The Synod Parish Consultation with Small Groups is underway in parishes across the Archdiocese of St. Paul and Minneapolis. The consultation includes a series of six, two-hour sessions, each with prayer, teaching and an hour of discussion around aspects of three topics: 1. Forming missionary disciples who know Jesus’ love and respond to his call, 2. Forming parishes that are in the service of evangelization, and 3. Forming youth and young adults in and for a Church that is always young. Sessions 3 and 4 hone in on the second topic through discussing welcoming parishes, collaboration in parish ministry, liturgy and the Sunday experience, and sharing the Gospel in word and deed.
Ideas surfaced during the small group discussions will be shared and refined in the Synod process, leading up to a pastoral letter by Archbishop Bernard Hebda in November 2022, followed by a pastoral plan. Archbishop Hebda has asked every parish to hold this Small Group series, and he is encouraging every Catholic in the archdiocese to participate. Check your parish’s website or bulletin for your parish’s small group meeting schedule. Learn more about the Archdiocesan Synod at archspm.org/synod.
Among local Catholics appearing in the videos are converts and “cradle Catholics,” who were raised in the Church but came to a deeper love of Christ as young adults. The following is a sneak peek into the faith journeys of the Synod Small Group video readers in Sessions 1-4. They share their stories in more detail in related videos found here.
Gerardo Moreno is a musician, teacher and parishioner of St. Odilia in Shoreview with his wife. A native of Venezuela, he coordinates music for Hispanic ministry at his parish. “I basically grew up in Church with my family, and I have found myself recently reconnecting to more of authentic Catholic life experience, getting to know more about some other aspects that maybe as we grow up, we take for granted,” he said. “I’ve rediscovered that and feel like, ‘Wow, I need to live this a little bit more radically.’” For Moreno, that includes a connection to the arts, especially singing and songwriting that reflect his heart and faith. He recently wrote a song about contemplating the Eucharist, inspired by the writings of Blessed Concepción Cabrera de Armida, a laywoman and mystic who died in 1937 in Mexico. “That was for me like a revival with the Eucharist,” he said, especially in a world where many Catholics don’t understand the Real Presence. At the heart of the song is the message that in the Eucharist, Jesus is present, real and “waiting for us,” he said. Moreno is a reader for the Spanish versions of the Synod Small Group videos.
Ryan O’Hara is a parishioner of St. Peter Claver in St. Paul and content director of St. Paul’s Outreach in Inver Grove Heights. He and his wife have four teenage sons adopted through foster care. Growing up, O’Hara’s mother was church organist and he was with her in the choir loft at Mass each weekend. “But while I grew up in church, it took a long time for the Church to grow up in me,” he said. “It was in college when I first heard the Gospel message. And I was given a chance to hear it, but also, most importantly, a chance to respond to its promises. And in so doing, I heard that God loves me, has a plan for my life.” During college, he had taken “a pause” from practicing his faith, but through a small, ecumenical group of Christian men, he returned through a deepened encounter with Jesus in the sacraments. “It was like the sacraments were bringing new life to me that I never knew was there,” he said. “It was like I had always watched the small black and white television, and now, all of a sudden it was like wide screen, high definition. And I was eager to go to Mass. I was eager to go to confession. I finally understood what it is we were doing.” O’Hara is a reader in the English version of Sessions 1 and 2.
Melina Arguello Sotro is a parishioner of the Cathedral of St. Paul in St. Paul. A native of Argentina, she works at the University of St. Thomas as the coordinator of the Latino Scholars program in the Department of Catholic Studies. “When I think about my faith journey, I think a way to think about it is like the prodigal son, prodigal daughter,” she said, “sort of finding myself in a really miserable place in my life where I realized I didn’t like the life I was living.” She was raised Catholic, but in high school hit “rock bottom” with unhealthy relationships and friendships, she said. “I realized that he (God) wants something different. And so that was the moment where I was like, ‘I need to change what I’m doing.’ And then I was filled with a sense of hope that there is something better for me and God actually is calling me into that.” The years since have been filled with growth and healing, she said, including earning a Catholic Studies degree and having a “COVID wedding” last year. Arguello is a reader for Spanish Small Group videos and the English versions of Sessions 1 and 2.
Patrick Conley is the host of Practicing Catholic, a weekend radio show on Relevant Radio 1330 that’s produced in collaboration between the archdiocese and Relevant Radio. He is also a traveling presenter with the Colorado-based Catherine of Siena Institute. He and his wife live on a hobby farm in Wisconsin. Conley was raised in a mainline Protestant Presbyterian church, and felt close to Jesus from a young age. He got involved in evangelical Protestantism while in college. He later moved to England to pursue studies at a Church of England seminary. “And it was there that I first started wrestling with the claims of Catholicism,” he said. “Some buddies of mine and I would meet every week in the pub and we’d talk about Catholicism. And sure enough, now all three of us are Catholic.” He and his wife were received into the Church at the Cathedral of St. Paul in 2010. Conley appears in the English version of Sessions 3 and 4.
Meisha Johnson is a former TV journalist and mom of two daughters who is now coordinator of mission at St. Joseph of the Lakes in Lino Lakes. She calls her journey to the Church “a very long and twisty story.” She was raised in Blaine with little exposure to religion, and as a young adult was “kind of just going wherever the secular winds will blow,” she said. But, while working in Philadelphia, God got her attention in a dramatic way. “Some would call it a spiritual awakening in my living room while I was vacuuming in 2008 that knocked me to my knees, quite literally. And that changed my life,” she said. “I don’t like to usually say conversion happened first. It was really a moment of confusion, which led to ultimately full conversion.” She ultimately returned to the Twin Cities to pursue biblical studies at Bethel University, which led her to consider Church history and Catholicism. She joined the Church, dove into evangelization ministry and is now completing a master’s degree in sacred theology through St. Joseph’s College in Maine. Johnson appears in the English version of Sessions 3 and 4.
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