Mary Mack joins the Diocese as our Charism Discernment Process Coordinator.  She spent over 20 years at St. Kilian Church in Youth Ministry and as the Director of Evangelization and looks forward to accompanying those who are exploring their spiritual gifts.  She holds a Bachelor’s Degree from University of California, San Diego and was part of their first National Championship Women’s Water Polo Team.  In her spare time, she loves to cook, travel and spend time with her first grandson, Hudson.

Mary will be supporting the Called and Gifted Process which is a key step in our catechist formation process as well as an opportunity for anyone to discern their charisms, given in Baptism and Confirmation. Mary can be reached at [email protected]

 In January, the PEFF liaisoned with Divine Renovation USA on a workshop for the recent Winter Gathering Days for priests.  Authors of PREACHING ON PURPOSE,  Fr. Alex Colautti, CC and Fr. Simon Lobos, CC offered inspiration and practical steps for increasing the impact of preaching.  The assembled priests also received a copy of their book.

Upcoming monthly 2^nd Tuesday virtual meetings for Faith Formation leaders will focus on two new initiatives.

One, RADIATE LOVE  from the California Conference of Catholic Bishops will provide resources, communication content and frameworks to catechize intentionally across all age groups on the Church’s understanding of God’s plan for marriage.

The second, from the USCCB is called EVANGELIZING CATECHESIS and is intended to foster deeper conversations between all the strategic partners in ensuring that the work we do in Faith Formation is fruitful in forming missionary disciples.

 We are excited to see that In January two LILY Endowment, 5 year grants were announced that will directly support the work of Faith Formation programs in better responding to the needs of families.

The  recently re-juvenated NCCL (National Community of Catechetical Leaders) received New $1.5 million grant for a project titled  Parents and Families at the Center of Faith Formation  NCCL tells us “….The Project will explore how to strengthen faith transmission at home in the first two decades of life, and create parish communities that intentionally accompany and support parents and the whole family ….resources and approaches will be created to assist parish communities in accompanying parents and developing a seamless approach to faith forming at home and in the parish community.”

We are watching these developments closely and hope to participate in one of the 20 diocesan cohorts that will be part of this project. 

In addition to the NCCL grant, another 5 year grant of $1.25 million was awarded to the family owned and well respected publisher THE PASTORAL CENTER  to equip, train, and support leaders to coach parents to share faith with their children. More news is promised – and we’re on the “early update” communications list.