?
How was Blessed Pier Giorgio a witness?
Does it take a lot of wealth or time to share your faith?

Activities:

Take some time talking to your child about the different things Jesus did for the people around Him and why. Brainstorm with your child about ways both of you can be witnesses of Jesus to people around you this week.

Reflect on the beatitudes with your child. Think of ways you both can live out the beatitudes to witness to the faith to the people around you.

Think of someone you know who is a good witness, whether that person is someone you know personally or a Saint. Share that person’s story with your child.

Relates to Jesus: Jesus shows us the way of life and how our life is best realized when it is given away in loving service to the other.

Relates to my Faith: Freely offering our time, talent, and treasure allows the mission of the Church to be realized in our world, helping all to come to know the loving presence of God.

Sample Script:
God has gifted us all with many blessings. Whether it’s our talents, our time, or our families having jobs, God makes sure to provide us with what we need. God gives us these gifts, not just so that we can keep them to ourselves, but so that we can share them with the people around us and give glory to God. When we give a portion of our time, talents, or treasure, it’s called a tithe. A tithe is meant to be a gift from our own wealth of time, talents, or treasure for the sake of the poor and those who have not. God calls us to put our gifts to good use by taking care of those who are less fortunate and in need.

Our life in Christ calls us to good “stewardship.” A good steward is someone who takes care of what is entrusted to him. God has entrusted mankind with being stewards of the earth and the animals. God entrusts people who have property with not just benefitting themselves but showing God’s care for His children by using one’s wealth and property to care for them, first and foremost, the owner’s family. God has trusted you with talents, time, friends, and family! He has made you a steward of these gifts, and He asks that you take care of them by using them and helping them to grow. God also wants you to use your gifts for the good of those around you who need it by giving little tithes of what you have.

One gift that we all share, are meant to be stewards of, and give freely to everyone around us, is the gift of our faith. You and I are blessed with having faith in God and in His Church, that not everyone has. Some people haven’t been told about the faith, or they haven’t been loved the way that Jesus loves them. We should try to share our faith with everyone in our lives, even by little acts of great love: praying for them, spending time with them, and showing them we care for them more than we care for ourselves.

Ultimately, everything we are and everything we have is a gift from God. We should strive to thank Him by putting our gifts to good use and serving the people around us.

Questions:

What is a tithe?
What does it mean to be a good steward?
What is the one gift from God we all receive that is meant to be freely given to everyone around us?
How do we share our faith in God with others?
How does God want us to use our gifts that he has given us?

 

Activities:

Make a list with your child of their gifts and talents. Come up with ways together that they can use some of their gifts and talents as a service to people who may need it.

Look into some of your Church programs that support the less fortunate. Explain to your child that your family’s tithe money goes to support these programs. Create a dream list together of some services and programs that you and your child would love to see in the world.

Relates to Jesus: Jesus is not just for this person or that person; rather He desires to be in relationship with all people and receiving Him in Word and Sacrament, we come to know Him most truly.

Relates to my Faith: We are called to speak and live the word of God to proclaim His love and truth at all times.

Sample Script:
Our life in Christ calls us to good “stewardship.” A good steward is someone who takes care of what is entrusted to him. God has entrusted mankind with being stewards of the earth and the animals. God entrusts people who have property with not just benefitting themselves but showing God’s care for His children by using one’s wealth and property to care for them, first and foremost, the owner’s family. God has trusted you with talents, time, friends, and family! He has made you a steward of these gifts, and He asks that you take care of them by using them and helping them to grow. God also wants you to use your gifts for the good of those around you who need it by giving little tithes of what you have. Ultimately, everything we are and everything we have is a gift from God. We should strive to thank Him by putting our gifts to good use and serving the people around us.

One gift that we all share, are meant to be stewards of, and give freely to everyone around us, is the gift of our faith. You and I are blessed with having faith in God and in His Church, that not everyone has. Some people haven’t been told about the faith, or they haven’t been loved the way that Jesus loves them. We should try to share our faith with everyone in our lives, even by little acts of great love: praying for them, spending time with them, and showing them we care for them more than we care for ourselves.

However, what we need to do as Christians with our gift is faith is: evangelize. Evangelization is introducing people around us to the person of Jesus Christ and sharing the Gospel message. Christians need to evangelize out of love for God and love for their neighbor. Since we love Jesus and know the great price He paid for us by laying down His life for us, the Church desires to share this message with the world. Since we care about our brothers and sisters, we want them to be saved from death by believing in Jesus Christ. These two realities make it always important to spread the Good News. We need to share our love of Jesus Christ with everyone around us, so we can help each other reach Heaven together.

