Last week I was coming out of St. Luke’s Hospital. I saw a young man sitting on the wall.

As I passed him, he told me that his girl friend was very ill. He asked me to pray for her. I said that I would and then I went to my car.

When I got to the car, I realized that I had missed a wonderful opportunity. If I had prayed with him, he would have understood the power of praying together. Would my sharing with him have provided him with an experience of God?

In the Gospel, Jesus asks the apostles who people say that he is. Peter shares that Jesus is the Son of the living God. It is upon Peter’s Faith that the church is built. It is in sharing his Faith that Jesus gives him the keys to the kingdom of heaven.

Sharing our Faith with others is the key that opens the kingdom of God. Sharing our Faith is the foundation of our Church.

Sharing our Faith means that we tell others what God means to me. We don’t need debates, or arguments or even discussions about our Catholic Faith. What people need is for them to hear about what God means to me, and what he has done in my life. This might be the key that opens up their own lives to God. Once the foundation is laid, then people will want to learn more about their faith because it is something that they have experienced.

Bishop O’Malley has mandated that every parish experience the process called RENEW.

The format is very simple. We will have a one-day Mission on Sunday, September 15

when parishioners will share their faith with us. We will have Mass together and a meal together.

For six weeks beginning in the first week of October, we will form groups who will meet once a week to talk about the meaning of the Holy Trinity in their lives. The next time that the groups will meet will be the six weeks of Lent. We will repeat this format for three years in preparation for our centennial celebration of the Diocese.

Our hope is that Renew will make our Faith more alive and that our parish will become more alive.