Linda Hyland
‘ I discovered there was more to my faith’ Linda Hyland - participant.   About three years ago I joined St Mary’s 55+ Senior group, so I feel I had a head start on the Be My Witness program. Thro ugh the senior group and now the Be My Witness group, I realized that by telling and sharing my life story, piece by piece, I have become more aware how God has led me with His love and mercy. The conversations and videos that we watched during Be My Witness helped me also to realize how important other people have been along this journey with God. He places people in our lives for particular reasons, especially when we need them the most. If you have never been part of a small group where you watch a relevant video, read a little scripture and have conversations with people about real life situations, I would highly recommend you consider participating in Be My Witness this coming fall. God’s love is contagious, especially when you are in an environment that allows you to speak freely about your faith and share with others the challenges and joys you experience. In our world today, we are almost afraid to speak the name of Jesus or God. Our society continues to push away the notion of God or even the freedom to publicly practice your faith. I have found Be My Witness a place that provides support for my faith and an encouragement that has helped me to increase my own personal time of daily prayer. Being together as a group, growing together in faith and building community as friends has helped me to understand the meaning of ‘parish’ in a much different way. I will always look at going to Mass on Sunday as very important for my faith, but Be My Witness has helped me realize that there is certainly more that Jesus asks of me than just Sunday Mass. All of us in our Be My Witness group were in various stages of our relationship with Jesus which made it that much more wonderful. We were able to see each other grow and share with each other new realizations. In the Gospel of John Jesus said to the disciples “Come and see” as they asked him where he was going. I encourage you to ‘come and see’ what you may experience with Jesus this fall by participating in Be My Witness. To learn more about Be My Witness for this fall please contact our staff member Darrin Nelson at 908-756-6524 ext 15 or via email at dnelson@stmaryswatchung.org

Sherry Hudzik

Be My Witness Reflection - Sherry Hudzik, Small Group Facilitator I reflect on the 2011 revival of Godspell wherein Hunter Parrish sang "Beautiful City". The words "...We can build a beautiful city...Yes we can, Yes we can....we can build a beautiful city, not a city of angels but we can build a city of man. We may not reach the ending, but we can start. Slowly and truly mending brick by brick, heart by heart...Now, maybe now, we start learning how....." Faith sharing is exactly that.....how do we weave our shared experiences, our hopes, our fears and our intentions into a tapestry of a beautiful city...our beautiful parish. The Be My Witness program for me has identified us all as bricks in the building of our beautiful city. We are all players with the hope of an eternal joy through prayerful dedication and devotion to Jesus and the Holy Spirit. Our small faith sharing group allows us to sanctify the process of "brick by brick, heart by heart". We bond and trust, we share, we process, we cry, we have joy, we encourage and we know Christ is with us in our struggles, our joys, and our mission. Be My Witness has allowed us to journey through all these life issues and share them in an intimate environment....a wider circle of "my people". Being a facilitator for a small group has allowed me to reflect on the struggles of others, and to actually watch them grow in their roles as disciples of Christ....to hear their testimonies of how they believe their faith and beliefs have had a positive impact on others has been especially poignant. I encourage others to take the opportunity to participate in this program! 2018 $2,006 Holy Thursday $1,858 Good Friday (Holy Land) $28,190 Easter (to date) $7,666 Week of 4/8/18 2017 $2,013Holy Thursday $1,843 Good Friday (Holy Land) $30,649 Easter $8,699 Week of 4/8/17 The New Evangelization. 

Valerie DeVito
What "Be My Witness" Has Meant For Me. - Valerie DeVito Small Group Leader My participation in the small faith group, "Be My Witness", program at St. Mary's-Stony Hill has truly helped to awaken a deeper connection with Jesus for me. By sharing our personal struggles, my group and I have come to realize that we have all witnessed Jesus Christ and the Holy Spirit, working in and throughout our lives, to bring about healing and growing opportunities. I am so much more aware of Christ's presence in my life and in the lives of others. There are several aspects of participating in a small faith group that I have greatly enjoyed. One is the trusting relationship that we have developed. I have come to view my group not only as people that I know from St. Mary's, but has friends whom I can look to for emotional and spiritual support. I have also enjoyed the casual and relaxed atmosphere that is created by meeting in small groups. I would very much encourage anyone who is interested to participate in the "Be My Witness" program because it is a wonderful vehicle for creating a faith life that becomes your way of life.

David Chemidlin
 “Be My Witness” Reflection “...my greatest joy is to experience this peace of Christ more often in my daily life.” -David Chemidlin Slightly more than half way through the twelve part Be My Witness series, striving to have "present moment awareness" as our prayer group facilitator, has been my greatest joy and biggest challenge. In our training, we were instructed to be aware of the body language and speaking tone of the members of our group. It is good advice for life. So often I can become focused on what I want to say or am thinking and completely block out everyone else around me. My concentrated effort to be in the present moment in our weekly meeting is paying off. I find myself now genuinely listening to and observing and feeling what my colleagues are saying. There are even moments at home—as a husband and father— that I now find myself staying in and relishing the present moment. Peace of mind seems to be a key ingredient to successfully staying in the moment. Frequently reminding myself that with Jesus as the center of my life, I have less and less reason to worry...and boy I am a worry wart by nature! Thus, my greatest joy is to experience this peace of Christ more often in my daily life—and my greatest challenge to stay with it. Some of this peace comes from the personal sharing that goes on among our group members. To be able to confidently and confidentially share thoughts and feelings can help lift burdens and make room for that peace of mind needed to keep us in the present moment...and experience and enjoy what is going on around us. Be My Witness gives us the opportunity to take our faith beyond sharing Sunday or daily Mass with fellow parishioners. Most importantly, it gives us the chance to make our world just a little bit better by actively talking out and living out our faith. I would strongly encourage you to participate in the next offering of small faith groups at our parish.  

Danielle Rowelle
  
A few words from one of our group leaders, Danielle Rowell:
 “Be My Witness has been such a gift. Being able to share my faith openly has strengthened my relationship with God. I have also enjoyed listening to others share personal stories about their journey with Christ. I am grateful for the friendships I have made with parishioners in my group that I may not have met otherwise. I cherish the bond we share through Be My Witness and look forward to meeting each session!”

Session 9 is “Witnessing Through Love”. Christ calls us to witness to the Good News through the power of love. Our witness through love draws others toward an encounter with Christ and inspires them to become more loving and caring in their own lives. Think about a time when you were ministered to by someone else. How did you feel? Were you embarrassed? How did the person reassure you? If you want to learn more about the program, call Nancy in the parish office at 908-756-6524 ext. 10.

The Week 8 session is “Run the Risk”. “The Gospel tells us constantly to run the risk of a face-to-face encounter with others, with their physical presence which challenges us, with their pain, and their pleas, with their joy which infects us in our close and continuous interaction.” - Pope Francis, The Joy of the Gospel Have you ever been told by someone that you must have been sent by God to be with them or to say something to them? What was it like to be seen as God’s instrument? If you want to learn more about the program, call Nancy in the parish office at 908-756-6524 ext. 10.