Questions:

What does it mean to be a good steward?
What is the Good News?
What is evangelization?
Why is it important to evangelize?
What are some acts great love we can do every day?

Activities:

Make a list of your gifts and talents. Come up with ways that you can use some of your gifts and talents as a service to people who may need it.

Spend some time this week reading Matthew chapters 26-27, reflecting on the suffering and passion of our Lord. Remember throughout that Jesus endured everything out of pure love for you so that you can be with Him in Heaven. Write a paragraph about how this makes you feel and how you share this message with people around you.

Relates to Jesus: Jesus' proclamation of the Gospel calls all at all times to consider the ways of God and hold these ways fast in their life.

Relates to my Faith: The Catholic Church offers a wholistic approach that speaks to every aspect of man's existence so that he might be full.

Sample Script:
Each and every Christian is called to evangelize. Evangelization is introducing people around us to the person of Jesus Christ and sharing the Gospel message. Christians need to evangelize out of a twofold prompting: out of love for God and love for their neighbor. Since we love Jesus and know the great price He paid for us by laying down His life for us, the Church naturally desires and is obliged to share this message with the world. Secondly, since we care about the wellbeing of our brothers and sisters, we want them to be saved from death by believing in Jesus Christ. These two realities make it always important to spread the Good News. We need to share our love of Jesus Christ with everyone around us, so we can help each other reach Heaven together.

Evangelization does not mean we need to stand in the city streets making bold speeches. That might be the call of some people, but no words that we say will carry any wait if they are not supported by actions. If we try to share the Gospel message and inspire love of Jesus Christ, but we ourselves are not rejoicing in the Good News and set of fire by our devotion to Jesus, people will not be inspired. We need to make sure that we are first and foremost engaging in prayer, works of mercy, and frequent participation in the Sacraments. Once we do this, we become a living testament to Gospel and a walking witness of the life of Jesus. The reason that the Saints are so attractive is because they were able to live so much like Jesus. Our call to be Saints is a call to be more and more like Jesus Christ.

This does not mean that we never speak about the Gospel. We should always be ready to share the good news with the people we encounter. The essence of the good news of the Gospel comes in four parts. First, the knowledge that God made us to be in relationship with Him. Second, that through choosing sin, we have broken that relationship and brought death into the world. Third, the savior, Jesus came to save us from our sins. God became man in order to die for our sake, but He was not conquered by death. Instead, Jesus rose from the grave to give us hope for our resurrection to new life! Fourth, by believing in Him, repenting from our sins, and following Him, we can embrace the salvation that He has won for us. This essential message is what we need to share with people by our words and deeds. First and foremost, we need to love the people we share this message with, because it out of love that we want them to be saved.

By courageously the Gospel message out of love for our neighbor, we can help participate in the saving work of Jesus by helping people gain access to Heaven.

Questions:

What are the two reasons the Church is obliged to share the Gospel?
How do we Evangelize?
Why is it so important that we Evangelize?
What do we help people gain when we evangelize?
Why are we called to be Saints?

Activities:

Practice sharing the Gospel message with a friend or parent. Write out the way you feel comfortable phrasing the essential four parts: 1. God made us for relationship with Him, 2. sin as broken that relationship, 3. Jesus came and healed that relationship through His life, death, and resurrection, 4. we can respond to Jesus’ invitation by our life in His Church and the Sacraments. It doesn’t have to be long, wordy, or smart sounding. The most important part is that it comes from the heart and professes the truth honestly.

Take some time to reflect on the Gospel message in prayer. If  you want, you can reflect on Peter’s proclamation in either Acts 3:11-26 or Acts 10:34-43. Do you truly believe in the Good News? That Jesus came to save you and that He wants you to be with Him in Heaven? Thank God for your belief and ask Him to help your unbelief.

Relates to Jesus: Jesus total gift of Himself to the will of God shows forth the freedom that is available to us when we selflessly give ourselves to God and the Church.

Relates to my Faith: The Catholic Church holds in primary importance the Corporal and Spiritual Works of Mercy, for when these are done in charity for the sake of the other as other, these provide a sure fire path to relationship with God both now and in the life to come.

Sample Script:
You may have heard it said that there is “no salvation outside the Church”. This statement comes from our Church Fathers, and many are uncomfortable with what this implies. Let me explain what this statement means. 

It is true that there is no salvation outside the Church--if it were not true the Church would not uphold this teaching. It means that salvation comes from Christ, and through his Church. We know that Jesus made our salvation possible--though bound by sin and our relationship with God wounded by our sins, Jesus freed us from that sin. He paid the price for it, thereby restoring man’s relationship with God and opening the gates of heaven to us. The gifts and graces of the salvific work of Jesus comes to us in the sacraments, especially Baptism. Christ established the Church so that all people could receive the sacraments when he appointed Peter, “And so I say to you, you are Peter, and upon this rock (rock refers to Peter himself, as his name Petras means ‘rock’) I will build my Church” (Matthew 16:18). Thus, salvation comes from Christ and through the Church. Those who understand this truth and still choose not to join the Church or to leave it cannot be saved. 

