![]() “As a recovering addict from a home where domestic violence and criminal activity were my norm, God broke into the midst of my despair with His hope and mercy. Lisa Campbell, 47, wife and mother of three, parishioner at Our Lady of Good Counsel in Plymouth and St. This will offer us all an opportunity for a new beginning.” ![]() We want and need beautiful liturgies that eternally point us to heaven and inspire us to be saints. We want and need the Church to be holy and good, transformed by the grace Christ has given us in the sacraments. We want and need the truth of the Gospel, not just the parts that make us comfortable. We want and need the truth, goodness and beauty that only Christ and His Church can offer. New beginnings is what I’m excited to see the Archdiocese of Detroit bring to the people. We get a taste of that place in the Eucharist - literally - when we come up to the Communion rail and receive Jesus Christ in His Body, Blood, Soul and Divinity. It reminds us that here is not our home we are made for another place. Seeing a beautiful liturgy with words, signs and gestures of heaven. It’s kneeling there in the confessional, confessing all of your sins, and hearing Jesus, through the priest, say, ‘I absolve you from your sins.’ New beginnings means learning about what is really happening at Mass. ![]() “New beginnings, to me, is walking out of the confessional after not going for 15 years like I did. Nick Switzer, 26, husband and father of a baby on the way, parishioner at Our Lady of the Scapular Parish in Wyandotte: We have to go forward to let the whole community know that Christ is alive.” Unleash the Gospel is about going out, evangelizing, looking at the needs of the community and bringing people together. I hope the Church continues coming out to the neighborhoods, because that is where the Church is. It is educational, spiritual, such a mix. When we come together and have fellowship, talking to one another, sharing our histories, our lessons and listening to one another, it is a wonderful experience. When I see that relationship happening (between the Church and the community), my heart leaps, and I can see that we as a Church are finally getting it. A Church that unleashes the Gospel needs the whole community. It’s also a good reminder that if I stumble, I can get right back on track. Every day I have to focus anew on Christ. “To me, ‘new beginnings’ is about taking a look at myself and asking, ‘What exactly is this mission I’m following? Is it Christ’s or the world’s?’ I like that phrase, ‘new beginnings,’ because it keeps it fresh in my mind that I am on a mission and every day is a new beginning to me. Joyce Shelton, 59, wife and mother of four, coordinator of RCIA at St. What does this look like? We asked parishioners throughout the Archdiocese of Detroit to share what “new beginnings” means to their own faith. “Recognizing that we cannot give what we don’t have, we continually seek to be refreshed in God’s presence and filled again and again with His love, so that it is His own love that we are giving away.” (Guidepost 1, The New Pentecost) Unleash the Gospel invites us to take up the spirit of “new beginnings” as a unified Church - globally and locally - and as individual disciples: What are we doing to share God’s love? Are we doing things that take us away from Him, or omitting things that could bring us closer? In this time of renewal in the Church, we are called to revisit the integrity of our own faith.
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