During the June 5th, 2021 workshop at St. Vincent de Paul Elementary School, Bishop Louis Kihneman spoke to several Pastors, Deacons, RCIA Directors & lay ministers about the recent release of the Pastoral Guide for Evangelization & its importance to the RCIA Program. All parishes were invited to attend with their RCIA teams. Click this new article for an excerpt from the day.

"I've been incorporating Visio Divina with the students more since our last morning [staff] training, and they really enjoy it. What was neat yesterday was that since we talked about icons and the Iconoclast Movement in Ecumenism this chapter, I did Visio Divina with them with an icon of Our Lady of Perpetual Help. I was amazed at the little things they picked up on or that stood out to them and the meaning they derived from it. This is definitely a visual generation! It also gave us a good chance to discuss how the Western church and the Eastern church view religious art. I've never used an icon before for Visio Divina but I think I will intentionally pick more images to pray with that relate directly to the culture or time that we are studying, rather than just picking one that goes with the Gospel for the day." - Audrey Mayer - Teacher at Our Lady Academy

Contemplation is a gaze of faith, fixed on Jesus. "I look at him and he looks at me": this is what a certain peasant of Ars in the time of his holy curé used to say while praying before the tabernacle. This focus on Jesus is a renunciation of self. His gaze purifies our heart; the light of the countenance of Jesus illumines the eyes of our heart and teaches us to see everything in the light of his truth and his compassion for all men. Contemplation also turns its gaze on the mysteries of the life of Christ. Thus it learns the "interior knowledge of our Lord," the more to love him and follow him. - CCC 2715

"Meditation engages thought, imagination, emotion, and desire. This mobilization of faculties is necessary in order to deepen our convictions of faith, prompt the conversion of our heart, and strengthen our will to follow Christ. Christian prayer tries above all to meditate on the mysteries of Christ, as in lectio divina or the rosary. This form of prayerful reflection is of great value, but Christian prayer should go further: to the knowledge of the love of the Lord Jesus, to union with him."(CCC 2708)