Last Tuesday, I received a letter from the Vicar General of the Diocese, Fr. David Lies, stating that we are free to begin purchasing steel for the Discipleship Center. We are unofficially hoping to break ground at the end of October or early November. It is truly surreal to see what is possible when parishioners practice sacrificial stewardship, which not only brings personal joy but also yields abundant fruit for the parish. The Discipleship Center has been designed to create a homelike atmosphere that encourages adults to invest themselves in being disciples and making missionary disciples. Ultimately, discipleship involves stages of awakening, accompanying, and igniting parishioners in spiritual friendship with one another and with the Lord.

The word "awaken" refers to the first step in the discipleship journey. Before a person can enter into a flourishing relationship with the Lord, they need to be awakened and attracted to the truth, beauty, and goodness of this relationship. Jesus proclaimed the preeminence of this relationship so that we might have life and have it to the fullest (John 10:10).

Unfortunately, not many people experience this life and fullness. Why? Because it is not automatically given and is certainly not magic. God desires a burning union with us through the virtue of Charity. This virtue, Divine love, is bestowed upon us in baptism. It elevates our human nature for Divine participation and creates a vital bond between us and God. However, as stated in the Catechism of the Catholic Church, "this intimate and vital bond of man to God can be forgotten, overlooked, or even explicitly rejected by man" (CCC, 29).

When I was young, there was a spirit among my peers and some elders of rejecting any conversation about one’s relationship to God. There was an unwritten rule that you do not talk about personal faith, and most people simply had an aversion to it. Expressing faith outside of church was embarrassing for many. I experienced this attitude all around me and would not want to experience it again. Thankfully, this is not the problem I observe today, especially in our parish.

Our challenge and obstacle to living the faith intensely, as a spiritual athlete, often result from overlooking and then forgetting our "intimate and vital bond to God." There is less outright rejection of Christ; rather, the concerns, preoccupations, and activities of life occupy the bandwidth of our minds, emotions, and hearts. Simply put, living as the Lord's disciple just doesn’t come to mind that often because we are busy. After some time of overlooking the relationship, unfortunately, it is then "forgotten."

The Discipleship Center has been designed to shine forth as a light on a hill, to awaken, accompany, and ignite Magdalen adults as disciples of Christ.

I only have a couple things to update you about this month regarding the Discipleship Center. Over the past few weeks, I have been following up directly with parishioners who have yet to activate their pledges. These conversations have gone very well. Also, the architect and general contractor are working on the final designs and actual cost to build the Discipleship Center. Once we receive the completed design and estimated costs, we will present the plan to the Bishop’s Building and Design Committee for approval. I am not sure when this will happen. Hopefully, by the end of August.

As I have mentioned, the Discipleship Center is an expression of our parish’s mission to Be Disciples, Make Missionary Disciples in those individuals that have the most potential to effect the renewal of the Catholic faith, namely, our adult parishioners. In one of the most important papal documents on catechesis in the twentieth century, Catechesi Tradendae, “On Catechesis in Our Time,” Pope St. John Paul II stated that adults “have the greatest responsibilities and the capacity to live the Christian message in its fully developed form.” Discipleship is directed to living out in word and deed the Christian message, i.e., the fullness of life of Jesus Christ. You might think that the youth are the key to the future. That we should invest more in youth discipleship and faith formation. Well, he would question that approach in virtue of the following statement: “The world in which the young are called to live and gives witness to the faith which catechesis seeks to deepen and strengthen is governed by adults.” He implies that the young will be hampered in living and giving witness to the faith if we as adults are not fulfilling our responsibility. I believe that one of the devil’s tactics in our day and age is to hyper-focus on the youth and to give scraps to the adults. When this happens, both the youth and adults get scraps. It is rare to find young people living out the faith when the parents are not witnessing to it, no matter how great a Catholic School or PSR program fulfills its mission. 

Pope St. John Paul II exhorts us to restore adults to their proper role of leading the way of discipleship for our youth and society. For this reason, he stated that the “faith of these adults too should continually be enlightened, stimulated and renewed, so that it may pervade the temporal realities in their charge.” If you want to know what will be happening in the Discipleship Center—hopefully this time next year—you can bet it will be enlightening, stimulating, and renewing the faith life our adult parishioners in following the Master, Jesus Christ.

Ad majorem Dei gloriam,

Fr. John F. Jirak, Pastor

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I’d like to continue on with my Capital Campaign update from last week. I hold that the Tier 2 project of our For the Greater Glory of God Capital Campaign, namely, the Discipleship Center, is the most important for the future of Magdalen. Why? The Disciple- ship Center is being designed to be a place of encounter in order to build the two “lungs” of discipleship: a serious interior life of prayer and true spiritual friendship among the adults of our parish. We need both lungs to breathe properly and thrive. Prayer that has become a true spiritual life takes serious commitment, time, and learning. It is a rare bird that can cultivate a true spiritual life alone. In fact, I don’t believe it's possible. God created us for relationship with Himself and with one another. This is why spiritual friendship is the second lung in the life of discipleship. We need to accompany one another to go deeper, stay the course, and experience the true joy of discipleship.

For a long time, in fact, up until two years ago, I believed that the renewal of the Catholic faith depended on how well we formed our youth. Consequently, the strategy was to do everything to make our school truly Catholic, focused on prayer and discipleship and, most importantly, hiring teachers on fire for their faith. Three years ago after reviewing some discouraging surveys on Mass attendance among our students, I realized that we were not aligned for mission. Our work in the vineyard was not producing abundant fruit. From that moment, a conviction has lodged in my heart and mind: If we hope to have a Catholic parish that is thriving in the future, we can’t continue to keep giving our adults the leftovers. In other words, when it comes to the spiritual life of adults it is common to cut corners and to give the adults whatever is left over after covering the costs of school and youth programs. My realization was that we had the proverbial cart before the horse.

If our adults are not on fire with the faith, if our parents are not truly making Jesus Christ the center and priority of their lives, then we are actually giving our children the scraps. Parents are the first and most important disciple-makers in the life of their children. If the life of prayer is not burning in a parent and parents are not accompanying one another in spiritual friendship, very little will be passed on to their children no matter how Catholic or great a Catholic School professes itself to be.

We are entering into a new chapter at Magdalen. The building of the Discipleship Center is a manifestation of our belief that adults are no longer to receive the leftovers. The strategy to fulfill our parish mission—Be Disciples, Make Missionary Disciples—begins with us.

Ad majorem Dei gloriam,

Fr. John F. Jirak, Pastor

I also had the opportunity to present early designs and layouts to the Pastoral Council. I would like to share with you some of their feedback. The Building and Design Committee will review each of the ideas to determine the viability of incorporating them into the actual layout and construction of the Discipleship Center. Here are some of the ideas and feedback:

• Adding noise-proof walls into the building specs for the smaller meeting rooms to ensure small group discussion privacy.

• Incorporate some outdoor space adjacent to the Discipleship Center for groups to use for meetings and prayer.

• Ensure that the kitchenette is sufficient to meet the demands of the Discipleship Center’s use.

• Include technology for the use of media in the main space.

Within the next few months, I hope to have some final drawings and sketches of the Discipleship Center to display in the Gathering Space.

Ad majorem Dei gloriam,

Fr. John F. Jirak, Pastor