The Making Disciples Today Blog has reflections to help you grow in your journey of missionary discipleship, reviews on recommended Catholic evangelization resources, and practical insight on how to evangelize in your daily life.
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- Written by: Kristin Bird & Elizabeth Bird
In January, my college-aged daughter Elizabeth attended SEEK. She spent several days in an environment where faith was assumed to matter. When she came home, I asked her to write down what she noticed. Not as a critique or a debrief, but as an opportunity for discernment.
Parishes pour time, energy, money, and heart into young people. I’ve watched pastors and youth leaders carry that responsibility with real sacrifice. This is not written to diminish that.
Leaders need generational mirrors. We cannot see what we are standing inside. I'm sharing her reflection not because she is right about everything, but because formation requires the humility to listen across generations.
I know how much time, care, and love parishes pour into young people. I don’t write this as a critique, but out of an honest tension I’ve been trying to name. Being immersed in an environment where faith was assumed to matter awakened something in me that often stays inactive in parish settings, and I’ve been asking myself why.
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- Written by: Kristin Bird
What to Say When Someone Asks About the Ashes
We don’t presume to have the perfect response for every situation. But Ash Wednesday often opens brief, unexpected moments of encounter. What matters most is not saying everything, but responding in a way that is honest, human, and attentive to where the other person actually is.
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- Written by: Burning Hearts Team
How Accompaniment Can Help You Grow This Lent
Lent can tempt us to focus on endurance: how long we can last, how well we can stick to what we’ve chosen. But growth in discipleship doesn’t happen through effort alone. It happens through relationship.
Accompaniment is the practice of walking with another person in honest attention to what God is doing. It is not about fixing one another or keeping score. It is about staying present to grace together. That kind of holy friendship – rooted in shared desire for Jesus – is at the heart of both discipleship and evangelization.
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- Written by: Kristin Bird
There’s a small deck of cards I’ve kept around for years called Questions to Ask Before Giving Up.
I don’t pull it out when things are calm. I reach for it when the moment is already too full – when someone is overwhelmed, when the conversation starts looping, when another “helpful suggestion” would only make them feel more alone.
The questions themselves are simple.
They start with basic human physical needs like sleep, hunger, movement. They move on to emotional and relational needs like connection, fear, and joy. They encourage simple reflection on the story you’re telling yourself, and ask whether this is a one-off or the same wound again.
They don’t make decisions for you. They don’t fix the day.
They just slow it down.
And slowing it down is often the difference between a person staying open… or shutting down completely.
