Dear Friends of St. Edna:

Christ Renews His Parish is a renewal process, which calls together the
members of the parish in order to experience personal renewal, and
thereby renew the entire parish community. It includes evangelization,
formation, shared ministry, community building, prayer - and usually much
laughter.

The process (or retreat weekend) will begin on Saturday morning and
conclude early Sunday afternoon.

So what is it? It is hard to explain the experience of CRHP - it has to
be EXPERIENCED. In some ways, it is comparable to a retreat. The
weekend is led by a team - the former participants of the previous
weekend, who have spent 4 to 6 months in formation. There is a lot of
witnessing by team members, group and individual prayer, small group
participation. Hopefully, among the participants, there will be a number
who will discern to participate in a time of formation, then present the
weekend for the next group of participants.

I have experienced the Christ Renews His Parish process as one that is
very powerful. For me, a parish community needs to be about
spirituality. We have to continually seek ways of building upon our
spiritual lives. We need to encourage prayer - both personal and
communal. We need to seek out people's giftedness, and help them to
discern God's will for use of that giftedness. I believe that Christ
Renews His Parish is ONE way of accomplishing that. Perhaps through this
process we can uncover other ways of doing so.

Christ Renews His Parish is not a secretive society; as I mentioned
above, it is difficult to explain the process in this limited space - it
needs to be EXPERIENCED. Christ Renews His Parish is open to every adult
in the parish. To begin the process we had to discern a group of men and
a group of women who would be invited to the first weekends. Invitations
are both personal and general. You may be invited by letter, or you may
receive an invitation through the pulpit or bulletin. Whichever way you
are invited, please know that all are welcome to this process; and we ask
that you be open to this manner of renewal. But also be aware that
because of our limited space, if you respond too late, you may be put on
a waiting list, or have to put off the weekend until the next time.

If you have further questions, please feel free to contact me at the
parish office. We do have spaces available for the upcoming Men's
and Women's Weekends! I also ask for your prayers for the success of this
process of Renewal.

Perhaps in the past you have faced little challenge to your spiritual
development; perhaps even now you are in need of some sort of spiritual
renewal. Consider one of the upcoming weekends - it could change your
life!

Peace, Love, Joy!
Fr. Steven G. Dombrowski