2023 ANNUAL REPORT

For the last four years, Faith and Family Life Catholic Ministries has created resources that have transformed families and changed the way parishes accompany others. Each year has been full of growth and gratitude. As we peel back the layers of the onion, more and more areas of need arise. We first created at-home resources that equipped parents to have intentional conversations of faith with their children. We then learned that those families needed at-church support to encourage them in their vocation as the primary educators of the faith. It then became clear that for this to be successful, we needed formed leaders who have the heart of Jesus and the mind of the Church.

As each opportunity of growth was unearthed the Lord never failed in surrounding us with inspiration and the support needed to accomplish our mission. We are so grateful for our generous benefactors who have believed in our mission and sacrificed to provide the means to help grow our reach. In 2023, our Pathways ministry reached over 13,000 families in over 100 parishes and schools across the country and internationally. We continue to grow 30% year-over-year.

This year we created three new resources and focused on developing support opportunities for our leaders. We created Quest, an ongoing formation experience for the entire family to help them grow in their relationship with God as they go on an adventure of prayer through modeling, practice, and meaningful conversations, while they play a board game together. We created By Heart, an ongoing formation experience for the entire family to help them grow in their relationship with God as they commit prayers to memory through practice, while they not only learn their prayers, but also find out where they came from and why we pray them. We created Endure, a post-wedding marriage formation experience to help couples strengthen their relationships through fostering practical skills, intentional community, and mystagogical reflection, while they are renewed and set on a path of deeper understanding about how marriage perfects their love.

We piloted our new Mysterion ministry, a formation institute designed to form leaders in the catechumenal process. We will begin with the first official cohort in the fall of 2024. We also started a group called The Cenacle to give the leaders who run our resources a space to gather and refuel, creating a community of way makers who share similar hearts. The Cenacle, also known as the Upper Room, is a room in Mount Zion in Jerusalem, traditionally held to be the site of the Last Supper, was a place in which the disciples continued to gather after the Last Supper, and it was also the site where the Holy Spirit descended upon them at Pentecost. 

As we look forward, we see so much opportunity. The last four years have been building years, setting up systems, and writing resources that meet the needs of today’s families, while remaining faithful to the vision of the Church. This year we plan to be a year of optimization that will prepare us to scale in a more sustainable way. With a small team and a huge suite of resources, we are busy developing structures to form leaders in our method. We are developing the Leader Learning Center, consisting of a series of eLearning courses containing short format videos, a way to preview the materials, and a discussion forum for best practices. 

Many of the parishes we work with struggle to find volunteers and thus build the teams needed to successfully implement our process. We are developing accompaniment team resources that will include an outline of the roles needed, discernment tools, recruiting techniques, and formation opportunities to help build and sustain teams. We will be rolling these out at our annual Pathways Conference , which will take place in New Orleans, LA.

We continue to develop new materials to further support and care for families at all ages. We are writing Made , an ongoing formation experience for the entire family to help them embrace a positive anthropology, understanding why God made us male and female in his image. We are developing our line of resources for adults. Seek for Adults and Root for Adults will be completed this year. They can be used to form adults to become disciples, utilized in the marriage catechumenate, and implemented to call forth leaders that may want to plug back in to become a part of the accompaniment team for other ministries.   

Faith and Family Life Catholic Ministries is a 501(c)(3) tax exempt organization and a public association of the faithful in the diocese of Orange. Our mission remains to rebuild the Church one family at a time. We would like to invite you to consider making a gift to help us reach our goals for 2024. Please take a moment to visit our website to see all of our current resources. You can reach out to us anytime. We would love the opportunity to further share our vision, approach, and details of our plans with you. We look forward to the opportunity to partner with you at this pivotal moment in the life of the Church. Thank you for your continued support and for the good work you do in the Church. Be assured of our prayers for you and your family.