However, “those who, through no fault of their own, do not know the Gospel of Christ or his Church, but who nevertheless seek God with a sincere heart, and, moved by grace, try in their actions to do his will as they know it through the dictates of conscience--those too may achieve salvation” (CCC 847). This is to say that those who do not know Jesus as you do can still be saved. While God can lead them in a way that only he knows, it means that we on earth, as members of the Church who know the truth, have a mission. We must evangelize! We have the duty to proclaim the person that Christ is, and the Gospel message, through our words and our actions. This means that we need to take time to reflect on how we have encountered God in our own life, to find the fire in us and be ready to spread it. 

The life of a Christian should bear resemblance to the life of Christ. This doesn’t mean that we wear sandals and travel around the country on foot like he did. It means praying so that we can have a real relationship with the Father, that we do works of mercy for others, and that we study Scripture and share what we hear at Mass with others. Being a living witness of the Christian life is the best way to share who Christ is with others. 

Questions:

What does it mean that there is “no salvation outside the Church”?
How would you explain it to someone who doesn't understand it yet?
What is our mission as members of the Church? Why is this mission important? 
What is evangelization? 
What does it mean to imitate Christ?

Activities: 

Take time to reflect; what is one story from your own life of when you encountered God? Peter advises us, “Always be ready to give an explanation to anyone who asks you for a reason for your hope” (1 Peter 3:15). 

Relates to Jesus: Jesus proclaims the truth so that those who live in the truth may be free and so that the deception of the enemy may be revealed and avoided.

Relates to my Faith: The Church supports us in our journey to live lives as a disciple by offering God's gift of grace to strengthen and empower us.

Sample Script:
What kind of life do you envision for yourself? What are your hopes and dreams? And, what kind of life do you think God envisions for you? What are his hopes for you? We hear the answer from Jesus himself, “I came so that they may have life and have it more abundantly” (John 10:10). God wants nothing short of an abundant life for you. The whole reason he became man is because there was no hope of getting into heaven for us, no way that we could have freed ourselves from the sin we got ourselves into. He forgave our sins and made heaven possible for us--he wants new life for us, in heaven and even now. 

Jesus made it possible that all people could reach heaven. The gifts and graces of the salvific work of Jesus comes to us in the sacraments, especially Baptism. Christ established the Church so that all people could receive the sacraments when he appointed Peter, “And so I say to you, you are Peter, and upon this rock (rock refers to Peter himself, as his name Petras means ‘rock’) I will build my Church” (Matthew 16:18). Thus, salvation comes from Christ and through the Church. 

This creates a sense of urgency. God wants an abundant life for all people, but not all know this truth that salvation comes from him, and through the Church. This means that we on earth, as members of the Church who know the truth, have a mission. We must evangelize! We have the duty to proclaim the person that Christ is, and the Gospel message, through our words and our actions. This means that we need to take time to reflect on how we have encountered God in our own life, to find the fire in us and be ready to spread it. 

The life of a Christian should bear resemblance to the life of Christ. This doesn’t mean that we wear sandals and travel around the country on foot like he did. It means praying so that we can have a real relationship with the Father, that we do works of mercy for others, and that we study Scripture and share what we hear at Mass with others. Being a living witness of the Christian life is the best way to share who Christ is with others. 

Questions: 

What kind of life does God want for you?
How do you know?
Where does salvation come from?
Why does this create a sense of urgency? 
What does it mean to imitate Christ in ways that really matter? 

Activities: 

Put yourself in a situation where you have the opportunity to talk to someone about Christ. Make sure you have on your mind a story from your own life where you have encountered Christ. 

If social media floats your boat, consider posting something you heard at Mass from this past weekend on your media page. 

Ask your parents or older family members how they witness to Christ on a daily basis.

