Called To Holiness: Spirituality for Catholic Women

Tapping the spiritual riches of Called to Holiness

“There are many ways you can tap the riches of the Called to Holiness series. We’d like to offer you a list of versatile and adaptable ideas for your use in a catechetical setting.”

By Lisa Biedenbach
Editorial Director, Books

Folks working in pastoral ministry know well that making lists comes with the job as you consider ideas for faith sharing and spiritual growth in your parish or diocese or with a particular group of adults.

You might even have a love/hate relationship with lists. On one hand, you deal daily with long, sometimes daunting lists of things to do in your ministry as catechists, directors of religious education and diocesan directors. On the other hand, you enjoy the creativity and flexibility your job allows as you develop and shape programs for adult faith formation.

For all of you pastoral list-makers, we offer a list of versatile and adaptable ideas for using the Called to Holiness series in a catechetical setting.

Ten ways to mine the treasures of Called to Holiness

To help you get started listing the ways that you might use the Called to Holiness resources with your parish, organization or group, here are ten ideas:

Start a spiritual book club in your parish or neighborhood or circle of friends. Prepare a bulletin insert or flyer to send by snail mail or e-mail to women you want to share your faith with and who can join you on your spiritual journey. Begin the book club by reading Making Sense of God: A Woman's Perspective.
Create an Advent or Lent multi-session faith formation program for women using Making Sense of God or Living a Spirituality of Action: A Woman's Perspective as the basis.
Use any of the books for one-day or evening women’s retreats or days of recollection.
Hold four times annually evenings of recollection for your parish bereavement ministers to read and discuss Grieving With Grace: A Woman’s Perspective. Each of the four evenings can focus on a particular section of the book as it deals with Advent, Lent, post-Lent and Ordinary time.
Present Grieving With Grace as a gift to anyone in the faith community who has lost a loved one in the past year. Deliver the book a few weeks after the funeral, with a note promising prayers and support during this difficult time. Then, near the feast of All Souls, November 2, invite these grieving parishioners to meet for prayer, a potluck supper and discussion of Grieving With Grace.
Focus justice and peace and social action groups and volunteers on how to live out the gospel. Discuss Living a Spirituality of Action.
Give copies of Living a Spirituality of Action to young adults and other parishioners preparing for mission and service trips.
Excerpt snippets of each book in your weekly church bulletin and add a question or activity that helps people to relate the book’s contents to daily life.
Work with your diocesan staff and other parishes to invite a Called to Holiness author to speak at a day or evening of reflection for women.
Work with your school principal and staff to integrate Making Sense of God or Living a Spirituality of Action into in-service days for teachers and administration.

We’re interested in how you choose to integrate Called to Holiness resources into your ministry. Send us your ideas and successes by clicking Contact Us. We’ll make another list—or two—and share your ideas here!

posted Thursday, October, 2, 2008