Adult Faith Formation Theme 2023-24
Jesus came to give us life to the full, and there's clear steps we can take to follow Him more closely.
He is THE WAY to living life as it was meant to be lived.
The Greatest Commandment
“You shall love the Lord, your God, with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your mind. This is the greatest and the first commandment. The second is like it: You shall love your neighbor as yourself. The whole law and the prophets depend on these two commandments.”
Matthew 22:35-40
The Great Commission
"Go, therefore, and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all that I have commanded you. And behold, I am with you always, until the end of the age.” Matthew 28:19-20
"You shall love the Lord, your God, with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your mind."
"You shall love your neighbor as yourself."
"...make disciples of all nations"
"You shall love your neighbor as yourself."
"...teaching them to observe all
that I have commanded you"
If we want to be mature Catholics, we can't say "I serve, that's my way of following Jesus," and never crack open the Bible.
Nor can we say "I go to Mass every Sunday and that's enough," and never know the names of the people we worship with.
Maturity in faith means engaging in all 4 steps.
Where are you in these four right now?
“I’m in! What can I do?”
Here are some next steps you can take…
Has the question ‘What is the meaning of my life?’ ever crossed your mind? What are we here for, what’s the reason behind this life? It’s a big question. Whether you believe in God or not or if you're active or inactive in your faith, we all ask it. We all wrestle with it in one way or another.
Do you want to live a life that has meaning? We don’t think anyone is neutral on this question. It's an impulse we all have. That goes for atheists, Christians, agnostics…all of us.
Christianity holds that life does mean something. And there is a Way to live life to the fullest.
Jesus said he came to give us life, full abundant, overflowing, complete life (John 10:10b). A Full life, one of meaning, IS accessible to us. You don’t have to wonder what you’re here for.
We CAN get there, and we get our directions from Jesus. We have to follow him if we want our lives to be full. And it makes sense. To find the meaning of our lives, we go to the source of life, and we follow.
So we’ve established that we all seek a life of meaning, and Jesus is the way to a life with meaning. So, how do we follow him?
Well, this entire fall, winter, and spring, we are doing a full court press to focus on the core aspects just that! By honing in on keys to following Jesus, we’ll also discover how to fill our lives with what really matters. To do what we were made to do.
So if you want to be spiritually healthy, if you want to give meaning and direction to your life and begin to more fully practice your Catholic Faith, engage with St. Joe’s this fall through spring. And that’s only the beginning.
We can only imagine the amazing things God can do. Stay faithful to following Jesus, and before you know it, we’ll be transforming Libertyville, Chicago, the country, and even impacting the world to be a place of lives well and fully lived...leaving any empty, flat, or two dimensional ways behind.
So, are you ready? Let’s do it.