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
Editor’s Note (Sept 2025): A revised version of this reflection was recently published in the magazine Those Who Mourn. You can read the updated version here: Our Lady of Sorrows: A Ministry of Presence.
September 15 is the Memorial of Our Lady of Sorrows. In her role as Our Lady of Sorrows, Mary becomes the mother who cries with us when we are suffering.
When Simeon prohpesied at the temple that a sword would pierce her heart, did she know what that sword would be? Did that prophesy fill her with dread? Did she pray desperately to God to avoid it, even as she taught her young son to seek and obey God's will in his life? As she listened to Jesus cry out on the cross, "My God, My God, why have you forsaken me," (Mt 27:46) did she feel abandoned by God?
In her role as Our Lady of Sorrows, Mary becomes the mother who cries with us when we are suffering.
When Simeon prohpesied at the temple that a sword would pierce her heart, did she know what that sword would be? Did that prophesy fill her with dread? Did she pray desperately to God to avoid it, even as she taught her young son to seek and obey God's will in his life? As she listened to Jesus cry out on the cross, "My God, My God, why have you forsaken me," (Mt 27:46) did she feel abandoned by God?
Mary lived in a different time and place. Her experience of daily living was nothing like mine in the details. She didn’t have the convenience of electricity, for one thing. Her vocation was outlined in a very different way.
And yet, I find that the Mother of God and I do share the humanity of suffering. As she stood at the foot of the Cross, she must have felt the full cascade of emotions and the brunt of sorrow. The three days before Jesus rose must have been torture.
It’s easier to lean back into the arms of someone who’s been there. I look to Mary and see the careworn face of a wife, daughter, and mother who has known the burden of everyday life, the small stings and the big burns. I turn to Mary and I feel the comfort of someone who has survived the suffering and offers me the same graces.
Sarah Reinhard, Integrated Catholic
May she who followed her Son to Calvary help us to follow him, carrying his cross with serenity and love, to reach the joy of Easter. May the Virgin of Sorrows especially comfort those who are facing the most difficult situations. (Pope Francis, March 24, 2013)
In her role as the Sorrowful Mother, Mary shows us how - in a life filled with suffering - there is also grace. When we are despondent and feeling hopeless, Our Lady of Sorrows can be a wellspring of hope. She can cry with us in the midst of pain. She can pray with us through our heartbreak. She can wrap us in the comforting warmth of her motherly mantel and just be with us.
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- Written by: Kristin Bird
One reason many of us don't pray more often or better is because we have questions and uncertainties about prayer. We worry that we’re doing it wrong or that it’s not really working. One of the best ways to combat the neutralizing effect this doubt can have on your prayer life is to remember that prayer is a gift.
Prayer Comes From God
“[Prayer] is not what we do but what God does in us, how God loves us, addresses us, looks at us, enlightens us, forgives us, heals us, purifies us and eventually transforms us.”
Dominican Nuns Ireland Family Day Address (www.dominicannuns.ie)
God is constantly seeking us. Like the father who daily scanned the horizon for his prodigal son, God waits patiently for us. Prayer is the gift, given to us by God, to respond to His call and to seek him in return.
Every moment of prayer begins, not with us, but with God’s call to us - the desire for union with him that he has placed deep within our hearts. Our prayer is a response to that call. As the Catechism of the Catholic Church says,
“Prayer is both a gift of grace and a determined response on our part. It always presupposes effort” (2725).
Prayer is Relationship
It is time spent with someone you love. To pray is to speak and then to listen; to communicate on a more personal and profound level and to grow in understanding, respect and appreciation of the other.
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- Written by: Burning Hearts Team
These resources help parish leaders, catechists, and small groups hear the Gospel, respond to Jesus, and prepare to share him with others. Choose according to the people in front of you and the formation step they need. A group exploring faith may need a welcoming series; a team preparing to evangelize may need proclamation practice.
The kerygma is the proclamation of Jesus Christ, crucified and risen, and the invitation to respond to him. These tools serve that encounter through prayer, honest conversation, and personal accompaniment.
Before choosing a resource, return to this question: What difference has Jesus made in your life?
Recognizing the Gospel’s movements in your own story helps you speak from lived faith and listen to another person’s experience.
For younger audiences, see Proclaiming the Kerygma to Children & Youth.
Lead a Group Through the Gospel
Choose a series that fits your group’s readiness and the time your team can give to hospitality, conversation, and ongoing accompaniment.
Group series: Alpha in a Catholic Context
BY: ALPHA
Alpha creates space for people to explore faith through hospitality, talks, and honest conversation. Its eleven-week format can work online or in person, with time for guests to ask questions and share what they think. Consider it when you have people willing to invite friends and a team prepared to listen, welcome questions, and accompany participants as they explore a relationship with Jesus.