The Christian Response – Extra Page

Scriptural References: Matthew 28:16-20, John 8:31-32, Matthew 4:19-20, 2 Timothy 2:2, 2 Timothy 2:20-21, Luke 6:40, Luke 9:23, Luke 14:25-26, Matthew 10:37, Matthew 10:38, Luke 14:33, John 3:3, Romans 12:1-2, John 13:34-35, 2 Timothy 3:16-17, Luke 9:24-25, Ephesians 5:1-2, 1 Corinthians 11:1-2, Matthew 9:9, Acts 9:36, 1 Peter 3:15, 2 Corinthians 5:20, 2 Timothy 2:15, 2 Timothy 4:5, Acts 2:38, Ephesians 2:10, John 14:6, Mark 16:15, 1 Corinthians 1:17, Romans 1:16, Matthew 9:37-38,  Matthew 10:7-14

Catechism of the Catholic Church References: CCC nos: 897-912, 1691-1698

Videos:
Bishop Barron on Intentional Discipleship - YouTube
How to be a Good Disciple of Christ - YouTube
The Stewardship Way of Life - YouTube
How to Be a Steward - YouTube
Bishop Barron on Effective Evangelization - YouTube

Extra Narrative (for deeper study):

Encountering Jesus Christ leaves a person needing to make a response. Jesus compels a response, either to draw closer to Him by turning from our current situation or to turn away from Him by remaining in our situation. As we hear in the Gospel accounts, the choice for Jesus draws the individual down the road of discipleship and a life centered on fullness found in loving God and neighbor. To choose otherwise, often leaves the soul sad and downtrodden.

This Christian response to be a disciple of Jesus Christ calls us to remember that each individual is uniquely made to be a child of God, living a life geared toward holiness and to use the gifts and talents given by God so that He might be praised and our fellow brothers and sisters might experience the joy of life lived in Christ. Living a life of faith and supported by the Sacraments, the Christian is given grace to model and witness to Jesus Christ. Being Jesus’ disciple calls the Christian out of himself to be who he is fully called to be and to live life just as Jesus lived.

We seek to follow Jesus’ witness as He perfectly served and was obedient to the will of God the Father. Our Christian response should be one of love that seeks to know and do the will of the Father so that we lead lives that bring us to fulfillment and happiness but give great glory to God and make Him present for the entire world to see.
Remaining close to the Father’s will through our unity with Jesus Christ requires an active prayer life that not only helps the Christian to look like our Savior externally, but to order our mind and heart towards the holy and the good. Here, our thoughts and our intentions are founded firmly and centrally on God and allow for our decisions and actions to be ordered that which is good, true, loving, and beautiful. The Christian is striving to be fully Christian here; ordering his heart, mind, body, and soul to the Holy Trinity and seeks to be a child of God.

Discipleship happens when the individual gives his body and soul, his life over to God. The only Christian response here is love – lovingly seeking to follow God in all things and loving our brothers and sisters as himself. Works of Mercy flow from this place of charity and all are given an encounter of the Divine Love of God that is available to all. This is the path to life, which calls to mind the parable of the sheep in Matthew 25 who do such works and receive Heaven as their reward. Our Christian response to God’s love in our life spills over and is given to others in love and truth.

Quoting Lumen Gentium in the Catechism of the Catholic Church, paragraph 898: "By reason of their special vocation it belongs to the laity to seek the kingdom of God by engaging in temporal affairs and directing them according to God's will.... It pertains to them in a special way so to illuminate and order all temporal things with which they are closely associated that these may always be effected and grow according to Christ and maybe to the glory of the Creator and Redeemer."

The Christian response to be a witness to Jesus Christ in the daily going and comings of society spreads the Gospel message of life and love to all. The lay faithful make up the Body of Christ that exists in the home, the workplace, the social scene of parks and restaurants, and quietly but profoundly exists in each moment of life so the truth, peace, and joy of the Lord may radiate to warm the souls of all. Here, the faithful take what they receive from the work of the priest and the grace of the Mass and share what is given in the confines of the church to share with all beyond.

This Christian response by the faithful is truly the work of the Holy Spirit. Living the graced filled life of witnessing to the Gospel by responding generously in thought, word, and deed is driven by our baptism and supported by our relationship with the Holy Eucharist. Showing that Jesus Christ is our Messiah helps us to love our family more completely, work more intentionally, and serve those even when it is inconvenient and perhaps uncomfortable.

The Christian faithful also work in supporting their priest and parish life by building things up in the life of the Church. Serving on parish councils, working as catechists or youth ministers, giving time to support the needy of the parish; these and so many different roles, including giving the gift of one’s financial resources, helps the clergy to live and fulfill the parish mission of bringing Jesus Christ and the Kingdom of God to all in multiple and varied ways. By willfully offering one’s gifts and talents to support the priest and the parish the various charisms speak to the heart of the faithful to encounter Jesus and His love present at each and every moment. Building up the parish with such work furthers the presence of Christ for generations to encounter in their own particular journey through life as they move towards eternity.

Again, Catechism 913 quotes Lumen Gentium stating:  "Thus, every person, through these gifts given to him, is at once the witness and the living instrument of the mission of the Church itself 'according to the measure of Christ's bestowal."'