Jan 22 2026 Empowered to S.E.R.V.E. ChristLife hosted our Strengthen Gathering in September 2025 for all friends of ChristLife: team members, course participants, and supporters. We heard messages of encouragement and hope to strengthen us as disciples of Jesus Christ, and helpful guidance for those offering ChristLife in their communities. One of those talks was a panel of ChristLife parish leaders. Dan Amabile, practitioner and leader at St. Magdalene Parish (Flemington, NJ) was part of a panel presentation entitled, “Empowered to Serve: Revitalize our Calling.” One of Dan’s roles on his team is to train the facilitators and helpers. He called it “building a grassroots family of faith.” Dan shared a catchy five-point acronym “SERVE” he uses with his team to emphasize the foundation of our calling, and as a way to continue to revitalize what the Lord has called us to do. S – Spiritual Battle Awareness Do we know we are engaged in a spiritual battle? It’s normal to face trials. These challenges are the signs that you are endeavoring to preach the Gospel and advance the Kingdom, because the evil one doesn’t like it. Expect spiritual attack when serving God. E – Embrace Your Gifts Each of us is uniquely gifted by God. It’s a responsibility and a joy to use them. R – Renew Your Calling We must continually revisit our motivations and reignite our passion. “God’s gifts and callings are irrevocable” (Romans 11:29). Go back to your first love. Consider the fruit of your labor—the lives you’ve touched. V – Validate and Confirm One Another It is essential to confirm the powerful ways you’ve seen the Lord working… it convicts us and helps us stay in the fight. We are raising up missionary disciples. Hearing the testimonies of real conversions is impactful. E – Equip and Encourage What are the tools needed to persevere? Annual retreat for the team for additional prayer and development? A mutual commitment to each other? Noticing and encouraging others in their gifts? Remember, our calling is noble and dignified!
Jun 17 2025 Expand the Vision OCIA at St. Louis Catholic Church in Clarksville, Maryland By: Lisa White St. Louis Catholic Parish in Clarksville, MD has offered the ChristLife process since 2010 and has touched over 1,200 individuals. “We are always looking for creative ways to use the ChristLife process to bring more people to Christ,” explained Leo Rudegeair, ChristLife coordinator at St. Louis. As part of expanding ChristLife within the parish, Discovering Christ was integrated as an essential part of the RCIA faith formation process. Fr. Michael DeAscanis, Pastor of St. Louis/St. Francis Pastorate, has a heart for reaching new souls for Christ. He relayed that RCIA is not just a series of classes, but rather a way to grow in the knowledge and love of Jesus Christ through the Catholic Church. He noted that Discovering Christ is a way to move from the educational “head knowledge” of Jesus to a relational “heart experience” of Him. Pope Benedict said “Faith is not primarily an idea to be understood or a moral precept to be followed, but a person to be encountered. That person is Jesus Christ.” Father DeAscanis recognizes that having the emphasis on developing a relationship with Jesus Christ at the beginning of the RCIA process is critical. The Fall 2023 offering of Discovering Christ at St. Louis/St. Francis was scheduled with RCIA in mind. The entire parish was also invited to participate and 90 participants were enrolled in the course; almost one half of them were enrolled in RCIA. The participants engaged in the course with enthusiasm, enjoying the weekly meal and fellowship together. The talks were well-received and stimulated enriching and meaningful discussions about the meaning of life, having a personal relationship with Jesus, and understanding the Gospel message. The Holy Spirit retreat was a compelling experience of the presence and power of the Holy Spirit for many of the participants. Feedback from one person expressed it well, “Through Discovering Christ, I personally experienced God’s love in a profound way. I realized I needed to have a real relationship with the Lord and I needed to establish a community for support.” Father DeAscanis highlighted the benefit of fellow RCIA candidates sharing a meal, teachings and conversation for 7 weeks, along with friendly spiritual discussions. He said the format encouraged the catechumens to openly discuss life, their struggles and questions, making the rest of RCIA more fruitful. Deacon Frank Sarro, Director of RCIA, relayed, “Discovering Christ was a perfect fit for those who participate in the RCIA process. It provides them with a solid opportunity to explore who Jesus is and to express their thoughts in a prayerful and faith-filled environment.” RCIA candidates will continue their journey toward becoming fully initiated into the Catholic Church, then will be invited to participate in the next Following Christ course offered after completion of RCIA. Our hope at ChristLife is that many more parishes creatively use the ChristLife process to draw more of the lost and fallen away back to Christ.
