July 2023 The readings this month urge us to open our eyes, ears, and hearts to the love of God and call of Christ to put God first in our lives. Doing so will change us when the seeds of faith take deep root and we grow in readiness to live as faithful people in our world. In this month in Ordinary Time, when many will break away for vacation, let us remember that faith is never ordinary, nor should we ever take vacation from our commitment to Christ as disciples and live good and faithful stewards.
June 2023
In this month of June, we focus on the mystery of the Trinity, reflect deeply on the presence of Christ in the Eucharist in the Solemnity of the Body and Blood of Christ, and return to Ordinary Time. This month, the Church in the United States begins a Eucharistic revival, a time in which to appreciate more deeply the gift and call of the Eucharist. I hold you and your people in prayer in this time. May we all be nourished and strengthened as Christ’s Eucharistic people.
May 2023
In this month of May during which we are immersed in the Easter season, we hear the story of the spread of Christianity through the Acts of the Apostles, and we are reminded in the Gospels that Christ is present with us. In the first letter of Peter, from which we hear throughout this month, that Christ is the living stone, and that, like living stones, we are to let ourselves be built into a spiritual house. It is this call to be living stones, to contribute to the building of God’s kingdom on earth, upon which we focus in Impact this month.
April 2023
The resurrection of Jesus Christ is truly good news! This month’s issue of Impact is devoted to bringing this key tenet of our faith to life. As we journey through this month, from Palm Sunday of the Lord’s Passion, through Triduum and into the Easter season, let us give witness to the impact of life, faith, and hope in our Lord Jesus Christ. I pray you and your people have a most blessed Triduum and Easter and that the coming season is filled with grace and new life.
March 2023
March 2023 Lent is always a season in which to invite people to be more intentional in their life of faith, discipleship, and stewardship. This month’s issue of Impact encourages people to open their eyes, ears, and hearts to the voice and call of the Lord, to grow in trust of God and truthfulness in prayer, and to more fully appreciate the mystery of God’s love which is poured out in Jesus Christ and given to us in the Eucharist. I pray Lent is a fruitful season for you and your people. - Leisa Anslinger
A pastoral note about Impact this March and April: since Easter falls in the middle of April, the March issue focuses on Lent, while the April issue will focus on Triduum and Easter joy.
February 2023
In this period of Ordinary Time and the beginning of Lent, our focus for Impact is the challenge and freedom of discipleship. Jesus tells us we are the light of the world, the salt of the earth. We must encourage one another to bear the light of Christ, to bring the light to all forms of darkness, in our own lives, and the lives of others.
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Link to Web Edition: https://www.gratefuldisciples.net/february-2023
January 2023
Blessings in this new year of our Lord, 2023! As we begin this year, the Sunday readings invite us to walk in the light of the Lord and to share the light with others. Jesus pitched his tent among us to cast out every darkness and all that separates us from God. We reflect on this great gift and our call to share Christ’s light in this month’s issue of Impact. I hold you in prayer as you journey into the new year with your people.
This January issue is the final complementary issue of Impact, which has been offered free of charge for the past year. The 2023 issues will include brief clips to share on social media and the full articles via a web page that can be shared on websites or via email blasts as well as the PDF and Jpeg files and leaders guide. I hope you will consider subscribing for 2023 here or contact me here for an invoice.
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December 2022
In the month of December, we will celebrate the entirety of the Advent season, Christmas eve and day, and the Feast of the Holy Family of Jesus, Mary, and Joseph. December is always busy for pastors, parish leaders, and their people. Since this month includes two seasons, this issue of Impact features reflections on Advent and Christmas with the hope that this resource may provide encouragement for your people to celebrate “the reason for the season.” I will hold you in prayer as you help your people celebrate God’s great love for us in Jesus Christ. May you be filled with great joy!
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November 2022
November 2022 The month of November is often filled with activity in the parish as well as in the other aspects of our lives. “Black Friday” and “the Christmas season” advertisements will be plentiful, as will reminders of the days, count them, days, to Christmas. Maintaining attention on the presence of God and the call of Christ can be challenging this month. Still, November holds promise, as we celebrate All Saints and All Souls days, gather for Sunday Mass, and join with family and friends for Thanksgiving. This month’s issue of Impact invites people to become more readily aware of the many blessings in their lives, to make Christ’s presence known through their stewardship of their life, gifts, and resources, and to spread Christ’s kingdom of truth and life, holiness and grace, justice, love, and peace. May your November be blessed with every good gift.
