The Forty Weeks Leader's Guidebook

We provide these resources to help you find the most fruitful avenues with Forty Weeks: An Ignatian Path to Christ with Sacred Story Prayer, in whatever ministries you guide or direct. The Forty Weeks book was designed to be a self-directed prayer journey that can be experienced by an individual Catholic or Christian seeking a more personal connection with Christ in daily life. Forty Weeks is also designed to be used in group settings for parish renewal, RCIA, Campus Ministry and other adult faith formation evangelization efforts in your Catholic or Christian communities. This program guide to the Forty Weeks journey is a school of prayer and a path to reconciliation and spiritual discernment. The more people who annually make this journey in your faith community, the more dynamic your church or parish will become. You will have more volunteers, more support and more will want to join a community whose individuals know Christ personally and share his message with others.

A Special Note to Pastors and Faith Formation Leaders
 
We have discovered with our work in multiple parishes in the Archdiocese of Seattle that the involvement of the pastor in the Forty Weeks process is vital for its long-term fruitfulness.
 
The pastor does not necessarily have to do the Forty Weeks program with his parishioners. However, those who have experienced its graces do become convinced of its power and want to share it with their flock.
 
However, it will make your program very, very effective if the pastor can offer some weekly encouragement to the group(s) making the journey (a comment at the end of Sunday Mass; a note in the weekly bulletin or a message on the parish website; a prayer in the Prayers of the Faithful on Sundays, a prayerful encouragement at a faith-sharing group meeting monthly; etc.).
 
Parishioners do follow the lead of the pastor and how you support those making this serious engagement with their faith is important. I strongly believe that if pastors prayerfully support those making this journey, the benefit will be the 30,60, and 100 fold Jesus promised in the Scriptures.
 
This program is a school of prayer, reconciliation and spiritual discernment. The more people who annually make this journey, the more dynamic your parish will become. You will have more volunteers, more support and more will want to join a community whose individuals know Christ personally and share his message with others.
 
We are all being called by the New Evangelization to make our faith evident to the world. Forty Weeks can be great help in your local faith community. It is a program that will grow annually and in 3-5 years, your community will be transformed.