Small group series: Discovering Christ
BY: CHRISTLIFE
Discovering Christ offers seven sessions and a day retreat, combining a meal, prayer, video teaching, and small group conversation. It invites adults to explore life’s deepest questions, hear the Gospel, and encounter Jesus. The subsequent courses, Following Christ and Sharing Christ, support continued discipleship and preparation to share faith. Consider it when your parish has a team ready to accompany participants through an initial encounter and into ongoing growth.
Film & discussion series: Sycamore
BY: SYCAMORE
Sycamore combines short films with discussion about Christian faith and everyday life. Its twenty core films can be arranged into pathways for enquiry groups, OCIA, sacramental preparation, and adult formation. Choose a pathway that fits participants’ questions and readiness, with room for personal conversation and accompaniment. Core films and resources are free with registration; additional SycamorePlus courses require a subscription.
Small group series: The Rescue Project
BY: ACTS XXIX
The Rescue Project is an eight-week small group experience built around Gospel proclamation, food, conversation, and prayer. Its nine video episodes can serve people exploring Christianity and Catholics seeking a renewed encounter with Jesus. Consider it when you want the Gospel story to shape a shared experience, with time to discuss and respond personally. The videos are available free.
Small group study: CCO Discovery
BY: CATHOLIC CHRISTIAN OUTREACH
Discovery is a six-week study that presents the Gospel simply and invites a personal response to Jesus. It is the first of five CCO faith studies and includes a leader guide with practical help for facilitating conversations. Consider it for a small group ready to explore the core Gospel message directly, with a leader who can make room for questions and accompany each participant’s response.
Support Encounter and Personal Response
Make room to receive the Gospel and respond in prayer. Use reflection tools at the pace participants need, allowing each person freedom over what they share.
Encounter reflection: Kerygma Experience
BY: DIOCESE OF GREEN BAY DEPARTMENT OF NEW EVANGELIZATION
Use this participant guide after a kerygma proclamation to help people reflect on what they have heard and experienced. Its questions support personal prayer and group conversation about the movements of the Gospel, new insights, and the help participants need to continue growing as disciples. Allow time for reflection before inviting anyone to share.
Video proclamation: Proclaiming the Kerygma
WITH: FR. JOHN RICCARDO
In this forty-five-minute talk, Fr. John Riccardo proclaims the Gospel through the reality of sin and death, Jesus’ victorious rescue, and the invitation to respond in faith. Use it for personal viewing or a facilitated gathering, allowing time afterward for quiet prayer and conversation.
Best fit: Adults, parish leadership teams, and retreat groups seeking to hear the Gospel personally before preparing to share it.
Personal response: Examination of Conscience
FROM: BURNING HEARTS DISCIPLES
Responding to Jesus in Faith, Hope, and Love offers a prayerful examination after a Gospel experience or retreat. Use it for private prayer, Adoration, or preparation for Confession. Questions invite gratitude for grace and honesty about choices that need repentance. In a group setting, allow quiet reflection without expecting participants to share their answers.
Retreat day: Kerygma — A Proclamation of the Gospel of Jesus Christ
BY: BARBARA MASON REED
This Catholic, Bible-based retreat invites participants to encounter Jesus through hearing and responding to his Word, drawing on Scripture and Church teaching. It offers an opportunity to receive the Gospel personally and renew the gifts and graces of Baptism and Confirmation. Consider it when a dedicated retreat day, with room for prayer and response, fits your community better than a weekly series.
Prepare to Proclaim
Use these tools to clarify the Gospel and practice speaking it. In an actual conversation, attend to the person’s questions, experience, and openness.
Shared understanding: Kerygma Defined
BY: BURNING HEARTS DISCIPLES
Use this handout to establish a shared understanding of the Gospel proclamation before planning how to share it. Scripture references and quotations from Church documents and saints support prayer and reflection; the questions on the back invite team discussion. It can help leaders keep Jesus and the invitation to respond at the center of their work.
Proclamation practice: Kerygma in Your Own Words
BY: BURNING HEARTS DISCIPLES
This four-page worksheet helps you prepare to share the Gospel with one real person in mind. Express the five movements in your own words, practice aloud with a partner, and refine your invitation. The guide also offers suggestions for continuing the relationship when someone responds, hesitates, needs time, or declines.
Gospel booklet: The Ultimate Relationship
BY: CATHOLIC CHRISTIAN OUTREACH
The Ultimate Relationship is a short booklet for sharing the Gospel clearly and personally, with an invitation to respond to Jesus. Consider it when you want a simple aid for a conversation with someone open to hearing more. The provider’s training videos demonstrate how to use it; preparation and attentive listening remain part of the encounter.
Explore The Ultimate Relationship
Also available in Spanish and as a free digital download.