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October 2022
October 2022 As is the case in all three liturgical cycles during the autumn, the Sunday readings this month invite us to take the call of discipleship to heart. For many who are with us during the celebration of the Sunday liturgies, the demands of discipleship sound harsh. Yet Jesus’ teaching must be heard with the great love of the Master in our hearts and minds. I will pray for you and your people this month, that you may hear the voice of the Lord speak to you in love as you embrace the call to become more Christ-like and share God’s love with the world.
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September 2022
For many, September is the return of the regular routines of life, school and work, parish, and family. Our Sunday readings this month remind us that the life of discipleship calls us to responsible stewardship rooted in humble trust of God’s infinite and outlandish love for us. I pray that you and your people will find hope and challenge in the gospel this month. May our regular routines may be filled with the extraordinary love of God, shared among us and beyond us. — Leisa Anslinger
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Spanish: PDF. PDF Gray. Jpeg 1. Jpeg 2. Impact Leaders
August 2022
August 2022 Each issue of Impact features the tag line, “Bring faith to life. Find life in faith.” Since in many ways, this month’s readings focus on faith, this issue of Impact is a reflection on the role of faith in our lives. Does our faith really direct the way in which we live, how we gather and use material possessions, the ways in which we interact with others? In the month of August, we celebrate the feasts of St. Monica and St. Augustine. We look to Monica as a model of steadfast prayer and witness when one we love does not have faith or struggles with the Church; we turn to Augustine to learn how to remain open when faith and/or belonging to the Church are difficult. As we continue to enjoy the more relaxed pace of summer, I pray that you and your people will be renewed in faith, ready to be good and faithful stewards of the blessings of life, grace, and love. — Leisa Anslinger
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July 2022
This month’s readings ask us to reflect on the place of God in our hearts and lives. Where our people’s understanding of love may be influenced by movies, television, and articles on the internet as much or more than by the Gospel, we have a great opportunity to invite them to ponder the ways God’s love may make a difference in their lives, and through them, the lives of others. May you be filled with the warmth of the sun and of God’s love in these summer weeks of Ordinary Time.
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Spanish: PDF. PDF Gray. Jpeg 1. Jpeg 2. Impact Leaders
June 2022
June 2022 In June, we celebrate the fullness of the mystery of God through pivotal feasts and solemnities: Pentecost, Holy Trinity, Body and Blood of Our Lord Jesus Christ. Each invites us to focus on who God is and who we are called to be as God’s people. This month’s issue of Impact is an extended reflection on the Holy Spirit, ever-present and yet often-hard-to-understand. We pray this month in a particular way for an outpouring of the Holy Spirit upon you and all in your community.— Leisa Anslinger
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May 2022
May 2022 As is always the case during Easter, we ponder readings from the Acts of the Apostles each Sunday of the season. In a moment in which many people are weighed down by the effects of pandemic, economic instability, war, and polarization in the Church and the growing secularization and pressure to leave active practice of the faith behind, the stories of the early communities of believers may rouse our commitments to be Church in our time. This is our focus for the May issue of Impact. May you find hope, light, and peace as you live and proclaim the Good News of the Risen Lord this Easter season.— Leisa Anslinger
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April 2022
We enter into April with hearts that are full — filled with the grace of God, which we have witnessed and experienced in the season of Lent, and which now leads us to ponder the fullness of Christ’s Paschal Mystery in the sacred Triduum and the Easter season to come. In order to bring faith to life this month, we must hear the story again, for the first time. Even as we experience the horror of war, we must ponder and celebrate the story of God’s undying love for us in Jesus Christ. This month’s issue of Impact includes encouragement to participate and reflect deeply upon the Triduum and to embrace the life of the believer, the life of Christ, which is poured out on the cross and shared with us in the Eucharist. May you and all in your community be filled with grace and peace in this holy season.
Please note that the April issue in Spanish is slightly different than this month’s issue in English.
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Spanish: PDF PDF Gray Jpeg 1 Jpeg 2 Impact Leaders
March 2022
As we enter into Lent, we invite people to make the season one that will have lasting impact on their life and faith. We place ourselves alongside Jesus on his journey to Jerusalem, and take up the practices of prayer, fasting, and giving with renewed commitment. We pray you and your people find meaning at the foot of the cross in this holy season.
A pastoral note about Impact this March and April: since Easter falls in the middle of April, the March issue focuses on Lent, while the April issue will focus on Triduum and Easter joy.
English: PDF PDF Gray Impact Leaders
Spanish: PDF. PDF Gray Impacto Leaders
February 2022
This month, we focus on love. While we might say that every reflection on the message and call of Christ is that of love, the Sunday readings this month lead us to reflect on love in a very mindful and intentional way. As you lead your people to take to heart the great love of God and their call to reflect this love in every possible way, may you be filled with this love and let it renew you in mind, heart, and spirit. — Leisa Anslinger
