Evangelization Supplement

Sharing the Word: Small faith communities transform the Church

By Mary Ann Wyand

When the priest prayed, he often contemplated a map of the world as a reminder that Jesus is a gift from God for all people.

Father Jose Marins, a Brazilian priest and author who is internationally known for his ministry with small Christian communities, shared that story about a Jesuit mentor in Rome during his Feb. 16 speech at St. Barnabas Parish in Indianapolis.

His keynote address was part of the Convocation for Small Faith Communities sponsored by the archdiocesan Evangelization Commission.

“The small Christian community will always be a mystery … in the tradition of the Church,” Father Marins said. “The Church is the socialization of the mystery of God so Church is a mystery. It is the power of the Spirit … [and] the inexhaustible gift of God.”

Small faith communities are “a concentration of the Church in communion with the parish,” he said, just as “an embryo is a concentration of a person.”

During 35 years of traveling the world to minister to Catholics in many countries, Father Marins has heard fascinating stories about the life of the Church.

In one small faith community in a Third World country, he said, none of the community members could read so they were unable to share Scripture with each other from the Bible.

Instead, their love for God compelled two members of the faith community to walk about two hours to another village every week, Father Marins explained, where an educated man read the Gospel passage for the coming Sunday to them.

After memorizing the Scripture passage, he said, they returned to their home and were able to proclaim the Gospel to the people there.

This contemporary faith story is an example of life in the early Church communities in the years after the Resurrection, Father Marins said, when Christians passed the word of God to each other through stories told in small groups that met in homes.

In small faith communities today, he said, “we are repeating the pastoral experience of the early Church [through] the Middle Ages.”

The domestic Church continues to give life to the larger Church through the prayers of small groups within parishes, Father Marins said, as “the visible, efficacious sign of Jesus.”

The Church is comprised of “people living Jesus’ style of life,” he said. “A small [faith] community is a surprise of the Spirit, … a living cell of the reign of God.”

But in more affluent countries, he said, Christians often are evangelized by the consumer society and are not evangelizing others as a missionary people.

“People are becoming consumers of the sacraments,” Father Marins said. “Some places have become much more [of] a corporation than a Christian community.”

Father Marins said parishes and small faith communities can learn from the examples of the early Church communities and the work of the Second Vatican Council.

“For we Christians, our vocation is the world, not the sacristy,” he said, “in the sense that every day we need to look at the world and ask, ‘How is the reign of God going on?’ ”

Throughout the world, he lamented, Latinos are leaving the Catholic faith for membership in charismatic Protestant Churches.

“In Latin America, millions leave the Church,” Father Marins said. “In the United States, the bishops said the Latino migrants are the ones who are leaving the Church in a big percentage. We are happy because [Latinos] are present in our celebrations, but for each one that is there you can count 10 [Hispanics] that are not there. They are going to the different Christian traditions.”

He said the majority of Christians only share the “experience of Church” during liturgies on Saturday or Sunday.

“The goal of the Church is [to promote] the reign of God,” Father Marins said. “Mission is a style of life. We are missionaries in our way of life. … The future of the Church is a multicultural Church.”

In Africa, he said, “there is a saying [that translates as] ‘Small people doing small things make big changes.’ ”

And that, Father Marins said, is the essence of small faith communities.

A member of the theological reflection team of CELAM, the Latin American Bishops’ Conference, and an adviser to the Brazilian Bishops’ Conference, Father Marins helped research and write The Church from the Roots and The Church in a Small Scale: The Process of Setting a New Direction, published by Claretian Publications.

From 1973 until 1979, he served as a consultant to the Pontifical Secretariat for the Unity of Christians.

St. Monica parishioner Jean Galanti of Indianapolis, who participated in the convocation in spite of a bad snowstorm, said Father Marins spoke with passion and experience about how small faith communities have transformed the Church in many parts of the world.

“Father Marins was a participant at the Second Vatican Council,” Galanti said. “Inspired by the council’s vision of Church as the people of God, he has spent a significant part of his priestly life promoting that vision. Since 1971, he has led the Marins Team, an itinerant Latin American team who travel the world advising local Churches seeking to bring to life the vision of Vatican II. Establishing small faith communities—Base Ecclesial Communities—is a key component of their strategy.”

Recently, Galanti said, she read that “for nearly 80 percent of U.S. Catholics, Sunday Mass is their only connection to their Catholic faith. Small faith communities are an effective, proven way to help average Catholics strengthen the connection between their faith and everyday life.”

She has been active in the small Church community ministry at St. Monica Parish for a number of years.

“The vision and strategies of small faith communities are applicable to any parish ministry,” Galanti said, including adult faith formation, evangelization, stewardship, social justice, the Rite of Christian Initiation of Adults, Christ Renews His Parish and Disciples in Mission. †