Interview–Fr James Mallon –Divine Renovation author, Fr James Mallon, in conversation with Journey Catholic Radio’s Jude Hennessy at the 2023 Divine Renovation Australasia conference in Sydney. Fr James explains what drove him to write the book on parish renewal in 2014. How that book took on a life of its own, morphing into running conferences for parish leaders worldwide

The three key principles, using the power of the Holy Spirit, the primacy of evangelisation, and creating shared leadership, that move a parish community from being inward focused to being external evangelisers and the fruits of success that a parish enjoys by using these three principles.

Fr James explains the essentials for evangelisation that include finding the people who are energised and hungry for mission, are prepared to embrace change and lead others to join them in bringing others to Christ. It’s also using the right tools to proclaim the kerygma and stop being inward focused and become outward focused to those seeking a more fulfilling and rewarding life. It’s essential that we provide people an opportunity to enter the faith pool at the shallow end.

He then discusses how the non-Catholic Churches have used their experience in evangelisation to help the Catholic Church reawaken to successful methods of evangelisation. The importance of Alpha as an essential tool to enable people to discover God and his love of them. Fr James concludes by expressing his hope and vison for the future and how ordinary parishioners will allow God the cardiologist to give them a new heart to empower them to carry out Jesus’ great commission.

Wisdom from the Abbey–Mother Hilda–Accidents Happen (Mother Hilda’s story of the pastor, the critical sermon, a parishioner’s mobile phone going off just as the pastor reaches the pivotal point, the embarrassing exit, and the spilt beer after all the opinions were given on the situation. A story about listening with a compassionate ear and speaking with the voice of understanding. Mother Hilda says have a listen to the voice of God this week. You might get a surprise where it comes from. It might even come from the bartender.)

On The Journey This Week: Fr Mike Delaney’s gospel reflection for Good Shepherd Sunday. Mother Hilda says you’ll be surprised where you can hear God’s voice. Divine Renovation author, Fr James Mellon, continues his conversation with Jude Hennessy, plus Huw Warmenhoven tells us about the new tool from Alpha for Gen Z.

Alpha--Huw Warmenhoven—Life Essentials (Huw Warmenhoven tells Journey Editor Max Norden about the recent Open Generation survey of young shows that young people, particularly Gen-Z, want to share their Christian faith with their friends but often don’t know how to do that. Consequently, Alpha Australia has developed a new tool for this young adult group called “Life Essentials.” Life Essentials has been created by Alpha Youth Australia for young people to run with their friends. It is an ongoing series of short videos exploring identity, belonging, purpose, and faith. The videos are designed to spark faith conversations together with discussion questions. Each topic can be done on the go, in less than 20 mins! Young people can access this tool direct on the web at alphaone.io/life-essentials)

Gospel Reflection–Fr Mike Delaney—Speak Lord, Your Servant is Listening (This Sunday is traditionally called Good Shepherd Sunday. In the Gospel of John as we hear Jesus say to us, the one who enters through the gate is the shepherd of the flock. The sheep hear his voice. One by one, he calls his own sheep and leads them out and the sheep follow because they know his voice. We hear many voices which call us this way and that but how do we know which response to make? It would depend greatly on whether we recognise the voice of the shepherd or not. We have to learn to listen to him, and that means sometimes our prayer really does have to be the prayer of being silent in the presence of our God. To be able to say with the young Samuel, speak, Lord, your servant is listening.)

Alpha--Huw Warmenhoven—Open Generation Report (Huw Warmenhoven tells Journey Editor Max Norden about the recent Open Generation survey of young people which interviewed 28 thousand teenagers from across the world, including a significant number from Australia. Huw explains some of the key findings such as 22% of Gen-Z say they are committed Christians and another 30% say they are only nominal Christians and the remaining 48% are of other faiths or no faith. The survey also showed that those who had a strong faith belief also had a strong sense of community while those with weak, poor, or no faith belief also felt a lack of connect to the community. Huw will return in a couple of weeks with more on how Alpha is responding to this survey information.)

Wisdom from the Abbey–Mother Hilda–Who Do You Say I Am? (We’re all very familiar with that beautiful story from the gospel, where Jesus poses the questions to his disciples, who to people say I am? It's beautiful Peter, whom Mother Hilda disrespectfully calls Beloved Motormouth, who says, well you're the Christ, the son of God. In telling Jesus who Jesus is, Peter is actually telling and owning up to who, he, Peter is, and that can happen for you and me. The more we tell Jesus about who he is, the more we discover who we are. How about answering the question yourself today? You may well be surprised at what you hear yourself say. Who do you say I am?)

On The Journey This Week: Fr Mike Delaney’s gospel reflection, the road to Emmaus story asks us: do we want despair or hope? Mother Hilda on Jesus’ question: who do you say I am? Fr James Mellon in conversation with Jude Hennessy about Divine Renovation, plus Huw Warmenhoven from Alpha on results from a survey of young people on their faith beliefs.

Gospel Reflection–Fr Mike Delaney–Emmaus Road Choice: Despair or Hope? (Fr Mike says that in this Easter season we're being called to hear a much bigger story than just the news cycles. Our lives, like the lives of the early followers of the Risen Christ, we have a choice. We can choose to be downcast and defeated as the disciple son the road to Emmaus were because of what we've lost. Or we can decide to rise up with Christ and look at all the new possibilities that this time has opened up for us. We can be a sign of hope and life in our world because we truly believed that not only has Jesus risen from the dead, but he has breathed new life into our community.)

Interview–Fr James Mallon –Divine Renovation. Fr James Mallon in conversation with Jude Hennessy at the recent Australian Divine Renovation conference in Sydney. In this discussion Fr James explains what drove him to write the book on parish renewal in 2014. How that book took on a life of its own, morphing into running conferences for parish leaders worldwide. And the three key principles that move a parish community from being inward focused to being external evangelisers. These principles are using the power of the Holy Spirit, the primacy of evangelisation, and creating shared leadership, and Fr James explains the fruits of success that a parish enjoys by using these three principles.