THE MISSION-DRIVEN PARISH AND DIOCESE

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THE MISSION-DRIVEN PARISH AND DIOCESE

• Spirituality and Practice the How of Mission

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THE SPIRITUALITY OF MISSION

• Pre-Vatican IIs perception of mission
  spirituality was that grace flowed from God
  through the missionary to the people
• Vatican II recovered the understand that Gods
  grace has been and continues to be present in the
  world, in people of other churches and
  denominations, in other religions, and in other
  cultures.
• In the context of mission there is a
  multidirectional movement of grace through and
  from the people to the missionary, and among the
  people themselves.

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DIALOGUE DISCOVERING HOW THE REIGN OF GOD IS
PRESENT

• Christians are to have a deep concern for the
  salvation of others and a profound respect for
  the ways they have already searched for and
  experienced God.
• The church not only gives of itself in service to
  the world and to the people of the worlds
  cultures but learns from its involvement and
  expands its imagination of the depths of Gods
  unfathomable riches.
• Dialogue is the normal and necessary manner of
  every form of Christian mission.
• Any sense of mission not permeated by such a
  dialogical spirit would go against the demands of
  true humanity and against the teachings of the
  Gospel.

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PROPHETIC DIALOGUE DISCERNING THE ALREADY AND
THE NOT YET

• Mission needs to be prophetic in speaking out
  against that which puts and keeps the poor in
  that state, in pointing out those aspects of
  culture that are contrary to the reign of God,
  and in maintaining that Jesus is the way, the
  truth, and the life.
• The spirituality and practice of mission go hand
  in hand.
• We need to develop a spiritual attentiveness and
  a discerning spirit for acknowledging and
  affirming Gods reign and the seeds of the word
  of God and for naming and uprooting those weeds
  that are contrary to the reign of God.
• The spirituality and practice of mission is done
  in the context of a community, both a church
  community and social/cultural community.
• The practice of this mission spirituality can be
  described as respectfully and humbly entering the
  garden or world of meaning of the other.

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PRACTICE OF MISSION

• In 1997 the US bishops issued a statement
  entitled Called to Global Solidarity
  International Challenges for US Parishes.
• This statement is founded upon the universal
  nature and social teaching of the church.
• The role of the parish is to challenge and
  encourage every believer to greater global
  solidarity.
• Solidarity implies seeing all people as brothers
  and sisters within Gods human family and being
  transformed in such a way that we act on behalf
  of the one human family, calling us to help
  overcome the divisions of the world.
• For the church of the American continent
  solidarity is the source of a commitment to
  reciprocal solidarity and the sharing of the
  spiritual gifts and material goods with which God
  has blessed them.

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QUESTIONS FOR REFLECTION

• Describe the link between spirituality and
  practice of mission.
• What three things can you do in your home,
  parish, or diocese as your next step in mission?

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DOWNLOAD WEBSITES

• Schroeders book (8 chapters)
• www.maryknollmissiontrips.org/training.htm
• Other resources
• www.maryknollmissiontrips.org/stmission.htm