Is there someone in your life that needs a personal encounter with Christ? Maybe a family member or a friend has entertained the idea of entering into Rite of Christian Initiation of Adults (RCIA), but just needs that final little push? Or a Catholic who has left the Church and is thinking of coming home?
“Encounter,” a two-day retreat offered by the Evangelization Office of the Archdiocese of Denver, seeks to fill that need and help those seeking Christ in the Catholic Church to encounter him in a personal way through hearing and responding to the Gospel.
What makes Encounter different, according to Scott Elmer, director of the Office of Evangelization, is that it is geared toward those who would benefit from hearing the Kerygma preached in an authentically Catholic way.
“Simply, the Kerygma is the announcement about Jesus Christ, his life, mission, and saving actions,” said Elmer. “It is related to the ‘Gospel’ which, before it was associated with Jesus, was associated with new emperors and kings to announce a new kingdom.
“That is precisely the way in which we, 2,000 years later, are still called to preach the Kerygma, to announce the Kingdom of Jesus Christ and invite all men and women into it.”
The retreat will include sessions of worship, teachings, personal stories and prayer, and retreat organizers state that “each person will take an individual journey to experience the love of God the Father, freedom in Jesus Christ and a new life in the Holy Spirit.”
ENCOUNTER Retreat When: Sept. 29-30 Where: St. John Paul II Center for the New Evangelization Cost: $25 More information: archden.org/eflm/encounter/
Caption: The oldest surviving panel icon of Christ Pantocrator, c. 6th century. Credit: Photo courtesy of Wikimedia