Dear Friend of CHRISTLIFE,
This summer I had the opportunity, along with others to serve at schools of evangelization for young adults from Eastern Europe in Poland and Slovakia. We also served at conferences and public events. One very special time for me was attending a Sunday evening service at a Redemptorist Monastery in Podilinec, Slovakia. Each month over a thousand people gather for a time of singing, testimony, preaching, and exposition of the Blessed Sacrament. These people are coming from as far away as two hours. Fr. Michal Zamkovsky, the superior at the monastery, stated, "There is really nothing special happening at the meeting that would attract so many people. " The fact is the Lord is doing something very special and people know it! About 80% of the people were young people under 25! Around the altar there were 25-30 children, 3 –10 years old, sitting together, very well behaved for the two-hour service! That in itself was something of a miracle (at least for Americans)! Thanks for all the prayer support for schools and outreaches!
We are very excited and a bit overwhelmed by the opportunities that the Lord is providing for CHRISTLIFE to make Him known and to serve His church in the new evangelization! CHRISTLIFE is focussing on 3 major areas of our mission presently:
First, making the Alpha course available for Catholic parishes, colleges, and prisons ministries in North America and internationally.
Alpha gives Catholics, and other Christians, a very effective means of helping people to know personally, Jesus Christ as Lord and Savior! The fields are ready for harvest! What a privilege the Holy Spirit and the church are offering us to help parishes and other Catholic situations to consider using a very practical way of evangelizing.
Want to learn more about Alpha? Click here!
We in CHRISTLIFE see an open door
for helping Catholics to respond
to the essential mission of the Church,
which is to evangelize!
The Second area of focus is Teaching Resources. We see the need for gathering and producing teaching resources that are practical, inspiring, and faithful to the teaching of the Church. We would like to be offer teachings that practically help people to live in and for Christ, teachings that can be used in small group communities in parishes and elsewhere.
Our first teaching resources are being produced currently! Dr. Marcellino D'Ambrosio, did an excellent job presenting the seminar, Touching Jesus through the Church, this July. Phil Rosensteel and Greg Landry are producing two separate programs from the materials that they video taped.
The first series will be entitled, PACT - Post Alpha Catholic Teaching. PACT will include 3 teachings: Why Be A Catholic? Do Catholics Worship Mary and the Saints? How Do I Get More Out Of Mass? PACT will be available on video and audio, and can be used at the end of Alpha as a bridge into RCIA (Rite of Christian Initiation for Adults), or as teaching for small group communities that continue after Alpha. For those of you from United Kingdom you may know that PACT already exists and is distributed by the Catholic Alpha Office (CAO). In our work with David Payne, director of CAO, we have decided to use the same title for this series, with the hope that it may be useful in English speaking countries.
The second series, Touching Jesus through the Church, will include talks on Baptism, Confirmation, Penance, and the Catholic Church. Both series will be available for distribution in January 1999. Please pray for this!
David Payne, Director of the Catholic Alpha Office, in England, joined us during the filming of the seminar. David brought a lot of helpful perspective and advice to us on the development of the seminar, as well as, ideas about where to go with the development of teaching resources. We are looking forward to more opportunities to serve with David and the brothers and sisters who serve with him.
The third area of focus is further development of our World Wide Web Site. We continue to have a significant number of people, (over 15,000 file downloads a month), from over 50 countries visiting our site. Currently, there is one person working two hours per week adding content to the page. We have a vision for adding youth evangelization videos, teaching audios, and much, much more. But we need staff and the money to do it. SO please pray.
These three areas of mission are really a lot and we need the grace of the Lord to accomplish what we believe he has set before us. If you would like to join us in serving in these areas of mission please let us know!
As always, thanks for your partnership in the mission of CHRISTLIFE. We could not do what the Lord has called us to do without your support in prayer, volunteer service, and finances. . We pray for you each week!
Love to each of you in our Lord,
Dave Nodar
Director of CHRISTLIFE
Upcoming Events
To pray and join us for!
o Please pray for Joe and Maureen Habershaw, who have been traveling in Germany and Poland to present marriage weekends.
o CHRISTLIFE Mass and Fellowship Please Note Change of date! Rescheduled from September 13 to October 4th
o CHRISTLIFE Mass and Fellowship October 4 - 4PM Feast of St. Francis. Fr Mark Curesky, OFM will celebrate Mass. Call if you can join us! Paula Ibello and Melanie Barnes will share on their time at the school of evangelization and outreaches in Poland.
o Renewal Ministries Mission Trip Slovakia, October 5-12 School of evangelization and leadership; priests retreat and day rally for approx. 5000 people. Tom Edwards and Dave Nodar are the speakers.
o Drawing Near the Third Millennium Annual Conference:
Theme: The Holy Spirit - October 30, 31 at Wilde Lake Interfaith Center, Columbia, Maryland. Speakers include Msgr. Victor Galeone, Jim McFadden, Leo Rudegeair, and Dave Nodar
o Friday morning intercession and communion service, 9:00-10:00AM at the CHRISTLIFE Center. We regularly meet on Friday mornings to pray for our mission and for other needs of the Church. These are special times for us and essential for the advance of the Lord's purposes. Consider joining us!
o First North American Alpha Conference for Catholics - Wilde Lake Interfaith Center, Columbia, MD April 19, 20, 1999 This conference, sponsored by CHRISTLIFE, will be very significant event. Cardinal Keeler, our Archbishop, has written a letter of invitation and support. We will be inviting Catholics from all over North America to attend this 2-day conference to teach them what Alpha is and how to use it in their parishes.
Please consider ways that you might spread the word to Catholic priests, religious, and laity who are interested in evangelization but don't know much about Alpha?
Please begin to pray! This is a great opportunity to respond to the Lord's call to proclaim his good news with a very practical means of parish evangelization!
"Everyone is asked to do as much as possible
to ensure that the great challenge
of the year 2000 is not overlooked,
for this challenge certainly involves
a special grace of the Lord
for the church and the whole of humanity."
- Pope John Paul II TMA #55
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