“How can they call on him in whom they have not believed?  How can they believe in him of whom they have not heard?  And how can they hear without someone to preach?  And how can people preach unless they are sent?  How beautiful are the feet of those who bring Good News!” (Rm 10:14ff)

The “Spirit of Jesus Alive Today: Pentecost in Our Time” home visitation process allows us to do as Jesus asked us:  Go out into the world and tell the Good News.  The process takes us beyond our parish church walls to extend an invitation to Catholics and others who no longer practice their faith and to plant the seed of Father’s love through Jesus in those who have not yet heard the Good News. 

Overview:  Universally and nationally the Catholic Church has been buffeted by storm-strength waves since the beginning of this century.  Nationally, we continue to weather the fallout of the crisis created by the abuse of our youth by some members of the clergy who were often moved without regard for the safety of the youth in a new parish or institution.  Nationally we are also weathering the persistent erosion of Christian values in the leadership, commerce and culture of our country.  Further we watch our Catholic values being set aside or ignored as younger families and our youth stop attending church and being involved in Church activities.  They admit that they pray, consider themselves spiritual, and name themselves Catholic but have often little or no connection to a parish community or parish life. 

In addition, locally we are still in the throes of the fallout from the closure and merger of parishes in the diocese.  Changing demographics and fewer men entering the priesthood created a situation where we could no longer enjoy the type of convenient and nurturing local parish experience most of us grew up with and loved.  We grieve that loss and long for reconciliation.

In the midst of these difficulties, however, the fact that people continue to cherish and practice their faith means that our Catholic faith and our local churches are still about the vision of Jesus:  that we may all day be one with him in the Father. 

From Pope Paul VI’s exhortation on “Evangelization in the Modern World” through Pope John Paul II’s  apostolic letter “On the Coming of the Third Millennium” with its emphasis on the “new evanglization” to the same concerns being expressed by Benedict XVI, we know that evangelization is no longer the domain only of our Protestant brothers and sisters.  As Catholics, we understand and assert that evangelization is part and parcel of our way of life.

We talk a lot about doing evangelization, but few parishes have actually put concerted and intentional effort into practice.  Trying to figure out how to do evangelization is difficult:  where do you start?  Who is to be evangelized – the Catholics in the pew who may not know much about their faith?  The Catholics who no longer darken the thresholds of our churches?  People of other Christian religions who do not enjoy “the fullness of the faith” that we say is ours?  Those who no longer practice any religion?  Or those, and the number is growing, who have never heard that the Father so loved us that he sent his only Son into the world to teach us how to live, die and be reborn?  The overwhelming scope of the task has too often put parishes into paralysis.  Or parishes tried, but didn’t have any idea how to measure success.

The success of any evangelization cannot be measured in quantity or by how effective the product was.  We cannot use the usual yardsticks of our consumer society to reckon accomplishment. Success lies in the fact that we sow the seed, and then like St. Paul, we must be content to let another water it and to allow God to nurture the growth.  But if the seed is not sown there can be no growth.  And if it is not us, then who; if it is not now, then when? 

In May 2006, the Bishop sent each parish a booklet entitled “Pentecost in our Time.”  In it the Bishop appealed to parishes to make evangelization a priority.  It included three goals and asked parishes to consider how they might implement those goals through their liturgies, formation, adult education, welcoming, stewardship, etc.  In October 2007, the Bishop announced three initiatives to continue to help us become collaborators with the “principle agent of evangelization, the Holy Spirit.”  The three initiatives were the Pentecost Novena of June 2008, the home visitation initiative for October 2009 and the events leading up to, culminating in and growing out of the Diocesan Centennial in April 2010.

Although the origins of “Spirit of Jesus Alive Today: Pentecost in Our Time” were in the idea of doing the first Diocesan-wide census in twenty years, it evolved into an emphasis on evangelization.  After consultation with the Priests’ Council, the Deans and the Diocesan Pastoral Advisory Council, the Bishop became aware that a census was not a popular notion.  Although conceived as an effort to re-energize the Diocese in preparation for the Centenary, too many people felt the unfortunate experiences from the 1987 census could not be overcome.  However, there was energy for a diocesan evangelization effort.  Thus the census has evolved into the present “Spirit of Jesus Alive Today” home visitation initiative as an evangelization effort.

The “Spirit of Jesus Alive Today” process will allow parishes to look internally to who is registered and practicing, to look outward to who is living in the area and to take the time and effort, along with other parishes in the Diocese, to invite people to consider becoming active disciples of Jesus in the Catholic Church.