Use a Book, Podcast, or Film
These resources can support personal reflection or open a group conversation. Give participants time to connect what they read, hear, or watch with their own response to Jesus.
Book study: Under the Influence of Jesus
BY: JOE PAPROCKI
Joe Paprocki explores how a personal encounter with Christ changes everyday life and helps Catholics articulate and live their faith. Consider it for readers or a book discussion group seeking to connect what they know about Jesus with their own relationship with him. Leave room for participants to reflect on their experience and identify a response they can bring into daily life.
Podcast: The Rescue Challenge
BY: ACTS XXIX
Fr. John Riccardo leads listeners through a fourteen-day journey into the Gospel story. Daily prayer reflections invite renewed hope in Jesus and what he has done for us. Use it for individual prayer or as a shared listening practice with space to reflect together. The Rescue Challenge is also available on the Hallow app.
Film: MOST (The Bridge)
DIRECTED BY: BOBBY GARABEDIAN
This short film follows a bridge operator and his young son through a devastating choice, opening conversation about love and sacrifice. Consider it as a starting point for reflection alongside a clear proclamation of the Gospel. Preview it before a group screening: its depiction of a child’s death is emotionally intense and calls for thoughtful facilitation.
Preview the film on YouTube → · Download the MOST discussion guide →
Choose one resource that fits the next step your community needs, and plan how people will be accompanied afterward. Reassess its usefulness through their questions, responses, and growth.
Have a resource to recommend? Let us know.
Continue exploring the kerygma
Return to the Gospel proclamation, make space for personal encounter, and explore how to help others receive and respond to Jesus.
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- Written by: Burning Hearts Team
Resources to help children and teens hear the Gospel, respond to Jesus, and grow in discipleship. Choose according to their age, questions, and readiness, with time for prayer, conversation, and ongoing accompaniment.
The kerygma is the proclamation of Jesus Christ, crucified and risen, and the invitation to respond to him. Children and teens need to hear this Good News in language they can understand and connect with their own lives.
Young people can experience God’s nearness, receive his love, grow in friendship with Jesus, and share what they have received. Give them room to wonder, ask questions, and respond freely.
“Let the children come to me, and do not prevent them; for the kingdom of heaven belongs to such as these.” — Matthew 19:14
Begin with Family and Lived Faith
Children encounter faith through the people closest to them: how adults pray, forgive, serve, and speak about Jesus. Parents and grandparents need opportunities to receive the Gospel themselves and support in sharing it through ordinary family life.
Help families name moments of grace, pray together, and talk honestly about their relationship with Jesus. Parish and school formation can support these relationships while also accompanying children whose families are less connected to faith.
For parents, catechists, and youth leaders, begin with this question: What difference has Jesus made in your life? Recognizing the Gospel’s movements in your own story helps you speak from lived experience.
For the adults who accompany young people, see Kerygma Resources for Adults & Small Groups.
Share the Gospel with Children
Use stories and lessons that make the Gospel clear, then allow time for children to ask questions and pray.
Picture book: The Garden, the Curtain, and the Cross
BY: CARL LAFERTON AND CATALINA ECHEVERRI
This illustrated book traces the Bible’s story from Eden through Jesus’ death and resurrection to God’s new creation. It introduces children to God’s love, the separation caused by sin, and the way Jesus opens for us to be with God. Use it for family reading or a shared story in faith formation, pausing to hear what children notice.
Best fit: Children who enjoy picture books, accompanied by a parent or catechist.
Planning tool: Kerygma Storybooks Chart
BY: LOYOLA PRESS
This chart pairs the five movements of the kerygma with Scripture passages, traditional prayers, and children’s books. Use it to choose a story that opens conversation about a particular movement, then connect that story explicitly with Jesus and the Gospel.
Best fit: Parents, catechists, and teachers planning family reading, classroom conversations, or sacramental preparation.
Book: Dragon Slayers
BY: JOYCE DENHAM
Writing as Sir Wyvern Pugilist, Joyce Denham uses dragons, knights, and spiritual armor to explore Christian faith and the challenges of following Jesus. Its imaginative approach can engage adventure-minded children and open conversations about temptation, forgiveness, courage, and dependence on Jesus.
Best fit: Elementary and middle school readers. Use alongside clear Gospel proclamation and Catholic teaching when discussing sin and Reconciliation.
Explore the companion study guide for leaders and teachers →.
Lesson plans: Kerygma 4 Kids
BY: ANITA HOUGHTON
Kerygma 4 Kids offers grade-level lessons that proclaim the Gospel through Scripture, guided meditation, videos, and activities. Each lesson invites children to discover God’s personal love, respond in friendship with Jesus, and find language for sharing the Good News. Use it within existing parish or school formation.
Best fit: Kindergarten through eighth grade. Elementary lessons are approximately sixty minutes; middle school lessons are approximately ninety minutes.
