Disciples of Jesus

MADISON  Bishop Serratelli was the main celebrant and homilist on Sunday, Jan. 22 during a Mass for the Young Adult Group of St. Paul Inside the Walls: the Diocesan Center for Evangelization at Bayley-Ellard here. He reminded the young people that “to be disciples of Jesus means that we are connected other people.”

Young adults and other faithful, who are associated with St. Paul’s, gathered in the evangelization center’s auditorium for the annual Mass, which was concelebrated by Father Paul Manning, its executive director and Diocesan vicar for evangelization; Father Kevin Corcoran, the Bishop’s priest-secretary: and Father Pawel Tomczyk, a St. Paul’s faculty member. Many members of the Young Adult Group, including its music ministry, participated in the well-attended 11 a.m. liturgy for the Third Sunday of Ordinary Time. They joined together afterward for a reception in the mansion of the center.

In his homily, Bishop Serratelli noted that the story of Jesus calling two sets of brothers — Andrew and Peter and James and John — at the Sea of Galilee to become his disciples (Mt 4: 12-23), that Sunday’s Gospel — shows that we must practice our faith in Christ in an interrelational way.

“The way we live our lives has an affect on others, even in terms of their eternal salvation. As disciples, we are here to influence one another. Like Jesus, we need to become ‘fishers of men.’ To come to Jesus means that we need to enter into a new relationship with everyone else,” said Bishop Serratelli in his homily. “To be a disciple means that we are connected to other people and we are to bring others to him with us,” he said.

At the start of the liturgy, Dan Ferrari, St. Paul’s minister to young adults, ages 23-39, welcomed Bishop Serratelli, declaring, “We are honored to have the Shepherd of the Diocese joining us today to celebrate Mass with us.”

The annual Young Adult Mass, which started in 2015, represents a sort of homecoming to St. Paul’s for Bishop Serratelli, whose vision for a diocesan evangelization center — the first such facility of its kind in any in the U.S. — came to fruition in 2011.

Home to a multifaceted array of programs, St. Paul’s established its Young Adult Group as one of its first outreaches. Hundreds of young adults come through St. Paul’s doors to participate in different activities — many reaching significant milestones, such as marriages, births of children and as for a few, answering God’s call to religious life. While many young adults are active at St. Paul’s, the ultimate goal is for them to be active in their local parishes. The Young Group regularly gathers for Mass at 11 a.m. on Sundays at the evangelization center.

At the end of the Mass, Bishop Serratelli told the congregation — which included young adults, some of their parents, visitors and members of St. Paul’s Advisory Board — that Catholics should highlight the “gift of the Eucharist,” when evangelizing the Catholic faith to other people, including those, “who are doubting or confused.”

Before the Bishop’s closing remarks, Father Manning thanked Bishop Serratelli for celebrating Mass at St. Paul’s. “When the Bishop visits us, he connects us with time — with the unbroken chain to the Apostles [of the early Church] — and with space — to all of the Church, because he is united to the successor of Peter in Rome,” Father Manning said. “When the Bishop visits us, he is a disciple visiting fellow disciples, a father visiting his family and a friend visiting his friends. We thank you for that, Bishop,” he said.