Apr 01 2025 Creative Adaptations: Running Discovering Christ in a Public High School By: Colin Reitmeyer The American public school system has been overrun by ideologies opposed to Christ and His Gospel: transgenderism, abortion, secularism, and other deceptions are taught regularly. After my conversion to Catholicism in my freshman year, I went through the ChristLife Process at my parish, which further inspired me to share the Lord with my peers. The next year my parish ran Discovering Christ again, and I invited dozens of fellow teenagers to come hear the Gospel. Due to multiple stumbling blocks, particularly busyness or lack of transportation, very few of them were able to attend. It was then that this idea struck me: What if, instead of bringing high schoolers to ChristLife, we brought ChristLife to the high schoolers? This year, my senior year, I endeavored to run Discovering Christ weekly, after school, in a classroom. First I needed to get the club approved by the administration, and by the grace of God, it was approved. Next I needed to find a teacher willing to sponsor a new club. Unfortunately every teacher I’d had either couldn’t commit or wasn’t willing to, so I prayed, and the Lord prompted me to send out an email to every teacher at the school. The Lord was faithful, and I found a teacher to sponsor my club! I couldn’t run the courses alone, so I recruited fellow Christians of all denominations to help serve as facilitators and inviters. In this small context, Catholic, Eastern Orthodox, and Protestant Christians were able to unify together to spread the Gospel in a public high school! I needed to make adaptations to the usual formula, like cutting worship, cutting the videos in half, shortening the meal, and creating new discussion questions that better apply to teens. We were able to condense the sessions into 65 minutes. Me and my team invited all our friends, and at lunch we invited dozens of students to join us. In our first session, 35 students came and heard how Jesus Christ is the meaning of our lives! Over time, we experienced some attrition, and at this point we have a strong group of 10 students. We certainly had some challenges early on in the course, like rowdy participants talking during the teaching, and students trying to take food and then leave early. As we lost the non-serious participants, the discussions got better over time, and now around the end of the course, we are all comfortable sharing our faith with one another. I’m so grateful to the Lord for making this possible, and to all the donors who generously gave to support the costs of the course, like food and supplies. The fruits of the course have been bountiful. In total, over 65 teenagers from all different faith backgrounds heard at least part of the Gospel proclaimed! The seeds of the Gospel were spread to lukewarm Christians, atheists, agnostics, Muslims, Jehovah’s Witnesses, and many others! One student, who had only recently discovered that Christianity is true, had been praying at the start of the year for community with fellow Christians, and just a week after that, the club started! He is now seriously considering converting to the Catholic faith! Another student who was a lapsed Catholic was hesitant to join the club because he was trapped in serious sin, but early on in the course, his brother and I shared with him about the redemption of Jesus, and he ended up repenting, going to Confession, and now he comes to Discovering Christ every week! Multiple participants have told me and the team how through Discovering Christ their faith has become an essential part of their life. Colin Reitmeyer is an 18-year-old high school student, and current intern at ChristLife. Colin has a passion for evangelization, and is continuing the club the rest of the school year.
May 24 2024 A Pastor Invites His Flock to Discovering Christ Fr. Chris Argano, pastor of St. Mary’s Church in Washingtonville and St. Columba in Chester, NY, recorded a simple, heartfelt invitation for his flock to attend Discovering Christ. Every parish running the ChristLife Process should consider this powerful type of invitation.
May 24 2024 How to Make Your Discovering Christ Course Fruitful I love hearing testimonies from people whose lives have been transformed through Discovering Christ, and I love sharing them when we have a training conference! Testimonies give glory to God and they inspire all of us to keep evangelizing! I often have future ChristLife leaders ask me, “How can we get testimonies like you shared for our parish?” If you put together a bookshelf without following the instruction manual and found a spare piece of wood when you finished, would you trust it to function properly? Similarly, if you take the time to pray and plan for Discovering Christ without following the manual and leave out key pieces, do you believe it will be as fruitful as it can be? If you want to see many lives transformed, my advice is to read the manual. Then read it again. And read it again every week prior to each session. Follow all the instructions we have provided. We created this guide for you! We want your courses to be successful. We want you to bear much fruit for God’s glory and we don’t want you to worry about how to make it successful. When we evangelize, we fully rely on God’s help, but there are things we need to do in order to be genuine to the Discovering Christ course. Over the years, a few parishes have called us and told us their courses didn’t have the same results we have witnessed. As we talk to them more, we hear things such as: They forgot to play the video parable. (It is on a separate DVD and should be played right after the teaching on week 3.) They weren’t able to book a room the same night for the entire course, so they alternated nights each week. (We recommend you plan ahead and book the parish calendar with the same day of the week for 8 consecutive weeks plus the retreat day.) They didn’t feel the team needed to be trained. (Yes they do! And everyone from hospitality, facilitators, helpers and technology should all be trained!) We’ve even heard some parishes chose not to offer the Holy Spirit retreat the way we designed. I spoke with one pastor who didn’t think his parishioners would be open to the prayer time. When he didn’t hear of any testimonies, he realized he neglected an indispensable part of Discovering Christ! He ran the course again and followed the manual and the course exceeded his expectations! He had so many testimonies and he was really thrilled. These tips and more are outlined in the Discovering Christ How to Run the Course guide. The How to Run the Course Guide was prepared by ChristLife team members and experienced parish practitioners, all of whom run ChristLife at their parishes. We’ve been running Discovering Christ since 2007. Over the years, we’ve all tried new things to improve the course. Some things worked well and some… let’s just say, didn’t get the results we expected! But the bottom line is the How to Run the Course guide contains the best of the best tips from our experienced practitioners. So, what are some things you can do to prepare your team for a fruitful course? 1. Give each core team member a copy of the How to Run the Course Guide. You can read through it together as a group or have people read it individually and come back together to discuss how to implement each area. For example, your parish may decide to ask volunteers to prepare meals. You can browse some of our best recipes for easy bulk meals. Or get the meals catered if your parish has a budget for meals. The main point is that you need to provide a free meal for your guests! Please don’t eliminate the dinner, because it’s a vital part of Discovering Christ. This is the time people get to know one another. Week after week, they are building trust so that when it comes time for small group discussion, they feel comfortable opening up with each other. We also don’t recommend changing people from one table to another or adding new guests after week three. All of this is shared in the manual. 2. Another area is training your team! It’s really important for your entire team to be trained. You may even want to have an additional training session for facilitators and helpers. You can play a Discovering Christ video for them and have small group discussion as a team. In addition to the Small Group Facilitator Guide, give them each a copy of the Small Group Situations download. These are only a few of the things we cover in the How to Run the Course Guide. Our website also has a lot of information and is updated regularly. We are confident that if you follow the manual and pray regularly, your courses will be successful! We are here for you if you need to talk with anyone on our team. Be assured of our prayers for you, too!