Video & prayer resource: Kerygma for Kids
BY: OPENLIGHT MEDIA — DOMINICAN SISTERS OF MARY, MOTHER OF THE EUCHARIST
This resource presents four movements of the Gospel story: creation, sin, God seeking us, and salvation in Jesus. Videos are accompanied by prayer, guided Scripture reflection, coloring pages, and other downloadable materials. Consider it for family faith formation, a classroom, or a parish group where children can watch, reflect, and pray with an adult.
Best fit: Children ages eight and older. Available through a course purchase or Openlight Media Plus membership.
Film & discussion series: Alpha Youth
BY: ALPHA
Alpha Youth creates space for young people to explore life, faith, and purpose through videos and conversation. The current series includes ten episodes over eight weeks, exploring Jesus, salvation, prayer, the Holy Spirit, and Christian community. Consider it when your team can offer hospitality and listen openly to young people’s questions.
Best fit: Primarily ages thirteen to eighteen; assess suitability for younger participants.
Small group series: The Invitation
BY: YDISCIPLE
This four-session Catholic series helps teens explore what it means to follow Jesus, hear the Gospel, and grow within Christian community. Approximately fifteen-minute videos are paired with discussion, activities, and prayer. Leader training, participant guides, and parent sheets support the adults accompanying the group.
Best fit: Ongoing teen small groups, with separate leader guides for ages eleven to thirteen and fourteen to eighteen. Available through purchase or subscription.
Film & discussion series: The Search Begins
BY: AUGUSTINE INSTITUTE
Adapted specifically for teens, this seven-episode series connects questions about identity, meaning, happiness, suffering, and God with Jesus and his invitation to relationship. Teen commentary and shorter segments create opportunities for conversation with parents, teachers, youth ministers, and peers.
Best fit: Middle and high school students exploring why faith matters, particularly in parishes or schools with Formed access.
Small group study: CCO Discovery
BY: CATHOLIC CHRISTIAN OUTREACH
Discovery is a six-week study that presents the Gospel simply and invites a personal response to Jesus. The leader guide supports intentional small group conversations. Consider it for older teens ready to explore the Gospel directly, with a leader who can adapt the conversation to their experience.
Best fit: Older teens and young adults; review the materials for your group’s maturity and reading level.
Small group experience: The Rescue Project
BY: ACTS XXIX
This eight-week experience combines Gospel proclamation with a meal, conversation, prayer, and a half-day retreat. The provider identifies it for ages twelve and older. Consider it for teens ready to engage the whole Gospel story with consistent adult accompaniment. Preview the content and follow the provider’s guidance for the more challenging material in chapters three and four.
Best fit: Ages twelve and older, with prepared facilitators. Videos and digital hosting resources are free.
Share the Gospel in a Personal Conversation
Use a simple aid when a young person is open to hearing more about Jesus. Listen to their questions and allow them freedom in how they respond.
Gospel booklet: The Ultimate Relationship
BY: CATHOLIC CHRISTIAN OUTREACH
This short booklet helps you share the Gospel clearly and personally, with an invitation to respond to Jesus. Use it in a conversation with a young person, allowing space for questions rather than rushing through the pages. The provider’s training videos demonstrate how to use it.
Best fit: Middle school and high school youth, with attentive adult accompaniment.
Explore The Ultimate Relationship
Also available in Spanish and as a free digital download.
For parents, catechists, and youth leaders preparing to proclaim, Kerygma in Your Own Words offers practice with one real person in mind.
Open a Conversation with a Video
These videos can prompt reflection with teens. Preview them for your group, connect them with a clear proclamation of Jesus, and allow participants to choose what they share.
Music video: How He Loves — Spanish
Use this Spanish-language music video to open reflection on God’s love and a young person’s response to Jesus. Begin with what participants noticed, then offer a question for private prayer or voluntary conversation.
Ask: “What stood out to you?” or “What would you like to bring to Jesus in prayer?”
Best fit: Middle school and high school youth, particularly Spanish-speaking groups.
Video: Falling Plates
BY: CRU
Falling Plates uses visual imagery to open a conversation about life, brokenness, and Jesus. Let participants describe what they saw before offering an interpretation. One or two open questions can help you hear their experience and recognize where further conversation might be welcome.
Ask: “Which image stayed with you?” or “What questions did this raise for you?”
Best fit: Middle school and high school youth.
Choose a resource that fits the young people entrusted to you, and plan how their questions and responses will be accompanied afterward. Keep parents and caregivers connected with what children are hearing and give families simple ways to continue the conversation at home.
Have a resource to recommend? Let us know.
Continue exploring the kerygma
Return to the Gospel proclamation, make space for personal encounter, and explore how to help others receive and respond to Jesus.
