The Life-Changing Magic of Missionary Discipleship
No really, it's not about the rabbits. Even though rabbits are very, very cool.
This morning in my Twitter feed: “We changed everything in our lives and have never felt closer to God.”
In this short essay there are very few details about the specific life-changes this couple made as a result of their early formation in missionary work and spiritual contemplation, though apparently it involves rabbits, which I generally consider to be a good sign. Okay, I’m playing around a little bit. The essay is from a Catholic organization with a charism of environmental stewardship, and so it is normal that this couple’s vocational experience would reflect that charism. The message today is not “everyone who loves Jesus is called to organic farming.”
Rather, I want to draw your attention to this:
We had two incredible graces as soon as we got married: going on mission for a year to New Zealand, and then being able to live for more than a year and a half with a community of contemplative monks in Mexico.
During these experiences is where everything began – our deep conversion to be more human, more true, more real, and to be truly Christian.
I am here to say that bit of backstory is 100% relevant to ordinary Catholics in regular parishes, even though most of us will never travel the world, never take a “mission trip”, and quite possibly we’ll never so much as attend a weeklong retreat. We’re just normal people with comparatively “boring” lives.
And yet: This is the pattern. So what’s the pattern? It’s that good old relationship-based evangelization and discipleship that I will never, ever shut up about.
This is obtainable. This is something that can happen in your parish, just as you are. Your budget, your time constraints, your staff limitations . . . these are not what is holding you back.
You don’t need to send missionary couples around the world, you just need to send out regular-folk missionaries from your parish into the neighborhoods, workplaces, and recreational gatherings of your immediate surroundings. Not a single parishioner needs to change jobs or hobbies to become a full-time missionary. You can evangelize right where you are, while doing the things you were going to do anyway. It’s a mindset and a way of life that will utterly transform your experience of God, if you’ll just give it a chance.
(Though by all means send out the overseas missionaries if that’s something your parish is called to sponsor, there’s nothing like personal contact back and forth between home and abroad to invigorate the work. One of my major tutors in the work of evangelization and discipleship was a diocesan missionary priest to Peru who sent home regular letters talking about what he was doing in the parish he served overseas, and how it all worked. We never met. We never corresponded personally. But his work bore massive fruit in my life all the same.)
Likewise, even though there is valuable formation to be had living among a community of contemplatives . . . your parish is capable of providing that needed formation right at home. Not only can you? You must.
It’s not complicated. Set regular weekly times and places when parishioners can gather to pray the prayers of the church and then stay a little longer after for a brief formation encounter. No, it’s not the same as living in a monastery for a year . . . but it’s all the more powerful because week after week this contemplative moment is like a trip to the gas station, topping off the spiritual tank and fueling another week of loving Jesus in thought, word, and action.
These two ingredients are life-changing. Weekly prayer and discipleship, in combination with intentional efforts to evangelize? That’s it. That. is. the. recipe. That is what you do.
And I promise it will only lead to free-range rabbits if in fact God is calling you that way — in which case, you’re gonna love the rabbits. But we can’t all be rabbit-people, so the odds are your vocation is a little bit different? And that will be very good too.
Photo: Ancient selfie of me and the late Miffy the Bunny, one of the rabbits that came into my life because I wholeheartedly followed my mostly-not-exotic vocation. I was not a rabbit person before I started doing what God called me to do. But He works in mysterious ways.
Quick recap for new readers — welcome and thanks for being here — if you’re wondering where to start in doing all the things:
Begin with Marcel LeJeune’s Contagious Catholic for the 101 on what relationship-centered evangelization and discipleship is, and the most important things about how it works. If you can only read one book, read this one.
Use my book, The How-To Book of Evangelization, for an overview of how all the pieces-parts of parish-centered evangelization and discipleship fit together, as well as primers on key skills and loads of mindset-coaching. It’s okay to start with the chapters that seem most pertinent to you individually, though eventually you’ll want to read the whole book. Strongly, strongly recommended for anyone (staff or “just” volunteers) in parish leadership trying to get a handle on how to do the thing.
If you’re a readerly-type and you need more info and background before you’re willing to believe me and Marcel LeJeune, have you read Sherry Weddell’s seminal work Forming Intentional Disciples? If you want hard research on why parishes are closing and people of all ages are drifting away from the faith, this is the go-to. Reading level is equivalent to what you get here at One Soul at a Time, and it’s an engaging read.
Susan Windley-Daoust’s invaluable 101 Ways to Evangelize is a compact, super-readable compendium on ideas for how to just get started already. Fantastic resource.
Head’s up: For mine and Sherry Weddell’s books, Our Sunday Visitor Bookstore is having a Memorial Day sale, 30% off from Saturday, May 28 through Monday, May 30. Use code MDAY22 at checkout.
I would keep an eye out at other retailers and publishers as well for newly-emerging promo codes (The Catholic Company doesn’t have anything up at this writing, but they are good about running periodic sales, so get on their e-mail list if you frequently buy books for yourself or others); if your budget is tight, all of these can be purchased second-hand if you troll your usual suppliers for such things.
UPDATE: Catholic Company’s Memorial Day Promo code is MEMORIAL, good for 15% off orders over $35. Expires end of day 5/30/22.
And no, I don’t get any affiliate kickbacks, helping you build your library is my love language.