News
Pastoral planning process: a time of discernment, discovery
This Advent, many Catholics throughout our diocese will be participating in a four-session program called “A Steward’s Way.”
We’ll be meeting in small groups in our parishes (and others will be meeting in our closed Facebook group) to reflect on our gratitude to God for the gifts of family and friends, our Church, our communities and our world.
Sounds like other faith-sharing small groups, right? But “A Steward’s Way” is unique, in that this is the beginning of a pastoral planning process for our diocese. How does sharing one’s faith connect to pastoral planning? Pastoral planning is different from other kinds of planning processes which many may have experienced. Our focus is on discernment, that Christian discipline in which we attempt to listen to God’s dream for us, which guides us to make a discovery that can lead to future action.
Since we are Catholics, we want to center that discernment process within our parishes. The outcome of the diocesan pastoral planning process will be a discernment, a discovery, of what God wants for our parishes.
-Catholic Missourian